Dr. J. E. Gray on Myriosteon Higginsii. 61 



or tunnel, and disappears into the earth again. When he has 

 gone as far from his dormitory as he deems wise, he again digs up 

 through and clears away the rubhish. This road is now complete ; 

 so he goes back again to his central mansion, to begin others at his 

 leisure. It is very difficult to watch the movements and discover the 

 feeding-time and food of an animal that lives almost wholly under- 

 ground in the daytime ; but I am pretty sure these tunnels are 

 made for and used as roadways, or underground trails, for the pur- 

 pose of hunting. He is a night feeder, and exposed to terrible 

 perils from the various small Carnivora that prowl about like bandits 

 in the dark — Stoats, Weasels, Martins, and Skunks. So, to avoid 

 and escape these enemies, he comes quietly along the subterranean 

 roadways, and cautiously emerging at the open cutting, feels about 

 with his wonderful nose, and, I doubt not, guided by an acute sense 

 of smell, pounces upon larvae, slugs, beetles, or any nocturnal creep- 

 ing things he can catch, and so, traversing his different hunting-trails 

 during the night, manages in this way to fare sumptuously, safe 

 from danger. 



It is scarcely possible to imagine a more skilfully contrived hunt- 

 ing-system, to avoid danger and to facilitate escape, than are these 

 tunnel trails with open cuttings ; for the sly little hunter has, on the 

 slightest alarm, two modes of flight at his disposal, one before and 

 the other behind ; and the fur, as I have already mentioned, lying 

 as smoothly when stroked from tail to head as it does when turned 

 in the natural direction, enables him to retreat tail first into his hole 

 as easily as he could go adopting his usual mode of progression. 



Notice of a Portion of a New Form of Animal (Myri- 

 osteon Higginsii), probably indicating a New Group 

 of Echinodermata. By Dr. John Edward Gray, F.R.S., 

 F.L.S., etc. 



Four or five years ago the Rev. H. H. Higgins, of Liverpool, pur- 

 chased in London a specimen which was shown at the time to seve- 

 ral naturalists, and was pronounced by some to be the tail of a Ray 

 (perhaps of Vrogymnus africanus) ; and this determination seems to 

 have been so far satisfactory that up to this period it has not been 

 further described. 



During a recent visit to the Free Museum at Liverpool the spe- 

 cimen attracted my attention, and Mr. Moore, the intelligent Curator 

 of that institution, placed it in my hands for examination and deter- 

 mination J and the trustees of that institution have most kindly pre- 

 sented it to the British Museum. I was soon satisfied that it could 

 not be the tail of a Ray, nor, indeed, a part of any vertebrated 

 animal. The outer surface (and, indeed, the whole substance) is 

 made up of a number of calcareous concretions, united together by 

 anastomosing processes placed on the outside of an internal rather 

 thick coat formed of longitudinal fibres, which is rather hard and 

 firm when dry. The interior of the tapering tube is quite empty, 

 without any septa or other divisions. 



