^10 Miscellaneous. 



a line. Habitat, the vessie copulatrice or spermatheca of Helia; aU 

 lolahris. Helix tridentata, and Helix alternata. 



This singular Entozoon in its general appearance and organization 

 appears to be intermediate between Cercm^ia seminis and Filar ia. 

 Its varied form and movements are curious to observe ; at one mo- 

 ment globular, then oval, ovate, fusiform, sigmoid, crescentic, &c., 

 it appears as if it would outvie the kaleidoscope in its changes. The 

 motions are vibratile, rotary, with a lateral progression, or whirling 

 in circles like the insect Gyrinus. 



Cryptohia helicis might be confounded with the Spermatozoa of 

 the animal in which they are parasitic, on account of the organ in 

 which they are found being connected with the 

 generative apparatus and its supposed use as a 

 spermatheca, but they may be readily distin- 

 guished ; the Spermatozoa of Helices generally 

 having either a uniform sigmoid or a beaded 

 body, with an enormous proportionate length of 

 tail, and a slow, vibratile motion. It may be 

 well to mention that C. helicis does not exist in 

 the collapsed state of the generative organs. 



The subjoined sketch represents some of the 

 principal forms of the animal, highly magnified. — From the Proceed- 

 ings of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, 



Description of two living Hybrid Fowls, between Gallus and Numida. 

 By Samuel George Morton, M.D. 



The singular birds which form the subject of this communication 

 were bred on a farm about seven miles from Wilmington, in the 

 State of Delaware. The person who raised them states that the 

 eggs that produced them differed in no respect from those of the 

 guinea fowl, were part of a large number that were hatched at the 

 same time, and that the birds are known to be just four years old. 

 My friend Mr. Augustus E. Jessup having accidentally observed 

 these birds on the above-mentioned farm, purchased them of the 

 proprietor, and sent them to my care, with a request that they might 

 be eventually placed in the collections of the Academy. Both are 

 yet living and in good health ; and the following description, in 

 which I have been materially assisted by my friend Mr. William 

 Gambel, has been drawn up after many examinations, made during 

 a month and upwards that the birds have been in the charge of Mr. 

 Robert Kilvington, horticulturist of this city. 



The first of these birds is mottled with the colour of a reddish 

 brown chicken and guinea fowl (Numida meleagris). Back and 

 rump lineated with darkish brown and whitish, and a tinge of yel- 

 lowish brown. Greater wing-coverts and margins of secondaries 

 reddish brown ; breast, belly, sides and under tail-coverts dirty 

 white, with scattering feathers of the same. Quills and tail-feathers 

 dusky brown, lineated, and finely speckled like those of the guinea 

 fowl. Two quills in one wing and one in the tail are entirely white. 

 Wings concave and rounded, one foot in length from flexure. First 



