Miscellaneous. 341 



disk which extends in the Common or Canada Stag above the tail, 

 the Japanese Stag decidedly shows nothing of this kind. In this 

 species the white colour is restricted to the abdomen, the inside of 

 the thighs, the anal region, and the greater end part of the tail ; the 

 root of the tail is, on the contrary, of the same brown colour as the 

 whole back and the rest of the animal." 



It is probable, therefore, that the Japanese Deer described by me 

 as Rusa japonica may be the same as the Cervus sika, though it dif- 

 fers so much from the figure and short description of that animal in 

 the ' Fauna Japonica.' 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Note on the Synonymy of the Fossil Genus Echinodon of Professor 

 Owen. By H. Falconer, M.D. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, — I wish to make a correction through the medium 

 of your pages. 



In his late contribution to the Palseontographical Society, on the 

 Purbeck Lacertilia, p. 35, Professor Owen erroneously cites me as 

 the authority for the name Sauraechinodon, as a synonym of his 

 Echinodon. It should have been Saurcechmodon. With the bar- 

 barism ascribed to me, doubtless inadvertently, I have no concern. 

 I remain, Gentlemen, 



Your obedient Servant, 



H. Falconer. 

 London, Sept. 1861. 



On the Death-wound of the "King of the Gorillas." 



The following letter, addressed by Dr. Gray to the President of the 

 Zoological Section, was read at the meeting of the British Association 

 recently held at Manchester : — 



" British Museum, Sept. 6, 1861. 



" My dear Professor, — It is with much regret that I feel myself 

 called upon to correct an error which appears in the report of Prof. 

 Owen's paper on the Gorilla, &c, contained in 'The Times' of this 

 day. Prof. Owen is there represented as stating that ' the skin of 

 the great male Gorilla, now in the British Museum, exhibits two 

 opposite wounds, the smaller in front of the left side of the chest, 

 the larger close to the lower part of the right blade-bone. Two of 

 the ribs in the skeleton of this animal are broken on the right side, 

 near where the charge has passed through the skin in its course out- 

 wards.' As this would appear to offer a direct contradiction to a 

 statement made by myself, I cannot (although labouring at present 

 under a severe attack of illness, and writing from a sick chamber) 

 pass it over in silence. 



" My attention was called to the subject by Mr. Joseph Beck, the 

 well-known microscopist, who first made the observation that none 



