M. Le Sau vage on a new genus of Fossil Polyparia 23 1 



and that of Desmarest equally so, there would no longer be the 

 slightest hesitation in considering them as distinct species. The 

 general form. — the appearance of the hair, — the ears, — the nose, 

 — the feet, &c. are considerably dissimilar ; and the tail of 

 Capromys is much more conical than that of the other. It must 

 however be admitted, that until M. Desmarest gives us the 

 anatomical details he has promised, we must remain uncertain as 

 to the identity of these animals, neither of which appears to have 

 been before described.* 



Art. XXIX. Memoir upon a new genus of Fossil Poly- 

 paria. By M. Le Sauvage.t 



Among the Fossil Polyparia found in the department of 

 Calvados, for the knowledge of which we are indebted to the 

 researches and labours of Messrs. De Magueville and Lamouroux, 

 there exists a species which has been referred by the latter to the 

 genus Astrea, under the name of Astrea dendroidea, (see 

 Lamouroux^ Exposit. Meth.des genres de Vordre des Polypiers,8cc. 

 Suppl. p. 85. pi. 78. f. 6.) M. Lamouroux has described this 

 species from an irregular fragment of a few centimetres in height, 

 and yet he has very judiciously observed that it was not encrust- 

 ing, that it formed a mass of the same nature, and that it was 

 distinguished by its form from all the species of the genus to 

 which he referred it. In the Coralloid Limestone of the Falaise 

 of Bennerville, I have met with a large fragment of this fine 

 Fossil, which is itself only a small portion of a mass several feet 



* It appears by an article in the " Bulletin des Sciences" ( 1823, No. 7.) 

 that Mons. Desmarest is himself of opinion, that these two animals are identi- 

 cal ; though, from some degree of ambiguity in this passage, it is not quite 

 clear whether he considers them as of the same species, or only as a species of 

 the same genus. 



+ Translated from the Memoires de la Societe d 1 Histoire Naturelle de Paris, 

 vol. i. p. 241. 



