230 Miscellaneous. 



THE NEPAUL BEAR, URSUS BABELLA, HORSFIELD. 



The Nepaul bear having been found to vary greatly m colour, and 

 in some states very nearly to resemble the European brovi^n bear, some 

 zoologists have been inclined to regard it and the European bear as the 

 same species. There is a fine specimen of the Nepaul bear novi' living 

 in the Gardens of the Zoological Society, and the comparison of it 

 with the European bear, nearly of the same size, shows that the Nepaul 

 animal is a very distinct species. Its most distinguishing character 

 is the shortness of the hind-feet ; the cars are very large, prominent, 

 and covered with bushy hair. The head is broader, and the muzzle 

 shorter and covered with shorter and more adpressed hair than its 

 European congener ; indeed the head and feet have the appearance 

 of being almost one-quarter shorter in proportion to the size of the 

 animal than that species. The claws are elongate, arched, compressed, 

 and with a sharp cutting edge beneath. — J. E. Gray. 



Description of a neio species of the genus Thracia. By Dr. Jonas. 



Thracia magnifica, Jonas. Th. testd ovato-oblongd, transversd, 

 incequivalvi, lacted ; utrinque rotundatd ; Jateribus hiante ; valvd 

 dextrd ventncosiore et majore quain sinistrd ; latere anticoflexuoso, 

 posteriore hrevi, oblique carinato, transversim corrugato-plicatd, 

 plicis siibdistantibus concentricis longitudinaliter radiatim gra- 

 nidato-striatd, margine neutrali arcuato antice subsinuato. 



Hah. ? 



From the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for Dec. 11, 1850. 



Remark on the genus Nocticula of J. V. Thompson. By J. D. Dana. 



The genus Nocticula, established by Thompson in his ' Zoological 

 Researches,' No. 2. p. 52. aud.pl. 5 (Cork, 1829), is closely related 

 to the Euphausidce. The general form of the animal, its thoracic 

 and abdominal appendages, and the autennse, eyes, and short beak, are 

 as in Thxjsanopoda and Euphausia ; and the last abdominal segment 

 has the acuminate character with the naked barb on either side near 

 the apex, which occurs in this family*. The legs are not however re- 

 presented as bifid, the outer branch and branchial appendages having 

 been overlooked (and in the suggestion of this error we make the 

 "due allowance for drawings made at sea of such minute objects" 

 which Thompson asks of his readers) . The number of thoracic legs 

 is stated at sixteen, but this includes, as the drawing shows, a pair of 

 maxillipeds. Excluding these, there will then be seven pairs, which 

 is the number in Thysanopoda ; and it seems probable that Nocticula 

 and Thysanopoda are identical, and if so, the former name has the 

 precedence. 



The species described and figured by Thompson was taken in the 



* Milne-Edwards alludes to this character in the name of his Thysano- 

 poda, T. tricuspidata (Ann. des Sci. Nat. xix. 1830, 454, note). — The ge- 

 nus Nocticula is not referred to by Edwards, either in his Memoir, or in his 

 ' Hist. Nat. des Crustaees.' 



