689 



MADREPORITE. 



MCENURA. 



690 



deep, polygonal, irregular, unequal, internally tuberculiferous, with 

 perforated or reticulated parietes, echinulated on the terminal edges; 

 polypidom porous, cellular. 



A. retepora; Madrepora retepora, Linn. (Ellis and SoL/t. 64, f. 3-5), 

 may be taken as an example. 



Goniopora. Animals actiniform, elongated, cylindrical, with a crown 

 of more than 12 simple tentacula ; cells polygonal, internally sulcated, 

 echiuulated on the edges ; polypidom extremely porous. 



One recent species (G. pedunculata of Quoy and Gaimard). 



Poritei. Animals urceolate, with 12 very short tentacula; cells 

 polygonal, unequal, imperfectly defined, incompletely radiated by 

 filamentous pointed rays, with echinulated intervals; polypidom 

 diversiform, porous, and echinated. This is a genus of Lamarck, but 

 somewhat contracted by De Blainville. 



P. davaria, Lamarck (Ellis and Sol., t. 47, f. 1), ia an example. 



Put itt-s clavaria. 



Serialopora. Animals without tentacula (?); cells immersed, 

 ciliated on the edges, but not internally lamelliferous, ranged in 

 longitudinal series on the cylindrical branches of a porous finely 

 ramified polypidom. This in a genus of Lamarck modified. It 

 includes only a few species, much like the type, Madrepora seriate, 

 Linn. : figured in Ellis and SoL, t. 31, f. 1-2. Ehrenberg ranks them 

 with Millepores. 



Pocillopora. Animals without tentacula (?); cells small, shallow, 

 subpolygonal, echinulated on the edges, and sometimes rather lamel- 

 liferous within ; towards the terminations of the branching polypidom 

 the cells are contiguous and adherent, but separated by granular 

 interstices near the base of attachment. The polypidom is not 

 porous. 



Lamarck established the genus, which ia generally adopted. Ehren- 

 berg doubts if there be any tentacula. 



P. damicornis, Lamarck, recently found in the Indian Sea may 

 be taken as an example. P. intcrstincla has been found in the British 



geas. [POLYPIKERA.] 



MADREPORITE (A ntliraconite ; Columnar Carbonate of Lime) 

 a Mineral occurring in roundish masses, the structure of which is 

 columnar and diverging. Fracture indistinctly lamellar. Hardness 

 3'0 ; yields easily to the knife. Colour grayish-black. Lustre vitre- 

 ous. Opaque, or only translucent on the edges. Specific gravity 2'7. 

 It is found in Norway at Stavern, in transition rocks; at Gyphytta 

 in alum slate ; in Greenland, and in Salzburg. 

 The following Snalysis is by Klaproth : 



Carbonate of Lime .... 83'00 

 Carbonate of Magnesia . . . 10-30 



Carbonate of Iron .... 1'25 



Silica 4-50 



Carbon 0-50 



99-55 



MJENU'RA, or MENU'RA, Dr. Shaw's and Dr. Latham's name 

 for a singular geSius of Birds, whose place in the system has occa- 

 sioned some difference of opinion among ornithologists. 



In 'An Account of the English Colony of New South Wales, 

 from it first settlement in January, 1788, to August, 1801, &c., to 

 which are added some particulars of New Zealand, compiled by 

 permission from the manuscripts of Lieutenant-Governor King ; and 

 an Account of a Voyage by Captain Flinders and Mr. Bass, &c., 

 abstracted from the Journal of Mr. Bass, by Lieutenant Collins of 

 the Royal Marines,' Ac. (4to. 2 vols., 1802, London), it appears that 

 in January, 1798, in consequence of the determination of certain 

 Irishmen to go out for the discovery of a settlement for themselves, 

 the governor, after ineffectually trying corporal punishment, deter- 

 mined, with a view of checking the spirit of emigration, to convince 

 these Irish by their own experience of the danger and difficulties 

 which attended it, and accordingly he caused four of the strongest 

 and hardiest among them to be chosen by themselves, and properly 



prepared for a journey of discovery. They were to be accompanied 

 by three men, upon whom the governor knew he could depend, and 

 who were to lead them back when fatigued and exhausted with their 

 journey over the worst and most dangerous part of the country. A 

 conspiracy to murder the guides was discovered, and counteracted by 

 the addition of four soldiers to the guides, and on the 14th they set 

 off from Paramatta. On the 24th the soldiers returned with three of 

 the deputies, who, having gained the foot of the first mountains, 

 were so completely sick of the journey, and of the prospect before 

 them, that they requested to return with the soldiers, whose mission 

 here terminated. The three persons who had been sent out with the 

 Irishmen returned on the 9th of February. " On arranging their 

 courses and distances on paper, they appeared to have travelled in a 

 direction south-west three-fourths west about 140 miles from Para- 

 matta. They brought in with them one of the birds which they had 

 named pheasants, but which, on examination, appeared to be a variety 

 of the Bird of Paradise. The size of this curious and handsome bird 

 was that of a common hen ; the colour a reddish-black, the bill long, 

 the legs black and very strong. The tail, about two feet in length, was 

 formed of several feathers, two of which were the principal, having 

 the interior sides scalloped alternately of a deeper or lighter reddish- 

 brown inclining to orange, shading gently into a white or silver colour 

 next the stem, crossing each other, and at the very extremity termi- 

 nating in a broad black round finishing. The difference of colour 

 in the scallops did not proceed from any precise change in the colour 

 itself, but from the texture of the feather, which was alternately 

 thicker and thinner. The fibres of the outer side of the stem were 

 narrow, and of a lead colour. Two other feathers of equal length, 

 and of a bluish or lead colour, lay within those ; very narrow, and 

 having fibres only on one side of the stem. Many other feathers of 

 the same length lay within those again, which were of a pale grayish 

 colour, and of the most delicate texture, resembling more the skeleton 

 of a feather than a perfect one." Lieutenant Collins then gives a 

 figure of the bird " from the pencil of a capital artist," which seems 

 to have been handed down from author to author, and is indeed upon 

 the whole correct, with the name of Mtenura superba. 



M. Temminck arranged the form under his order of Insectivorous 

 Birds (Insectivores), among the Thrushes, giving it a position between 

 Cinclm and Pitta. 



Cuvier does not differ much in his views from M. Temminck ; for 

 he places it among his great group of Passereaux (Cuvier's second 

 order), and it stands in the ' Regne Animal ' in the following relative 

 position : Oriolut, Gymnops, Mcenura, Motacilla. 



M. Vieillot differs almost entirely from both Temminck and Cuvier ; 

 for, though he includes it in his second order, which corresponds 

 with the Inseisorct of Mr. Vigors, the Lyriferi stand in M. Vieillot's 

 ' Analyse ' at the extremity of that order, and near the groups of 

 Columba and Penelope. 



Illiger, in his ' Prodromus,' arranged it among the Rasores. 



Before we proceed to a consideration of the views of more modern 

 authors, it is right to put the reader in possession of Cuvier's 

 description, with his reasons for classing Mamwa as he did. He says 

 that the size of the bird (a little less than that of a common pheasant) 

 has caused it to be referred to the Gallinaceous Birds, but that rt 

 belongs evidently to the Passerine order from its feet, whose toea 

 (excepting the first articulation of the external and middle toe) are 

 separated, while the form approaches the Thrushes (Merles) in the 

 structure of the bill, which is triangular at its base, elongated, and a 

 little compressed, and notched towards its point ; the membranous 

 nostrils are large and partially covered with feathers as in the Jays. 

 Manure, he adds, is to be distinguished by the great tail of the male, 

 which is very remarkable for the three sorts of feathers that compose 

 it. The twelve ordinary feathers are very long, with loose and very 

 distant barbs ; two more in the middle are furnished on one side only 

 with close-set barbs, and two external ones are curved in the form of 

 an S, or like the branches of a lyre, whose internal barbs, which are 

 large and close-set, represent a broad riband, while the external ones 

 are very short and do not become enlarged till towards the end of 

 the feathers. The female haa only twelve feathers of the ordinary 

 structure. 



Mr. Vigors (' Linn. Trans.,' voL xiv.), who alludes to the position 

 assigned to the bird by the authors above mentioned, places it at the 

 extreme of his third order (Rasores), among his family of Cracidce. 



M. Lesson speaks of the position of Mamma as far from being 

 fixed, and though he follows Cuvier in placing it among the Passe- 

 reaux, he observes that some authors think that it would stand better 

 at the side of Merjapodius, in the Gallinaceous order. After quoting 

 the words of Cuvier given above, he says, " The Mcenura has then 

 been arranged sometimes among the gallinaceous birds under the name 

 of Lyre-Pheasant, or Pheasant of the Woods, and sometimes at the end 

 of the Calaos [HOBBBQXj, and the Hoazins [CRACID.*;], as M. Vieillot 

 classed it, while, scientifically speaking, it is. near the Thrushes that 

 Mcenura ought to take its place, though it departs distinctly from 

 them in the form of the body." 



Mr. Swainsou ('Classification of Birds,' vol ii. 1837) alludes to the 

 place assigned to Mcenura and Meyapodius by Mr. Vigors, and says 

 that they certainly accord more with that family than with any other 



