Mr. J. MacGillivray on a new species of Grass Finch. 263 



vated area with acute borders ; lower margin elliptically curved, 

 internally crenulated. Surface with elliptical costse, regular in 

 the young shell, subsequently degenerating into irregular and 

 unequal elevations, more especially when the surface exhibits 

 arrests of growth ; the costse are not much raised, rounded, and 

 fully equal in breadth to the interstitial spaces (about thirty-two 

 in a full-grown specimen) ; the entire surface has fine striations, 

 which follow the direction of the costse. 



Specimens vary much in their length and obliquity ; but none 

 are comparable to the Oxford Clay shell figured in the ' Illus- 

 trations of the Geology of Yorkshire ' under the name of Astarte 

 lurida : the large anterior side and the small lunule mark the 

 latter as a distinct species. 



Several examples of Astarte lurida were obtained in the upper 

 portion of the Upper Lias in a mill-stream cutting at Holcomb ; 

 it has also occurred very abundantly a little higher in the geo- 

 logical scale, in the lower zone of the Cynocephala-stage at 

 Nailsworth. D'Orbigny (' Prodrome ') places it in his "Etage 

 Bajocien," which is probably an error; the English localities 

 cited by him (Fox Hill and Taunton) are not Inferior Oolite ; 

 nor does it appear that the latter formation, although so rich in 

 the genus Astarte, has ever produced A. lurida. 



XXVII. — Description of a new species of Grass Finch from New 

 Caledonia. By John MacGillivray, F.R.G.S. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 

 Gentlemen P° rt de France, New Caledonia, May 18, 1858. 



During my short residence at this portion of New Caledonia, 

 I have had the opportunity of collecting and preparing a few 

 specimens of birds, one of which is of sufficient interest to induce 

 me again to become a contributor to the ' Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History/ by sending you a brief notice of a new 

 Finch, which I propose to name Poephila Paddoni, in honour of 

 Capt. James Paddon, — not because he has done so much in pro- 

 moting civilization among the islands of the S.W. Pacific, but be- 

 cause he has at all times cordially assisted Botanists and other 

 Naturalists who, like myself, have visited his stations at Aneiteum, 

 Tana, the Isle of Pines, and New Caledonia. This Poephila 

 interests me especially as being a member of a genus hitherto 

 considered as exclusively Australian as Eopsaltria, Tropidorhyn- 

 chus 3 Ptilotis, Acanthiza, and Zosterops, now for the first time 

 recorded as being found in New Caledonia. The Finch in ques- 

 tion more resembles the Australian P. mirabilis (of Hombr. and 



