relations existing between the Crab, Pagurus Prideauxii, and the Zoophyte, Adamsia palliata. These two incongruous animals are, it is well known, constantly found associated together, and although we have found them difficult to keep alive in an aquarium, Lieut.-Col. Stuart Wortley has been more successful, and has observed the crab, after eating two pieces of meat given to it, seize a third with its large claw, and thrust it into the expectant mouth of the Adamsia. This has been frequently repeated. On leaving its shell, for the purpose of establishing itself in a new one, the Pagurus returned to the old shell, and dislodged the Adamsia with its pointed claws, during which rough process no acontia were thrown out, as would be done on the slightest irritation from any other source; and when entirely separated, the crab holds it firmly with its base against the new shell until it has affixed itself. It remained on one occasion for an hour in this position, when, finding Adamsia did not affix itself readily, it returned to its old shell upon which Adamsia firmly attached itself as before. So attached does the crab appear to be to its helpless companion, and so loath to quit its hold upon it, that Col. Wortley concludes, as we were inclined to do from facts observed in dredging when they were abundant, that Adamsia palliata is almost, if not quite, a necessity of existence to Pagurus Prideauxii. The converse, however, cannot be said, for we have kept a specimen of Adamsia alive for twelve months unattached to any shell, the Pagurus having died on the day succeeding its capture.

Another remark on the habits of Crustaceans has been furnished by Mr. Moore, Curator of the Liverpool Museum, in reference to the King Crab (Polyphemus) of which several living specimens have been sent over by Professor Agassiz. The long spine-like tail of this species has excited much question as to its use. If they are turned over on their backs, they bend down the tail until they can reach some point d'appui, and then use it to elevate the body and gain their normal position. The function assigned to it by some, viz. of placing it under the body and leaping from place to place, has never been observed.

Rudolf Leuckart has made some interesting observations upon the development of the Acanthocephali, the only group of Entozoa whose development had hitherto eluded the investigations of naturalists. Scattering the ova of six or eight Echinorhynchi of the species E. proteus in a bottle containing Gammari, he found in a few days a great number of these ova in the intestines of the Gammari, The embryos quitting their envelopes passed into the abdominal cavity of the Crustaceans. After three or four weeks the embryo underwent a singular metamorphosis, which converted its nucleus into a true Echinorhynchus, like an Echinorderm in its Pluteus. This rapidly increases in size, and finally fills the body of the embryo, which becomes transformed into the envelopes external to the muscular tube of the worm, and distinguished by a proper vascular system. When the spinous armature of the head is formed, it draws back into the posterior part of its body like a Cysticercus in its vesicle. Leuckart has counted fifty or sixty parasites in a single Gammarus.

Considerable attention has been devoted to the characters of the

Amoebina, by two gentlemen who, though they do not agree in all their results, will no doubt by a friendly rivalry the better tend to elucidate the truth. These are Dr. Wallich and Mr. H. J. Carter. Dr. Wallich insists upon the absolute necessity of long-continued and daily observation whenever it is desired to elucidate the characters and vital phenomena which appertain to the lowest forms of organic existence; and entertains the view that probably many, if not all, the previously described species of Amoeba are referable to, and constitute mere phases of Amaba villosa, the most highly developed type. Mr. Carter, however, regards certain characters of primary importance, and typical of A. princeps (Ehr) as reconstituted by him, while Dr. Wallich urges these characters as distinctive of Amoeba villosa as already described by him. The characters which Mr. Carter claims for his A. princeps are its large size and the number of granules it contains; its limacious though protean form, its lobed and obtuse pseudo-podia proceeding from a posterior end, normally capped with a tuft of villous prolongations; while the nucleolus is so much extended over the inner surface of the nuclear cell, that it passes beyond the equatorial line of the latter, preventing any halo round the nucleus, as in other Amoeba; but the border of this nucleus is wavy when it has attained the 450th of an inch in length. The anomaly in the configuration of the nucleus, however, Mr. Carter afterwards resigns as a distinctive character. With regard to the apparent circulation in these low organisms, Dr. Wallich believes that it is not a vital act, but a secondary and mere mechanical effect consequent on the inherent vital contractility of the sarcode. The particles simply flow along with the advancing rush of protoplasm, and there is no return stream. The numerous and lengthy papers of Dr. Wallich and Mr. Carter, in the Annals of Natural History,' on the subject of these organisms tend to the combination not only of species, but of genera which have always hitherto been regarded as perfectly distinct.

The difficulty of distinguishing the lowest animal forms from vegetable bodies has received a good illustration from some observations of Mr. H. J. Carter, well known for his papers upon Rhizopods, on Difflugia. He has shown in this species (D. pyriformis) that chlorophyll cells exist as part of its organization, and that starch cells, until recently believed to be a peculiarly vegetable product, form part of its products. Moreover, he has observed conjugation similar to that of the contents of the cells of Spirogyra, and that apparently after this conjugation, when the body of the Difflugia is densely charged with chlorophyll cells and starch granules, the nucleus becomes charged with spherular, refractive, homogeneous bodies, which appear to be developed in the protoplasm that lines (?) the nucleus. These spherules pass from the nucleus into the body of the animal, and there, becoming granuliferous, so increase by duplicative division, as to form the chief bulk of the whole mass, while the chlorophyll cells have entirely disappeared, and the starch granules have become more or less diminished in number. Colourless specimens of Difflugia having been placed in water, after four days the bottom of the vessel became covered with granuliferous cells of the same size and appearance

as those peculiar to the colourless specimens, but with the difference that they were all provided with a cilium (perhaps two); most were fixed and retained their globular form; others swam about by means of their cilium; many of the fixed globular forms altered their shape by becoming polymorphic; and some lost their cilium and became altogether reptant and amoebous. There can be little doubt that these Amoeba are the young brood of Difflugia pyriformis. Thus the cycle of generative development in this Rhizopod by "granulation of the nucleus" is so far completed. It is probably the same as in Amœba princeps. The development of the young Amaba into adult testaceous Difflugia has not yet, however, been observed.

We should hardly be prepared for psychical development in these minute masses of sarcode, nevertheless Mr. Carter's observations of Ethalium and Actinophrys render it probable that certain manifestations of instinct are occasionally evinced by them, of the same kind as those in the higher animals. On one occasion, for example, Mr. Carter observed an Actinophrys station itself close to a ripe spore-cell of Pythium, which was situated upon a filament of Spirogyra, and as the young ciliated germs issued forth, one after another, from the dehiscent spore-cell, the Actinophrys remained by it, and caught every one of them even to the last, when it retired to another part of the field, as if instinctively conscious that there was nothing more to be got at the old place. As, however, these lowest forms of life appear to have but one object, and that the attainment of food, we cannot be so much surprised if they are provided with sufficient discrimination to be aware when they are receiving it, and when the supply has ceased. Indeed their whole instinctive development is concentrated upon that important end.

REVIEWS.

THE BIRDS OF INDIA.*

THE want of text-books on the Natural History of our colonial and foreign possessions, has been long and severely felt by the many residents in them who are desirous of employing their hours of leisure or recreation, in the pursuit of this most attractive study. As regards Botany, the energy of the Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew has already accomplished much towards the attainment of this desirable object. Some years since, Sir William Hooker's urgent representations to the Colonial Office succeeded in inducing that department to take into consideration a scheme which he propounded, for issuing a complete series of Manuals of the Botany of the different Colonies, and although the small sums necessary to effect this object were, with one exception, grudged to him by the Imperial Exchequer, the Colonies themselves have in many instances taken up the matter, and there is little doubt that Sir William Hooker's scheme will eventually be carried out in its integrity.

Our zoologists have not as yet followed the good example thus set before them. Their field of operations is much more extensive, they are less united as a body, and they have certainly no single leader amongst them, who occupies a corresponding situation to that filled by Sir William Hooker with regard to the sister science. So far as concerns the zoology of our foreign and colonial possessions, therefore, we must for the present look to what the unassisted energies of private individuals can accomplish. And we must be thankful when even such indirect sanction and assistance as the Government of India has bestowed on Dr. Jerdon's present undertaking can be obtained.

Dr. T. C. Jerdon's name is well known in connection with many contributions to the Natural History of India, which he has made during a long service, in different parts of that country, as a medical officer of the Indian army. In 1839, Dr. Jerdon commenced the publication in the 'Madras Journal of Literature and Science' of a catalogue of the birds of Southern India. This with its supplements was completed in 1844, and still remains our best authority on the ornithology of the districts of which it treats. In 1844, Dr. Jerdon

*The Birds of India: being a Natural History of all the Birds known to inhabit Continental India; with Descriptions of the Species, Genera, Families, Tribes and Orders, and a Brief Notice of such Families as are not found in India ; making it a Manual of Ornithology specially adapted for India.' By T. C. Jerdon, Surgeon-Major, &c. Calcutta, 1862. Vols. I. and II. pt. 1.

also published a series of illustrations of Indian birds,* in a quarto volume of fifty plates, in which many rare species were figured for the first time. Besides this, he has contributed many papers relating to Indian zoology to different scientific journals, and has been a most indefatigable explorer and collector in nearly every province of India. It cannot be doubted, therefore, that Dr. Jerdon's qualifications to carry out the plan he now proposes, that is, to issue a series of Manuals of the Natural History of the Vertebrated Animals of India,—are very considerable. And looking to the way in which he has commenced to execute his plan, in the case of the two volumes now before us, which form the first part of his Manual of Indian Ornithology,' we have every reason to be satisfied that it has fallen to his lot to undertake it. Nor can it be doubted that such a series of manuals is a great desideratum. At present, as Dr. Jerdon observes, to "obtain acquaintance with what is already known respecting the Fauna of India," it is necessary to "search through the voluminous transactions of learned societies and scientific journals," which are of course quite inaccessible to residents in an Indian up-country station, and hardly to be referred to even in Madras or Calcutta. Dr. Jerdon's aim, therefore, is to supply in a few portable volumes the information requisite for a student of any branch of the natural history of the vertebrata of India to ascertain what is already known of his favourite science and to what points especially he should direct his inquiries. The two volumes already published by Dr. Jerdon take us through the greater part of the class of birds; a third volume, shortly to be issued, will complete this part of the subject. The author will then turn his attention to the Mammals, Reptiles, and Fishes, and treat of each of these classes of animals in a similar manner.

Dr. Jerdon introduces himself to his readers in the first volume of his present work with a well-written chapter of general remarks, which will repay perusal. After giving an outline of the structure of birds, external and internal, and some remarks on their migration, he proceeds, before entering upon the subject of classification, to devote a few words to the much-vexed question of the differences between species and variety. A species, Dr. Jerdon defines as consisting of a "number of individuals closely resembling one another in size, structure, and colour, and propagating a like race; a variety, as "consisting of one or more individuals resembling certain other individuals sufficiently to be considered identical in species, and yet differing in certain external points of colour, size, or form." As regards the mode in which this difficult subject, as encountered in the case of the birds of India, has been dealt with, the following remarks of our author may prove of interest :

"Some naturalists believe that permanent varieties are common in the animal kingdom, and Kaup calls them sub-species. Such persons consider that their differences from other individuals, of what they would term the typical form, do not entitle them to the full rank of a species. Others, again, deny that permanent varieties exist, and state their conviction that Madras, 1844.

*Illustrations of Indian Ornithology.' By T. C. Jerdon. 1 vol. 4to.

VOL. I.

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