Miscellaneoics. 63 



breast and under surface purple ; back and wings rich chestnut, 

 with violet reflections when viewed in certain lights, and passing 

 into golden bronze at the nape ; rump and upper tail-coverts rich 

 purplish blue ; tail blackish green ; legs yellower reddish yellow. 

 Total length 16 inches ; bill 1^, wing 7, tail 6|, tarsi 2|, 

 I obtained this tine bird of Mr. James Gardner of Holborn, 

 who could not inform me of the precise locality in which it Avas 

 collected ; but as it was accompanied by Paradisea papuana^ 

 EpimacJius maxhius, many specimens of Semiojytera WaUacei^ 

 and Pitta maxima, it was probably procured on some one 

 of the islands of the Eastern Archipelago or in New Guinea. 

 Although the bill is not toothed, this species appears to be 

 allied to Didunculus. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Deep-sea Researches. 

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



Gentlemen, — You will oblige me, and at the same time, I be- 

 lieve, further the interests of scientific truth, by inserting the follow- 

 ing observations in the ' Annals.' 



In a note which appeared in ' Nature,' of Dec. 16th, p. 192, 

 Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys makes known his views on the " Food of Oceanic 

 Animals " in these words : — 



" The receipt of an interesting paper by Prof. Dickie, entitled 

 " Notes on range in depth of marine Algae," lately pubhshed by the 

 Botanical Society of Edinburgh, induces me to call the attention of 

 physiologists to the fact that plant-life appears to be absent in the 

 ocean, with the exception of a comparatively narrow fringe (known 

 as the littoral and laminarian zones) which girds the coasts, and 

 of the " Sargasso " tract in the Gulf of Mexico. 



" During the recent exploration, in H.M.S. ' Porcupine,' of part 

 of the North Atlantic, / coiiZt? not detect the slightest trace of any 

 vegetable organism at a greater depth than fifteen fathoms. Animal 

 organisms of all hinds and sizes, living and dead, tuere everywhere 

 abundant, from the surface to the bottom ; and it might at first be 

 supposed that such constituted the only food of the oceanic animals 

 which were observed, some of them being zoophagons, others sarco- 

 phagous, none phytophagous. But inasmuch as aU animals are said 

 to exhale carbonic acid gas, and on their death the same gas is 

 given out by their decomposition, whence do oceanic animals get 

 that supply of carbon which terrestrial and littoral or shaUow-Avater 

 animals derive, directly or indirectly, from plants ? Can any class 

 of marine animals assimilate the carbon contained in the sea, as 

 plants assimilate the carbon contained in the air? 



" Not being a physiologist, I will not presume to offer an opinion ; 

 but the suggestions or questions which I have ventured to submit 



