68 



A L C Y O N I T E. 



they have four toes, the three before united at their 

 bases, and the hind one more or less enlarged at the 

 base. Their wings are powerful for their size ; but 

 the tail in some of them is very short. They all 

 prey upon the wing, some chiefly upon insects, others 

 chiefly upon small fishes. They inhabit the banks on 

 streams and rivers, generally in solitary places, and 

 nestle in holes. The colours of their plumage are 

 rich ; and there is little difference in the males and 

 the females, or in the old and young birds. Their 

 motions are exceedingly abrupt and rapid, jerking 

 now here now there, and making their haunts gay 

 with the rich and strongly contrasted tints of their 

 plumage. The style of their flight is very like that of 

 the martins, especially those martins that catch their 

 prey on the surface of the waters. It is on this ac- 

 count that the French call the kingfishers, which may 

 be considered as the type of the order, " Fishing 

 Martins ;" but there are some which catch the larger 

 water insects, and seldom fish, unless when their in- 

 sect supply fails. See AI.CEDO MEROPS. 



ALCYONITE. A name given to the fossil re- 

 mains of the Alcyonium, a zoophyte belonging to 

 Lamarck's third class, the Carnosa, and which is allied 

 to the sponges. The fruit-like and spongiform fossils 

 belonging to this class are involved in much ob- 

 scurity, in consequence of the want of a satisfactory 

 arrangement of even their recent species, their nature 

 and structure being very little understood ; for which 

 reason a more detailed and particular account of 

 them may be acceptable to our readers, especially as 

 they are so exceedingly abundant, that in some situa- 

 tions scarcely a flint can be broken in which traces 

 of their structure may not be detected : and also, as 

 a condensed summary of what is known concerning 

 these singular bodies is still a desideratum in works 

 of a similar description to the present one. 



The distinctive characters of the recent sponges 

 and alcyonia, as proposed by Ellis, Lamarck, Lamou- 

 roux, and others, are, generally speaking, of very 

 great nicety, such as the presence or absence of 

 polypi, supposed to be in the former of such delicacy 

 as to shrivel up immediately upon being taken out of 

 the water, and thus to elude observation ; whereas 

 in the latter, they may be rendered visible under 

 similar circumstances, or upon others equally difficult 

 of observation, even in the living species. The most 

 marked distinction, however, is, that the alcyonium 

 possesses a spongy or gelatinous body inclosed in a 

 tough cellular integument containing polypi, while 

 the sponge presents a similar body without the fleshy 

 covering, nor have any polypi as yet been discovered 

 as its inhabitants. 



Characters like these, as might be expected, are 

 for the most part absolutely impossible to be ascer- 

 tained in substances in the fossil state, where the 

 solid parts of animals alone are preserved, and con- 

 sequently numerous obstacles still present themselves 

 to a complete and satisfactory arrangement of these 

 bodies. From the fruit-like forms which they so 

 frequently present* they were in the infancy of the 

 science of ibssiology, called by the names of those 

 fruits to which they were supposed to have a resem- 

 blance ; but their being subsequently found to have 

 a decidedly animal structure, rendered such a nomen- 

 clature totally inadmissible ; and in order to obviate 

 in some measure the various difficulties which present 

 themselves in the classification of these intricate fossils 

 various other arrangements have been suggested. In 



hat very valuable work, " The Geology of England 

 and Wales," by Dr. Convbeare and Mr. Phillips, it 

 s proposed to separate the alcyonites into two di- 

 visions, the first to include those whose fibrous 

 reticulations run confusedly together, their meshes 

 presenting no regular determinate figure and in the 

 second to place those in which they are regularly 

 disposed, giving to the whole mass a plicated cha- 

 racter. Of the first of these divisions they form five 

 jenera. The first includes those of a branched form ; 

 ihose which are palmated with the larger pores ar- 

 ranged in quincuncial order form the second genus ; 

 the third embraces the irregularly turbinated and 

 funnel-shaped masses, whose forms are exceedingly 

 various, probably arising from the different con- 

 tractions of the mass ; in the fourth we have those 

 which are fig-shaped, pedunculated at the bottom, 

 and presenting a funnel-shaped cavity, penetrating in 

 the direction of the axis, with large ' pores radiating 

 from the same ; and the fifth is characterised as forming 

 large irregular sessile masses, the upper surface tuber- 

 culated and traversed by large irregular ramifying 

 pores. In the regularly plicated division, the most 

 remarkable is the fossil described by Mantell in the 

 eleventh volume of the Linnsan Transactions, to 

 which we shall shortly again refer. 



Another arrangement of fossil spongiform bodies is 

 proposed by Parkinson in his Introduction to Fos- 

 siology. He divides them into four genera, which he 

 designates as spongia, syphonia, mantellia, and alcy- 

 onia, and proposes the following as the characteristic 

 distinctions by which each genus may be determined. 

 " If," says he, " a cellular texture, such as would be 

 formed by the irregular decussation of membranous 

 substance, can alone be traced without any appearance 

 of tubuli, the place of the fossil would be under the 

 genus sponge ; but if in addition to the spongeous 

 texture, -straight or regularly divaricating simple 

 tubuli should appear, its place would be under sy- 

 phonia. If, whether spongeous texture appear or 

 riot, simple tubes are discovered connected laterally 

 either by anastomosing or intercurrent tubuli, the 

 fossil may be considered as belonging to mantellia ; 

 but should the more compact parts of the fossil or its 

 porous substance display the evident labours of 

 polypi, no doubt should be entertained of placing it 

 uuder the genus alcyonium." The last three of these 

 divisions are those usually included under the name 

 of alcyonites ; and to the first of these, the syphonia, 

 are to be referred the various fossils shaped like fun- 

 nels, cups, and fruits, described by M. Guettard, as 

 found at Verest near Tours and Saumur, and also at 

 Mont Richard in Touraine ; and also those men- 

 tioned by the Rev. J. Townshend, as found in the 

 green sand of the Vale of Pewsey, as well as many 

 figured in the second volume of the Organic Remains. 

 To these must be added those singular fossils dis- 

 covered by Mr. Webster in the Isle of Wight, to 

 which, from their long stalks and-tulip-formed superior 

 terminations, he gave the name of tulip alcyonia. 

 Specimens of fossils of this genus have also been 

 described by Miss Bennet, as found in the sand in 

 the neighbourhood of Warminster, having a great va- 

 riety of forms, as round, cylindrical, straight, ramified, 

 oblong, cup, or funnel shaped, elongated like a 

 cucumber, tulip-formed, being exactly like those de- 

 scribed by Mr. Webster, and also assuming the 

 figures of various sponges. Some are also lobated, 

 having from two to five or six lobes closely united 



