Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/88

62 Sumatra, 87 to Java, 39 to Siam, 26 to China, 2 to the New Hebrides, and 6 to Australia. Thus Malaccan butterflies preponderate towards those of the Indian Region.

Two short notices on Hornbills were read. Craniorrhinus Waldeni is the name of a new Hornbill from the Island of Panay, one of the Philippines, and described by Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, who regards it as allied to C. cassidix. The specimen was obtained by Professor Steere (Univ. Michigan, U.S.) in a virgin forest in the mountainous ranges of the above island; the birds keeping high among the branches of dense-foliaged trees, only one specimen was procured. An extract from a letter from Dr. John Anderson contained some observations on Hydrocissa albirostris and Aceros subruficollis. These Hornbills are kept in the Aviary of the recently-founded Zoological Gardens of Calcutta, and, to the surprise of the writer, he observed that they devour small birds head foremost. They commence by tossing them about and breaking every bone of the body by passing the victim through their bill from side to side.

The genital armature in the European Rhopalocera formed the subject of some researches by Dr. Buchanan White. This entomologist, after a careful comparison of the external genital apparatus, holds that the parts in different genera and species exhibit such diversities as, in his opinion, to afford good distinguishing characters.

A new Crustacean, from Australia, Actamorpha erosa, was described by Mr. E.J. Miers. It was dredged at seven fathoms, and came up along with a number of Cancroidea, &c. To these, indeed, it bears so close a resemblance as at first to be mistaken for one of them, though subsequent examination has shown that structurally it undoubtedly belongs to the family of Leucosiidæ.

Mr. H.N. Moseley, one of the naturalists on board of H.M.S. 'Challenger,' having procured two new and remarkable forms of deepsea Ascidians, gave a detailed account of their appearance and anatomical peculiarities. The first of these aberrant forms, named by the author Hybythius calcycodes, was trawled in the North Pacific Ocean from a depth of 2900 fathoms. It is cup-shaped and stalked, and probably is allied to Boltenia; but it differs from this well-known genus, among other things, in possessing a series of cartilaginous plates, developed with symmetrical arrangement on its otherwise soft test. The second still more bizarre Ascidian has received the name of Octacnemus bythius, and this was raised from a depth of 1070 fathoms. Star-shaped, or of 8-rayed contour, its gill-sac is nearly horizontal, and gill network absent. Muscular prolongations of the tunic run into the curious conical protuberances of the test; the nucleus is contracted and small like that of Salpa. So far as present knowledge goes, this unique specimen is believed to be without living allies.