Report on the zoological collections made in the Indo-Pacific Ocean ...

ECniNODERMATA. 175by the ' Challenger,' Mr. Alexander Agassiz should have devoted oneto the species of " West, South, and North-East Australia—NewZealand "; nor can we wonder when we find one Avho, ten yearsago (Rev. Ech. p. 230), spoke of the Australian as the " mosttypical of all the districts," saying in 1881 that the " whole of theAustralian field seems to be cut out of the ludo-Pacific realm." Itis clear that these statements oppose each other, and that a moreaccurate representation of the facts would be made in terms likethe following :—The species found on the northern and northeasternshores of Australia have a wide range eastward and westward,but gradually disappear as we pass southwards.Ill fine, an Australian Echinoderm-fauna, as conterminous withthe Australian shores, does not exist.It may be convenient for the student if I sum up the points inwhich Dr. Coppinger's collections have most advanced our knowledo-e.Asteroidea.—Two faunal lists of the Australian Asteroidea havebeen published during the last few years; one by our great authorityon this subject, Professor Perrier*, of the Jardiu des Plantes, theother, which, as I imagine, was partly based on it, by the Rev.J. E, Tenison-Woods f. It has been difficult so to marshal thefacts contained in these essays as to be able to render easilyintelligible the advances now made in our knowledge ; this ischiefly due to the fact that while M. Perrier (justified, no doubt, bythe evidence in his hands) distinguished between the fauna of thenorthern and of the other coasts of Australia, Mr. Woods was preparinga list which should be of use to the Australian studentgenerally. Further than this, the present collection is from thenorthern and the eastern coasts of Australia.It is not necessary to give all the steps by which I have workedout the question of how far our knowledge of the distribution ofthe Asteroidea is increased by the present collection. Put shortly,we find that while Mr. Woods's compilation was of value as givin"-us certain information as to the localities of Tosia ornata, which wasdescribed by Miiller and Troschel from an unknown habitat, and ofthe Patiria ocelli/era of Gray, the locality of which could onlv beguessed at from the fact of its having been described in the Appendixto the Voyage of the Ely,' Mr. Coppinger's ' collection enables usto fix one locality at least for Anthenea Jiavescens and Nepanthiabelcheri, extends the range of Linckia marmorata from Mauritius toAustralia, gives more southern stations for Archaster typicus andSttUaster belcheri, extends St. incei westward from Cape York to theArafura Sea, and puts in Port Denison as intermediate betweenCape York and South Australia.It may be, perhaps, useful if I point out that definite informationis still wanting as to the exact habitats of Asterias fungifa-a,Anthenea acuta, Ncctria ocellifera, Oreaster aiisfralis, 0. franjdlni0. nodalomisX, Tosia astrologorum, and T. aurata. It is hardly* Nouv. Arch, du Miis. (2) i.t Philos. Soc. Adelaide, 1878-9, p. 89.\ Since this was written the Trustees have purcliased two epecimons of 0.nodulosus from N.W. Australia,