36 REPORT ON THE PENNATULIDA. 



Each egg has from its earliest appearance a very large conspicuous 

 viiclen^ or germinal vesicle, containing one and sometimes two niirh'oli 

 or germinal spots. The germinal vesicle, which increases greatly in 

 size with the growth of the egg, consists of a tough, elastic, and fairly 

 thick membrane, with clear, apparently fluid, contents : it lies 

 opposite the stalk of attachment of the egg, and in many cases 

 projects into this stalk for a short distance. The nucleolus is spherical, 

 of a yellowish colour, and distinctly granular. 



The average diameter of the mature eggs is 0-0014i n . ,and the th ick 11 ess 

 of the capsule 0-0001 in. ; while the germinal vesicle, which is usually 

 oval, measures 0-0003 in. by 0-0002 in. 



Whether fertilisation and the early stages of development are, as 

 is most probable, effected within the body-cavity of the parent we 

 have had no opportunity of determining. In no case have the eggs in 

 our specimens commenced to develope ; indeed the germinal vesicle 

 is still present and unaltered in every one of the eggs we have 

 examined. 



We have not observed a micropyle, though from the thickness and 

 toughness of the egg capsule it is not improbable that one exists. 



Eggs sometimes occur within the coenenchymal canals, as is shown 

 in the lower part of Fig. 10. The eggs so found are usually either 

 fully developed ones, or else eggs that are very nearly mature. As we 

 have noticed several instances of this we are inclined to view it as a 

 normal condition, though how the eggs get into the canals, whose 

 diameter is much smaller than that of the mature eggs, and still more 

 how they get out again, is far from obvious. It may be, that the eggs 

 are accidently dislodged when young and carried with the nutrient 

 matter into the canals, where they remain, and, receiving a plentiful 

 supply of food, grow. 



Besides the sexual process of reproduction there can be but little 

 doubt that FimiciiUna can multiply asexually by gemmation or budding ; 

 this asexual process serving, as in other colonial Cvlenterata, to 

 increase the number of individuals in the colony, whilst it is by the 

 sexual process alone that new colonies can be started. 



{'fo be conti7nied.) 



THE BIRDS OF LEICESTERSHIRE. 

 PART III.— OUR RESIDENTS. 



BY THOMAS MACAULAY, M.E.C.S.L., ETC. 



No record of the birds of a county would be complete without a 

 list of residents ; but as these are, probably almost without exception, 

 common to every county in England, very little more than a list will 

 be necessary. They are fifty-four in number: — 



