238 Mr. H. E. Strickland on the Structure and Affinities 



processes, and with this remarkable difference ; that while in the 

 latter the cilia propel the water outwards, sending off a cun-ent 

 at their apices ; in the tentacula, on the contrary, the cilia are di- 

 rected downwards, drawing in and sending a cm-rent of water 

 down their whole surface. This is exactly what we might be led 

 to expect in the olfactoi-y organs, and forms a beautiful compen- 

 sation for the power of drawing a current of air through the 

 nostrils in the higher animals. Upon the whole, therefore, we 

 think that little doubt can remain of the real function of these 

 organs. 



P.S. Since writing the above, we have seen M. Quatrefages' 

 elaborate paper on his Eolidina paradoocum in the ' Annales des 

 Sciences Naturelles,' and are happy to find that many of his ob- 

 servations agi'ee with our own. His Eolidina we consider to be 

 undoubtedly an Eolis very nearly allied to our E. angulata, MS., 

 communicated to the last meeting of the Association. 



In the position which he assigns to the anus at the posterior 

 end of the large central vessel of the gastro-vascular system, we 

 conceive him to be under a mistake, deceived probably by the ap- 

 parently abrupt termination of that vessel. The real anus, we 

 have no doubt, will be found at the side, as in other species of this 

 and the allied genera. 



He appears also to have misunderstood the organs of vision, 

 which, it can scarcely be doubted, are as complete as in other 

 species of Eolis, as well as in Polycera, Goniodoris and Melibcea, 

 in all of which a lens is distinctly visible ; he however figm'cs 

 and describes the eye in his Eolidina as merely a broad convex 

 expansion of the retina and pigmentum nigrum. It would ap- 

 pear from his drawing that he has mistaken the auditory capsule 

 for the optic ganglion or a swelling of the optic nerve, otherwise 

 he has entirely overlooked the organ of hearing. His descrip- 

 tion of the generative organs is quite at variance with the well- 

 known peculiarities of this order. 



M. Quatrefages' remarks on zoological affinities are ingenious : 

 on this interesting portion of the subject however we cannot at 

 present enter, but hope to do so on a future occasion, when a 

 further investigation of the subject shall have enabled iis to speak 

 with more certainty than we can possibly do at present. 



XXIX. — On the Structure and Affinities of Upupa, Lin., and 



Irrisor, Lesson. By H. E. Strickland, M.A.* 

 The African continent presents us with several species of birds 

 constituting a well-marked genus, to which Lesson in 1831 ap- 

 * Read to the Zoological Section of the British Association at Cork, Au- 

 gust 19, 1843 ; and communicated by the Author. 



