Scientific Intelligence. — Zoology. 399 



{clavicuke, Ray) on the column, for clasping the branches of 

 Gorgoni/e, and other bodies to which they attach themselves, 

 while the arms are kept expanded to receive the food. Of 

 the tribe Stellerida (all of which want the ambulacra and cla- 

 viculae) some, as the solid Aster ias, have only suckers and ac- 

 companying lateral scales for locomotion ; in Ophiura the pedi- 

 form arms, few and multiarticulate, are adapted for walking, 

 but not for the capture of its prey ; in Gorgonia cephalus. Leach, 

 they are infinitely dichotomous and ramulose, and suited for 

 both purposes. In all the stomach is central, and either con- 

 cealed or submembranaceous, and fixed between the brachia. 

 In the Stellerida, the surface of articulation in the joints is sim- 

 ple, and the perforation rude ; while, in the Crinoidea, the sur- 

 face is beautifully radiate or stellate, and the muscular foramen 

 well defined. The following short characters may for the pre- 

 sent serve for the genus before me, which comes near perhaps 

 to the StagVhorn Encrinite of Parkinson. I shall forbear pub- 

 lishing any figure or detailed description of this most interesting 

 animal, until I have received an answer from Mr Miller, from 

 whom I hope to ascertain into what families and genera he has 

 divided these multiform beings, in his work on the Crinoidea, 

 which I have no opportunity of consulting here. 



Genus Encrinust Miller. — Char. Gen, Corpus liberum, crustaceum ; basis so- 

 lida, subtus suffulta, ambulacris 18, multi-articulatis, prehensoriis; arti- 

 culis uniformibus, apice uncinato, uncimdo adjuncto. Brachia supema, 

 quinque, longissima, cito bipartita, multi-articulata, articulis difFormibus ; 

 articulorum facie subcirculari, radiata ; foramine parvo, simplici ; intus di- 

 gilata. Digiti subulati, articulati, numerosi, basi carne nidulantes. Ab- 

 domen membranaceum, inter bracbiorum basin situm. Oe supenim.— X. 

 GuUd. Zool. Joum. No. xiv. 



11. Notice regarding the Omiihorynchus. — The place of 

 the principal resort of the ornithorynchus is the district near to 

 the town of Bothwell. I think the animal much more allied to 

 the class of quadrupeds than to that of birds, its food being 

 found amongst weeds, and in marshes ; it is indeed furnished 

 with a horny bill, resembling in shape that of a duck, but 

 it has no other resemblance to the feathered race. It has a 

 small bag or pouch on each side of the root or base of the bill, 

 adapted, as it appears to me, to filter or strain its food ; for in 

 this bag I have always found gritty mud. Dr Knox is correct 



