Miscellaneous. 153 
statement no less novel than true. Yet a moment’s reflection will 
show that a country abounding in wolves, foxes, hyzenas, antelopes, 
bovine antelopes, and gazelles, bustards and sandgrouse, can scarcely 
be a part of the Malay or so-called Indian zoological province, where 
not a single representative of one of these animals exists. In this 
very instance, the squirrels attributed in error to India proper be- 
long to a group shown by Mr. Blyth (Cat. Mam. Mus. As. Soe. p. 101, 
note) to be peculiar to the Indo-Chinese and Malay countries, and 
foreign to the peninsula of India with Ceylon. And that this most 
important fact of the mixture of African and Malay forms, the 
former prevailing in the plains, the latter in the hills, and perhaps 
on the Malabar coast of the Indian peninsula, is not recognized 
generally by European naturalists, I believe to be mainly due to the 
careless way in which specimens are labelled “ India,” when in 
reality they come from other parts of South-east Asia. 
I am, Gentlemen, your obedient Servant, 
_ Aden, Dee. 15th, 1867. Wirrram T, Buanrorp. 
Preservation of Objects of Natural History. 
To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 
GentTLEMEN,—I am not aware whether the following practical hint 
on the preservation of natural-history objects in glycerine is known 
or not; but, taking the risk of its being known, asitis a useful one, 
I send it for insertion in the ‘ Annals’ if it be worth anything. 
The specimens are to be soaked thoroughly for some days in the 
glycerine, the glycerine is then to be poured off, all but some five or 
six drops, and the bottle is to be well corked. I have by me some 
specimens of a species of Vaginulus, from Mauritius, which were, 
by accident, prepared in this way, and they look now (nearly one 
year since they were preserved) as fresh as they were on the next 
day after they were collected. 
Of course the chief value of this method consists in its economy: 
and none who have tried glycerine as a preserving medium, but, 
I should think, would prefer it to alcohol; but the expense has 
hitherto been a bar to its common use. 
; I am, your obedient Servant, 
Witmor H. T. Power, 
Portland, Dorsetshire. Assistant-Surgeon, 13th Light Infantry. 
On Leskia mirabilis. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e. 
Professor Lovén has received some specimens of this interesting 
Echinoderm, which I first published in the second series of this 
Journal, vol. vii. p. 134, and figured in the Catalogue of the Recent 
Echinide or Sea-eggs in the British Museum, t. 4. f.4. They were 
obtained by Mr. Kinberg in the Indian seas between Singapore and 
Batavia. Dr. Lovén, in a paper in the Proceedings of the Swedish 
Academy for 1867, confirms the opinion that I expressed in the 
Museum Catalogue, that it is intermediate between the Spatangoid 
