Miscellaneous* 2(57 



Mr. Carter informs me that the Ualiphysema tubulatum (P. Z. S. 

 1873, p. 29, t. vii.) is a massive form of his Dictyocylindrus of the 

 British coast ; the colour and spicules are nearly the same. There 

 is, in the collection of Ceylon sponges, a specimen whose complement 

 of spicules equals, if not surpasses, all sponges of its kind. See 

 Mr. Carter's description and illustration of this species, Ann. & Mag. 

 Nat. Hist. 1871, vii. p. 268, t. 17, from a small piece found on 

 Ect ion sparsus. Mr. Holdsworth's specimen is half as big as a man's 

 head. This sponge is my Acarnus innominatus. 



Mr. Carter informs me, Isodictya Dormant of this paper is no 

 Isodictya at all ! It is allied to Dictyocylindrus. It is of a fibrous 

 horny structure, the spicules in distinct fibres in little tufts on the 

 surface at the end, whereas Isodictya has no horny fibre, only spi- 

 cules matted into a kind of fibre with amorphous sarcode. This 

 sponge is very abundant on the Pearl-banks ; indeed we have spe- 

 cimens of it in the British Museum, presented by Captain Belcher; 

 and I greatly doubt its being an unnamed species. 



Mr. Carter finds Spongionella has a simple horny fibre, not enclosed 

 in any sand or spicule, confirming its being Spongia papyracea of 

 Esper. 



On Ursus euryrhinus, Nilsson. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



In the 'Catalogue of Carnivorous Mammalia in the British Museum,' 

 p. 235, I referred to the genus Helarctos, with doubt, a bear described 

 by Prof. Mlsson in his account of Swedish Mammalia, under the 

 name of Ursus euryrhinus, which he described from a skull in the 

 Museum of Lund, said to have come from Hungary. 



Prof. Nilsson, in February of this year, kindly presented to the 

 British Museum a plaster cast of this skull, by whieh I observe that 

 the skull is evidently from an animal long kept in confinement, and 

 much altered from its usual shape, so that I should be unable to 

 determine to what species it really belongs, or even whether it is 

 distinct from the common European bear. 



File-fish (Balistes capriscus) at Weymouth. 



A specimen of the file-fish was taken on the 14th of May off the 

 Portland Breakwater, on a pout-line baited with a lobworm, and 

 has been sent to the British Museum by Mr. "William Thompson, 

 who has kindly made the following notes : — 



"The fish was 14| inches long to the centre of the caudal fin ; 

 the length from the caudal to the extremity of the longer outer ray 

 2 inches, making the entire length 16| inches ; the greatest depth 

 7£ inches. The colour dark smoky grey, very much lighter (almost 

 white) on the under parts ; the two dorsal, the anal, and caudal 

 fins spotted, lined, and blotched with ultramarine blue." Mr. 

 Thompson observes that the illustrations of Couch and Yarrell must 

 have been taken from a fish that had lost the outer ray of the caudal 

 fin, which is the case with Couch's specimen which he sent to the 

 British Museum. Mr. Thompson says that he has taken two an- 

 chovies, a sea-lamprey 14, and a sand-launce 12| inches long. 



The file-fish has been several times during the summer season 



