Observations on the distribution of some species of nudibranchiate mollusca in the China Sea / by C. Collingwood.

  • Collingwood, Cuthbert, 1826-1908.
Date:
1868
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the distribution of some species of nudibranchiate mollusca in the China Sea / by C. Collingwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    [From the Annals and Magazine op Natural History for February 1868.] OBSERVATIONS ON ^ . THE DISTRIBUTION OF SOME SPECIES OP \ NUDIBMNCHIATE MOLLUSCA ^ IN THE CHINA SEA. By Dr. C. COLLINGWOOD, F.L.S. In mj rambles upon numerous beaches on the coast of China, Formosa, Labuan, Singapore, &c., I always kept my eyes open for the species of these often beautiful animals; and being tolerably well acquainted with their habitats and the character of the most likely localities for meeting with them, I was in hopes of making a large collection of perhaps new species from these seas. In point, however, of the number of species that rewarded my search I was disappointed, and not a little surprised at the paucity of individuals and the rarity of species. I expected to find such animals in abundance upon tropical shores; whereas, although day after day I have searched for them, it has been only now and then that I have been rewarded by finding one. The shores of these regions, so far as I have had opportunity of examining them, are less fertile in species than those of our own country ; and whether this arises from the season of the year at which my examination has been made, or from local circumstances, I know not; but this I do know, that it has not been for want of diligent search, made day after day under a tropical sun, the result of which was that I have counted one a prize, the more valued from its infrequency. The first time I had an opportunity of ransacking a new shore was at Aden, where I procured three specimens of what is most probably the Bornella digitato. of Adams, a very beau- tiful species, which Mr. Adams discovered in the Straits of Sunda, when voyaging in the ^ Samarang.’ It also occurs among the Madras Nudibranchs collected by Sir Walter Elliot, and described in the ^Zoological Transactions’ by Messrs. Alder and Hancock. On both these, the only other occasions on which they have been met with, two or three specimens only