U9 
TAB. XLIV. 
ECHINUS cidaris? var. « 
Class 6. Vermes. Order 1. Mollusca. 
Gen. Char. Body roundish, covered with a bony 
sutured crust, and generally furnished with 
moveable spines. Mouth placed beneath, and 
mostly five-valved. — Turt. 
Spec. Char. Hemisphserical, depressed, with five 
flexuous linear avenues, the spaces alternately 
bifarious. — Turt. 
Syn. Echinus cidaris, var. a? Gmel. v. 1 . p. 3174. 
Cidaris papillata major. Klein ap. Leslie Echinod . 
t. 39. f 2. t. 51. f. h. 1. h. 2. 
The Echini are pretty well known, from their having 
spines resembling those of a hedgehog, and they have been 
called in common Sea Hedgehogs, Sea Urchins j and when 
destitute of the spines they are sometimes called Sea Eggs, 
&tc. Mr. Pennant took some pains to select the English 
species for the information of his countrymen. 
He, however, does not appear to have known the present 
species, although he travelled in Scotland. Our friend Alex- 
ander M‘Leay, Esq. who, laudably, forgoes no researches, 
that his opportunities permit, to investigate the natural 
history of the British Isles, obligingly communicated this 
Echinus, totally new, not only to Great Britain, but differ- 
ing also from any yet found elsewhere ; although, from its 
general resemblance to that elegant species brought from 
New Holland (with which I have been able to compare it, 
by favour of Governor Paterson, who presented me with 
a fine specimen from thence, with the spines quite perfect), 
it might be confounded with it. It also differs from those 
vot. i. 
K 
