Dr. C. Collingwood on Gigantic Sea-Anemones. 31 
so that the skull, skeleton, and external characters of the fur 
showed P. niger to be only a variety of P. platyrhinus, as 
Dr. Murie has already correctly surmised would be found to 
be the case. I finally have just had a typical brown ordinary 
P. platyrhinus prepared for the Melbourne Museum, and have 
found in it the small lateral lobes on the outer margin of the 
anterior third of the nasals, which I first noticed in the so- 
called P. niger, and of which there was no trace in five skulls 
reviously prepared ; so that there can no longer be the least 
bosib of the black and brown individuals being only varieties 
of one species. With the P. setosus, we have thus four well- 
marked living wombats, and at least two fossil extinct ones. 
While referring to Dr. Murie’s paper above quoted, I may 
take the opportunity to remark, in reply to his observation 
that, in my description of P. latifrons published by Mr. Gould, 
I did not lay sufficient stress on the peculiarity of the softness 
of the fur, that I have there contrasted it with the coarse hair 
of the common wombat in the strongest manner, by comparing 
it to the fur of the English wild rabbit im this respect. 
_ Melbourne, Oct. 26, 1867, 
IV.—Note on the Existence of Gigantic Sea-Anemones in the 
China Sea, containing within them quasi-parasitic Fish. 
By Dr. C. CoLLinewoop. 
THE most remarkable circumstance which I met with when 
wading upon a submerged reef in the China Sea was the dis- 
covery of some Actinie of enormous size, and of habits no less 
novel than striking. I observed in a shallow spot a beautiful 
large convoluted mass, of a deep blue colour, which, situated 
as it was in the midst of magnificent corals of every colour of 
the rainbow, I supposed also to be a coral; but its singular 
aspect induced me to feel it, when the peculiar tenacious touch 
of a sea-anemone made me rapidly withdraw my hand, to 
which adhered some shreds of its blue tentacles. I then per- 
ceived that it was an immense Actinia, which when expanded 
measured fully 2 feet in diameter. The tentacles were small, 
simple, and very numerous, of a deep blue colour; and the 
margin of the tentacular ridge was broad and rounded, and 
folded in thick convolutions concealing the entrance to the 
digestive cavity. . 
While I was standing breast-high in the water, admiring 
‘this splendid specimen, I noticed a very beautiful little fish, 
which hovered in the water close by, and nearly over, the 
Anemone. The little fish was 6 inches long, the head bright 
