On Fossil Echinoderms from the Island of Malta. 175 



" In plumage it greatly resembles the broader-billed but 

 closely allied C. Burkii of India. Middle of crown olive-yellow, 

 which occupies the inner webs of the feathers, the outer webs 

 being deep fuscous, nearly black, with an olive tinge, forming 

 a broad dark stripe on each side of the crown : between this 

 and the eye is a superciliary streak of clear yellow : a streak of 

 fuscous passes through the eye ; the cheeks, throat, and lower 

 parts are bright yellow, with an olive tinge ; back and wings 

 yellowish-olive : beak horn-coloured, the base of lower mandible 

 pale ; and legs brown. 



" Inhabits the island of Java.^' — Strickland. 



XVI. — On Fossil Echinoderms from the Island of Malta ; with 

 Notes on the stratigraphical distribution of the Fossil Organ- 

 isms in the Maltese beds. By Thomas Wright, M.D. &c.. 

 Professor of the Natural Sciences in the Cheltenham Grammar 

 School. 



|[Continued from p. 127.] 



Family Spatangid^e. 



The general outline of the Urchins of this family is oval, ob- 

 long or cordiform, and they satisfactorily exhibit the bilateral 

 symmetry of the Echinidce. The mouth is anterior, bilabiate, 

 and edentulous. The anal opening is posterior and supramar- 

 ginal, and is closed by a complicated series of small plates. The 

 apices of the ambulacral areas are united at the summit of the 

 test. The anterior single ambulacrum has a different structure 

 from the antero- and postero-lateral pairs, and is in general lodged 

 in a depression of the test, which extends to the anterior border 

 forming the anteal sulcus; the test is extremely thin, and is 

 covered with small tubercles which support hair-like spines ; 

 besides these there are some larger crenulated and perforated 

 tubercles which support large spines. There are two or four genital 

 pores which are sometimes placed close together, but are in other 

 genera apart. The eye-plates are five in number, and are placed 

 at the apices of the ambulacra in a pentagonal form around the 

 genital plates. We observe on the surface of the test of some Spa- 

 tangidm, certain delicate lines called /ascz'o/e^, having a smoother 

 appearance than the tubercular surface of the test ; they are fur- 

 rows which are strewed with microscopic tubercles destined to 

 carry very delicate spines, which, when seen under the micro- 

 scope, appear to have the same structure as the Pedicellaria. The 

 fascioles have a different disposition in each genus, and afford a 

 good character in giving definitions of the same ; when the 



