41 



malogie', that the latter species is only the young of the former. 

 The differences between the two animals were stated to be as fol- 

 lows. In M us giganteus the head is short and rounded ; the eyes 

 are large ; the fur is rather short, pale brown, varied with yellowish 

 and black on the back, and ashy beneath ; the feet are of moderate 

 size; and the claws moderate and blunt. The specimen being 

 young is about the size of Mus setifer, the head and body measuring 

 8 inches, and the tail 5\ ; but the length of the hinder foot to the 

 end of the heel does not exceed 1 J inch. In Mus setifer, on the 

 contrary, the muzzle is long and compressed ; the eyes are small ; 

 the fur is long, loose, mixed on the rump with abundance of long, 

 flat-tipt, bristly hairs, of a dark brown above, and darker with much 

 longer scattered hairs beneath ; and the hinder feet are very large 

 and strongly clawed. The length of the body is 7J- inches; the tip 

 of the tail is wanting in the specimen ; the ears are 13 lines in 

 length; and the hinder feet If inch, being half an inch longer than 

 those of the young Mus giganteus. The geographical range of the 

 latter appears to be very extensive, Mr. Charles Hardwick having 

 transmitted to the British Museum a specimen from Van Diemen's 

 Land. 



Mr. Gray further observed that the comparative length of the 

 hinder feet, and the relative distances of the tubercles of the sole 

 from the end of the toes and from the heel, appear to furnish very 

 good distinctive characters for the species of this difficult genus. 

 Thus in the Wood Mouse, Mus sylvaticus, L., the hinder tubercle of 

 the sole is about a line nearer to the heel than to the end of the 

 toes, while in the common Mouse, Mus Musculus, L., which has a 

 shorter hind foot, the hinder tubercle is nearly equidistant between 

 the heel and the tip of the toes. 



Mr. Gray also stated, that in examining a specimen of Antipathes 

 sent to the British Museum by the Rev. R. T. Lowe from Madeira, 

 and which he believed to be identical with the Ant.dichotoma, Pall., 

 he had discovered the animals of this remarkable Coral, and thus as- 

 certained (what had previously been only presumed from the close 

 resemblance of their horny axes) its near relation to the genus Gor- 

 gonia. He regarded this confirmation of the generally received 

 opinion as the more important in consequence of the apparent simi- 

 larity between some of the species of Antipathes and some strong 

 fibrous Sponges, which are now generally believed not to be the 

 habitations of Polypes. The minute branches of the specimen exa- 

 mined bore on their surface at irregular intervals a number of red, 

 dry, pellucid tubercles ; and portions of a similar substance were 

 observed hanging from their sides. These on being immersed for 

 some time in proof spirits, and afterwards placed for examination 

 in water, exhibited under the microscope, in each tubercle, a polype 

 exactly similar to those of Gorgonia and Corallium, except that it 

 had only six tentacula, while the polypes of the two last-named ge- 

 nera have eight. It is necessary to observe that when examined in 

 spirit the polypes and the thin bark by which they are connected to 



