412 Zoological Society : — 



cilled ears like the European species, with a broad white streak on 

 the upper part of each side, and a very broad full tail, grizzled, with 

 large white tips to the hairs. 



SCIURUS MACROTIS. 



Ears large, with a large pencil of elongate hairs. Dark chestnut- 

 brown, very minutely grizzled with pale tips to the hairs. Rump, out- 

 side of thighs and base of tail redder ; point of thighs bright bay ; 

 feet blackish ; upper part of the side with a broad pale streak ; 

 cheeks and inner side of legs paler ; chin, throat, and beneath white ; 

 tail very broad, with very long white-tipped hairs. 



Length 13, tail 11 = 24 inches. 



Hab. Sarawak (Mr. Wallace). 



Observations on a Living African Lepidosiren in the 

 Crystal Palace. By J. E. Gray, Ph.D., F.R.S. Accompa- 

 nied BY A Note from Mr. A. D. Bartlett. 



This animal has been exhibited for some months at the Crystal 

 Palace, appears to be in good health, and has increased in size. 



Mr. W. Hawkins, in the ' Illustrated News' (Supp. 20 Sept. 1856), 

 which gives a very good figure of the animal from life, observes : — 



*' The three living specimens of this animal were brought to En- 

 gland from the Gambia, enclosed in balls of hard clay, where they 

 had been for eight months without showing any signs of life, until 

 those balls of hard clay were immersed in water, which caused the 

 clay to crack and break up, discovering dark-coloured egg-like forms, 

 which also presently burst, liberating their inmates, which briskly 

 swam or rather dashed through the water, showing unmistakeable 

 signs of life by feeding voraciously upon very large worms, small 

 frogs and pieces of meat that were presented them." 



The Lepidosiren uses its tail to propel itself forward and upward 

 towards the surface of the water. The subulate limbs are very much 

 elongated ; the front ones are furnished with a narrow membrana- 

 ceous margin of nearly equal width the whole length of the hinder 

 edge ; the hinder one has a narrow membrane on the middle of the 

 outer side ; they are exceedingly mobile and flexible, and are used by 

 the animal to direct its motions, and are more like feet than fins, 

 especially when they are within reach of some fixed body which the 

 animal can use as a fulcrum. 



There are two processes on each side over the base of the anterior 

 members, which have been regarded as gills by some authors * ; they 

 are coloured like the rest of the body, and I could not discover, even 

 when examined by a hand-magnifier of one inch focal length, that 

 they were pervaded by any peculiar vascular structure, or furnished 

 with any cirri or other processes usually found on the external gills of 

 Batrachia. They scarcely moved during the time that I was exa- 

 mining the specimen, except when the animal was swimming, when 

 they were used like the larger members, apparently to assist in di- 



* Sec Peters, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. xvi. 318. 



I 



