Miscellaneous, 317 



*' I have been laid-by the last three or four days by a severe head- 

 ache, reheved only by lying down ; and as soon as this mail goes, I 

 must seek rest for a day or two." 



Alas ! he died in a few days, at the early age of twenty-four. 



On the Nidification of Crustacea. 



To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. 



8 Mulgrave Place, Plymouth, March 13, 1858. 

 Gentlemen, — In the paper on the * Nidification of Crustacea,* 

 recently published in your Journal, I omitted to notice the observa- 

 tions of Mr. Gosse on the subject in his * Rambles of a Naturalist on 

 the Devonshire Coast,' p. 282. He there records, under the title of 

 the * Caddis Shrimp,' taking an Amphipod that occupied a tube, 

 which he presumed had been constructed by the occupant, and sug- 

 gests the probability that Say's species may likewise have built its 

 case. The crustacean found by Mr. Gosse was, from the careful 

 figures that he has made of the pereiopoda, evidently a ISiphonocetuSy 

 and not a Podocerus, as he stated ; although, from a communication 

 I have had with Mr. Gosse on the subject, it appears to be surrounded 

 by species of the latter genus. 



It is due to Mr. Gosse that reference should have been made to 

 his early and interesting notice of these animals, the omission of 

 which in my paper I much regret. 



I am, Gentlemen, Yours obediently, 



C. Spence Bate. 



Note on the Occurrence of Dasya venusta. 

 By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S. &c. 



This plant was discovered by Miss White, in 1846, in Jersey, and 

 finer specimens have since been found in the same island by Miss 

 Turner ; but hitherto it has not been recorded as found on the coast 

 of England. Mrs. Gray collected several specimens of it on the 5th 

 of October, 1855, on the shore of Bognor in Sussex, and I have 

 lately received a very fine specimen from Brighton. 



Prof. Ovs^en's Lectures on Paleontology. 



The following Course of Lectures is now being delivered at the 

 Theatre of the Museum of Practical Geology, by Prof. Owen, F.R.S., 

 Superintendent of the Natural History Departments, British Museum. 



Lectures I. and II. {March \8th and ]9th.) 



Fossil Birds. — Various modes in which the evidences of 

 evanescent things become recognizably preserved in rock : such as 

 meteoric phaenomena, foot-prints, soft and soluble plants and animals ; 

 causes operating to render scarce the fossil remains of birds. None 

 as yet found in strata anterior to the tertiary period : evidence of 

 birds in earlier formations afforded by foot-prints. Peculiarities of 

 the feet of birds ; of the numerical ratio of the phalanges of the toes. 



