416 Rev. W. Houghton on the Unicorn of the Ancients. 



perne angulata ; peristomate continuo, subreflexo ; anfractu ulti- 

 mo subumbilicato. 

 " Animal Melanice simile, proboscide elongata, antice emarginata ; 

 tentaculis filiformibus duobus oculos postice prope basin geren- 

 tibus ; pede mediocri ovato, antice subquadrato. Operculo 

 corneo subspirali. 



" T. montana. 



" T. testa olivacea, ovato- conica ; anfractibus sex, rotundatis, suturis 

 impressis ; apertura intus albida ; peristomate nigrescente; apice 

 obtuso, plerumque decollato. 



" Hab. in rivo, apud lacum Kemaonensem Bhimtal dictum. 



"This little shell I first found adhering to the prone surface 

 of a leaf of Potamogeton, in a clear and weedy stream running 

 through a marsh at the head of Bheemtal and supplying that 

 lake; and subsequently Dr. Bacon and myself found it abun- 

 dantly on the stems of a water Iris which we drew up by the 

 roots from the bed of the stream for examination." 



I further remarked that it exhibited a tendency towards Pa- 

 ludina in form and in the continuity and incrassation of the 

 peristome. 



Cheltenham, Nov. 12, 1862. 



XLIV. — On the Unicorn of the Ancients. 

 By the Rev. W. Houghton, M.A., F.L.S. 



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



Gentlemen, 



I hasten to correct a serious error which I committed in my 

 paper " On the Unicorn of the Ancients," published in the last 

 Number of your Magazine. I there stated (p. 369) that "the 

 animal which Mr. Riippell was told by a native existed in Africa, 

 and which had a long straight horn growing from its forehead (?), 

 was doubtless a Rhinoceros." I grounded this somewhat hasty 

 conclusion on a short paragraph that appeared in the twentieth 

 volume of the ' Asiatic Journal ' (July 1825), published the year 

 before Ruppell's ' Atlas zu der Reise im nordlichen Africa/ 

 I have since referred to this work, in which, at pt. i. p. 29, 

 Mr. Riippell has made some observations on the Unicorn, which, 

 under the name of Nillekma, is known to the natives of Kordofan. 

 " The accounts which I obtained," this traveller remarks (p. 30), 

 " from persons of the greatest respectability concerning the 

 Nillekma all perfectly agreed, — to wit, the animal's hide was of 

 a reddish colour, its size that of a pony, its form slender like 

 the Antelope's ; the male had a long straight horn upon its 

 brow, which was wanting in the female. Some added that it 



