42 



each other and to the stem assumed a uniform waxy appearance, 

 and broke down beneath the needle without exhibiting any traces 

 of organization, This circumstance had nearly induced Mr. Gray 

 to abandon his search, had he not discovered that by macerating 

 in water, and thus removing the spirit, the polype was restored to 

 its natural gelatinous consistence, in which state it was readily ex- 

 panded and observed. Minute, pellucid, oval bodies, which are 

 perhaps similar to the irregular papillary spicula found in the bark 

 of Gorgonia, are scattered through the bark of this species of Jnti* 

 pathes, and the axes of its smaller branches are minutely tubular. 



In Ellis's * History of Zoophytes' is given a figure of what the au- 

 thor regarded as the polype of Ant. spiralis, which he found scattered 

 over the stem of that species in the shape of small distant warts. 

 These when soaked in water he describes as having six tentacula 

 surrounding a small cup. The tentacula, he observes, in a letter to 

 Linnaeus, published in the 'Correspondence' of that naturalist, are 

 shaped like a bull's horns, with wrinkles across, and full of gelati- 

 nous matter ; and the cup is of a most elegant figure. In the figure 

 this part appears to be concave, with a crenated edge, and placed 

 on an urn-shaped pedicel. Should this account of the polype of 

 Ant. spiralis prove to be correct, it would be necessary to remove 

 that species from the neighbourhood of the Gorgonice and other 

 barked Corah, from all of which it would differ so remarkably in 

 its cup-shaped appendage, and the want of ciliation on the surface 

 of its tentacula. Mr. Gray added that he had repeatedly examined 

 the stem of the species in question, but had never been able to dis- 

 cover on it anything resembling a polype. The earlier observations 

 of ltumphius, Marsigli, and Pallas, the former- on Ant. spiralis and 

 the two latter on Ant. dichotoma, were of too vague a character to 

 furnish any idea of the real structure of the polype. 



Mr. Owen read the following account of the anatomy of the 

 Ariel Toucan, Ramphastos Ariel, Vig. 



h Independently of the beauty of the plumage and singularity of 

 the form of the Toucans, the peculiarity of some of their habits and 

 actions renders them extremely interesting to the naturalist while in 

 the living state, and not less desirable in connexion with the doubts 

 respecting their natural food, as objects of anatomical investigation 

 after death. These doubts, however, have already been in a great 

 measure dispelled by the observations on the living Toucan, which 

 we owe to Mr. Broderip (Zoological Journal, vol. i. p. 484?.), and 

 by the subsequent remarks of Mr. Vigors (Ibid., vol. ii. p. 466.) on 

 the present individual/ which for some time formed a principal or- 

 nament of his choice collection. 



" The alimentary canal of the Toucan is short and simple, but has 

 a general character of capacity which accords with the peculiar 

 form of beak at its commencement. The oesophagus is 7 inches in 

 length ; it is at first 1 inch in width, and becomes slightly narrower 

 to its termination. It is unprovided with a crop, and not to be 

 distinguished very readily from the proventriculus, as that cavity 



