178 Dr. F. Briio-o'emann on a new 



C3t5^ 



SO unlike any of the present day with which I am acquainted, 

 that I could only liken them to calcareous forms of the arena- 

 ceous Foraminifer called Astrorhiza. But on receiving more 

 of these spicules, together with their associates (chiefly the 

 remains of encrinitic stems), I thought that they might be the 

 pedicellari^e of some unknown fossil Echinoderm. Finally 

 1 yielded to an acknowledged authority, who stated that there 

 was nothing among the Echinoderm ata, living or fossil, to be 

 compared to them ; and then I came to the conclusion that we 

 should never know any thing more satisfactory about them 

 until they had been found in coimexion with the organism 

 to which they originally belonged, when the receipt of Mr, 

 J. Thomson's specimens decided the matter in the way above 

 stated. I must observe that Dr. Millar throughout kept 

 to the view that they were the remains of a hyaloneraatous 

 sponge, as has now been proved. 



Pending my being able to delineate and describe Mr. 

 Thomson's interesting specimens, among which there are the 

 remains too of another sponge, apparently of a different kind, 

 I think it right to make this communication. 



XXVI. — Description of a new /^pec/es o/'Batrachostomus^ow 

 Central Borneo. By Dr. F. Beuggemann. 



Batrachostomus adsjjersus. 



Bill strongly vaulted ; hair feathers of the lores well deve- 

 loped, curved and remarkably rigid ; forehead with a conspi- 

 cuous tuft of recurved hair feathers almost as in B. criaijrons : 

 wings comparatively long and pointed ; fourth quill longest ; 

 fifth, sixth, third, and seventh successively a trifle shorter ; 

 second much shorter, slightly surpassed by the eighth ; first 

 nearly one inch shorter than the second : tail elongate, its 

 feathers narrow, shortly pointed, rather obtuse at the top, the 

 outermost pair reaching only to one third of the whole length ; 

 the next pair twice as long as the first ; the following pairs 

 forming the rounded apex :_ toes long, slender ; nails weak, 

 feebly curved. 



Above pale greyish brown, inclining to rufous on the smaller 

 wing-coverts and rump, everywhere most densely covered 

 with delicate, irregular, transverse markings of a brownish 

 black colour. Each of the feathers of the upper head, neck, 

 and back with a small buffy-white terminal spot, and before it 



