On Fossil Echinoderms from the Island of Malta. 1 75 



" In plumage it greatly resembles tlie broatlor-billed but 

 closely allied C. Burkii of India. Middle of crown olive-yellow, 

 which occupies the inner webs of the feathers, the outer webs 

 being deep fuscous, nearly black, with an olive tinge, forming 

 a broad dark stripe on each side of the crown : between this 

 and the eye is a superciliary streak of clear yellow : a streak of 

 fuscous passes through the eye; the cheeks, throat, and lower 

 parts are bright yellow, with an olive tinge; back and wings 

 yellowish-olive : beak horn- coloured, the base of lower mandible 

 pale ; and legs bi'own. 



" Inhabits the island of Java/^ — Strickland. 



XVI. — On Fossil Echinoderms from the Island of Malta; vnth 

 Notes on the stratigrapltical distribution of the Fossil Organ- 

 isms in the Maltese beds. By Thomas Wright, M.D. &c., 

 Professor of the Natural Sciences in the Cheltenham Grammar 

 School. 



[Continued from p. 127.] 



Family Spatangid^. 



The general outline of the Urchins of this family is oval, ob- 

 long or cordiform, and they satisfactorily exhibit the bilateral 

 symmetry of the Echinidce. The mouth is anterior, bilabiate, 

 and edentulous. The anal opening is posterior and supramar- 

 ginal, and is closed by a complicated series of small plates. The 

 apices of the ambulacral areas are united at the summit of the 

 test. The anterior single ambulacrum has a different structure 

 from the antero- and postero-lateral pairs, and is in general lodged 

 in a depression of the test, which extends to the anterior border 

 forming the anteal sulcus ; the test is extremely thin, and is 

 covered with small tubercles which support hair-like spines ; 

 besides these there are some larger crenulated and perforated 

 tubercles which support large spines. There are two or four genital 

 pores which are sometimes placed close togethei*, but are in other 

 genera apart. The eye-plates are five in number, and are placed 

 at the apices of the ambulacra in a pentagonal form around the 

 genital plates. We observe on the surface of the test of some Spa- 

 tangidce, certain delicate lines caWeikfascioles, having a smoother 

 appearance than the tubercular surface of the test ; they are fur- 

 rows which are strewed with microscopic tubercles destined to 

 carry very delicate spines, which, when seen under the micro- 

 scope, appear to have the same structure as the Pedicellarice. The 

 fascioles have a different disposition in each genus, and afford a 

 good character in giving definitions of the same; when the 



