HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



83 



regards the funicular system as a true nervous 

 structure, but one which is related to the life of the 

 colony rather than to the individual zooids composing 

 it. To him it is a common or colonial nervous system, 

 which has to do with " the associated movements" of 

 the Polyzoa, or such as do not seem " to depend upon 

 the will of the individuals, but to be carried out by 

 them in obedience, as it were, to a command from a 

 higher quarter." * 



The cell itself has two coatings, an outer and an inner 

 one. The outer coating is the ectocyst, a simple 

 structureless membrane, which to a large extent is 

 strengthened or made solid by a deposition of cal- 

 careous particles. The inner layer is the endocyst, 

 and the specific function of this cyst is that it gives 

 " oriein to all buds formed within the coenecium, and 

 to the generative products of both kinds." Joliot, 

 the French biologist, refuses to accept this view, for 

 ' ' he regards the endocyst as specially charged with 

 the enlargement of the colony, and also as giving 

 origin to a distinct tissue, which he names the 

 endosarc, to which are really assignable the functions 

 hitherto credited to the endocyst, and others as 

 well." t 



Besides these internal structures, there are several 

 external ones belonging to the cheilostomatous Polyzoa. 

 These are the appendicular organs, and they consist 

 of the Avicularian or bird's-head processes, and the 

 Vibricula or hair-like processes. They have also 

 opercular coverings over the mouths of the cell. True 

 cheilostomatous Polyzoa may be summed up then, 

 whether in a living or a fossil state, as possessing 

 some one or other of the following distinctive char- 

 acters. A mouth below the terminal part of the cell 

 (subterminal) having opercular coverings ; communi- 

 cation pores in some part of the cells, ova cells, and 

 remains of either Vibricula or Avicularia. 



The other type, the Cyclostomata, have in nearly 

 all cases tubular or subtubular cells, the mouths of 

 which are terminal, and there are no communication 

 pores or appendicular organs ; and it is to this sub- 

 order that the Diastoporidse belong. 



In treating of our subject from a natural history 

 standpoint, it will be more convenient to trace our 

 family type backward in time. If we were dealing 

 only with a palseontological question, we should reverse 

 the order and begin with the lower rocks, and trace 

 the developmental processes upwards. To the general 

 reader the former will be the most intelligible, and I 

 feel convinced that it will not be less so to the purely 

 scientific student. 



It would have been impossible for me at one time 

 to have written this paper, and the sketch or original 

 draft of it has lain by me for years, waiting the results 

 of inquiries into the history of true Diastopora only 



* For a full discussion of the question, see Rev. Thomas 

 Hincks's " British Polyzoa." 

 t Hincks's " Introduction to British Marine Polyzoa." , 



just recently completed. Forms very diverse in char- 

 acter have been classified and catalogued under the 

 name of a single genus, when they properly belonged 

 to three, or at the least two genera. In tracing our 

 history backward, I shall confine myself to a single 

 type ; and wherever it is possible or practicable I shall 

 give a running list of the associated Brachiopoda found 

 in the same horizon. 



In Mr. Busk's ' ' Museum Catalogue " * of the Polyzoa, 

 part iii., the Diastoporidse J^is the fourth family, and 

 two genera only are included in it ; these are Diasto- 

 pora and Mesenteripora ; the first, a crustaceous, 

 the other a foliaceous form. In the Rev. Thomas 

 Hincks's recently published " History of British Poly- 

 zoa,"! there is no family group of this name ; the 

 Diastopora are included in the family group Tubuli- 

 poridse, and the foliaceous forms are also included 

 in the genus Diastopora. 



For the purpose of this inquiry, I shall use Mr. 

 Busk's family arrangement instead of that formulated 

 by Mr. Hincks, for reasons that will be apparent 

 before the conclusion of these papers ; at the same 

 time, I am bound to admit that the latter is by far the 

 more natural classification. 



( To be continued^ 



A RAMBLE ON THE FELLS IN SEARCH 

 OF EGGS. 



SOON after sunrise, on a lovely May morning, 

 I sallied forth from the old-fashioned farmhouse 

 of Woolfenhall, which lies secluded in a hollow at 

 the foot of Parlic Pike, fully equipped for a nest 

 hunting expedition on the fells dividing Lancashire 

 and Yorkshire. At this hospitable abode I had 

 arrived the night before, filled with pleasing antici- 

 pations of a ramble with one of the shepherds, an 

 intelligent young fellow, who had promised to lead 

 me to the haunts of some of the feathered tribe, who 

 particularly delight in choosing these wild and 

 sequestered regions for the purpose of nidification. 



Leaving the house by a zigzag road, used for the 

 purpose of bringing down, in sleds, the peat cut and 

 dried during summer on the top of Fairsnape Fell, 

 for winter fuel, and crossing a spur of Parlic, we 

 ascended Fairsnape. From this hiU a splendid pano- 

 rama of the country may be viewed. On the stone 

 walls, and heaps of stones, were to be seen many 

 wheatears {S. aiianthe) flicking up their tails, and 

 uttering their cheery " chack, chack," as they flew 

 from stone to stone in front of us. The nest is usually 

 so far down amongst the heaps of stones, that it is 

 hard to get at ; and I only managed to root out one 

 example of this bird's rather slovenly-built nest. 



* Catalogue of the Cyclostomatous Polyzoa. Brit. Mas. 



1875- 

 t Van Voorst, 1880. 



