328 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



sects, as the coleoptera, above the sucking insects. The order should 

 be reversed. Prof. A. said that he had confirmed his observations in 

 many specimens by examining them just at the moment when the skin 

 begins to split on the back. Proc. BosL Nat. Hist. Soc. 



ON THE CIRCULATION AND DIGESTION OF THE LOWER ANIMALS. 



PROF. AGASSIZ states that the circulation of the Invertebrata 

 cannot be compared to that of the Vertebrata. Instead of the three 

 conditions of chyme, chyle, and blood, which the circulating fluid of 

 the Vertebrata undergoes, the blood of that class of the Invertebrata 

 which he had particularly studied, the Annelida, or worms, is simple 

 colored chyle. The receptacles of chyle in different parts of the body 

 are true lymphatic hearts, like those found in the Vertebrata; this 

 kind of circulation is found in the Articulata, and mollusks, with few 

 exceptions, and in some of the Echinoderms. In the Medusae and 

 Polyps, instead of chyle, chyme mixed with water is circulated; this 

 circulation is found in some mollusks and intestinal worms. Prof. 

 Agassiz thinks that the embryological development of the higher 

 animals shows a similar succession in the circulating function. As 

 regards the connection between respiration and circulation in Verte- 

 brata, the gills are found between branches of the blood system ; in In- 

 vertebrata, the chyliferous system is acted on by the respiration. The 

 gills of fishes, therefore, cannot be compared to the gills of Crustacea, 

 Articulata, and mollusks. In fact, no gills are connected with the 

 chymiferous circulation. Animals having this circulation have no true 

 respiration. They have only tubes to distribute freshly aerated water 

 to different parts of the body. Proc. BosL Nat. Hist. Soc. 



THE DODO. 



THE dodo is, or rather was, a curious bird which existed in the 

 Mauritius some two hundred years ago, but which is now extinct, and 

 is known only by a part of a skull, a head, and two feet, preserved in 

 different European museums, and by some half-dozen rude figures of 

 it. There are, however, some vague hints of the bird in the rec- 

 ords of some Dutch travellers, beginning at the end of the sixteenth 

 century, and extending for fifty years. A question of much interest 

 has arisen amongst zoologists, as to what section of birds the dodo be- 

 longed, and probably no question, not even excepting the existence of 

 the sea-serpent, has given rise to more discussion. Mr. Vigors con- 

 sidered it to be a gallinaceous bird, allied to the ostriches. M. de 

 Blainville and Mr. Gould referred it to the order comprising the vul- 

 tures and eagles. Prof. Owen, after a lengthened examination, ad- 

 judged it to be a vulture or raptorial bird. Prof. Reinhardt first sug- 

 gested that it might be a large form of the Columbidee or pigeon tribe, 

 and a pigeon it appears to be. 



Thus much we find in the London Athenccum, which, in an article 

 reviewing a new book on the dodo, comes to the above conclusion; 

 but now up starts another learned gentleman with, as he claims, pos- 



