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gradually and gracefully recurve until the egg again assumes 
its flower-like form. A group of these eggs in drying make a 
pretty sight in the microscope,—it is a boquet of flower-buds 
actually blooming under the eye of the observer. 
The action of the spines seems independent of vitality, and 
is renewed apparently as often as moisture is applied or 
removed ; thus, on one of my slides, some of the lids are 
gone and the shells empty, while the contents of other un- 
hatched eggs are shrivelled and dead; still all the spines 
continue to contract and expand on provocation after a score 
of immersions. 
The parasite eggs found on the Mallee bird possess 
appendages actuated precisely as are those of the species de- 
scribed ; these are the only two I have examined, but it is 
likely that a few experiments with water on some of the 
many insects’ eggs which bear spines and wing-like processes, 
would lead to interesting results: desirable also is careful 
examination with a view to detecting the cause of the spines 
uncurling when wet. An unequally greasy appearance in 
the eggs when partly dry, leads me to think that one side of 
each spine is much more absorptive than the other, a quality 
which would readily account for its activity in water; but 
this is a mere suspicion, and of no scientific value. 
Without pretending to any exclusive knowledge of Nature’s 
object and intentions in this case, and indeed, making only a 
modest guess at them, I may suggest the probability that the 
contracted state of the spines over the lid in wet weather 
only, strengthens and bars that outlet for the time, perfectly 
restraining the hatching of even mature eggs until the advent 
of dry favorable weather.—Proceedings of Quekett Club, 
No. 13. 
The Mouse’s Ear as an Organ of Sensation.— Dr. Schobl, of 
Prague, who lately published a remarkable paper on the 
wing of the bat, has made similar researches on the ear of 
the white mouse, with very interesting and surprising results 
(in ‘Schultze’s Archiv,’ vol. vil, p. 260). The first thing 
which struck Dr. Schobl was the immense and “ fabulous” 
richness of the ear in nerves. Even the bat’s wing is but 
poorly supplied in comparison. The outer ear was carefully 
divided horizontally through the middle of the cartilage into 
two lamine, each of which was found to be equally supplied 
with nerves, and was then examined by removing the epider- 
mis and the Malpighian layer of the skin. In each of these 
laminee were discovered three distinct strata of nerves, which 
are thus described :—The first or lowest stratum lies imme- 
diately upon the cartilage; it consists of the largest trunks 
