VOL. XLVIII.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 453 



who accordingly gave in what account of it he could collect from ornithologists, 

 having never seen the bird till then. He found figures of it in Bellon, Gesner, 

 Aldrovand, Willoughby, Johnson, and others, with descriptions under the various 

 names here given. Modern authors agree that this bird was unknown to the 

 ancients. 



LXIF. On a Particular Species of Coralline. By Mr. J. Ellis, F.R.S. p. 504. 



Among the observations lately made on the marine productions, Mr. E. finds 

 that many corallines, as well as corals, are composed of a great number of tubes, 

 which proceed from animals; and as these tubes are made of different materials 

 in different species, so are they disposed in a variety of different forms. Some 

 are united compactly together, as in the red coral, see pi. 10, letter A; and in 

 some species of the white, as at letter b ; in both of which they appear com- 

 bined together, forming irregular ramifications, like trees: others rise in tufts, 

 like groupes of the tubular stalks of plants, distinct from each other. Two 

 sorts of these the fishermen frequently take up at sea in their nets, particularly 

 near the buoy of the Nore, at the opening of the river Thames ; when these 

 are first taken out of the sea, and immediately put into a basin of sea-water, 

 you may observe, that each tube has its proper polype sitting on it, of a most 

 beautiful crimson colour. Letter d,* gives the figure of the largest kind, 

 called (in Ray's Synopsis, ed. 3, p. 31) adianti aurei minimi facie planta marina; 

 and letter c is a smaller kind, called (in Ray's Synopsis, ed. 3, p. 39) fucus dea- 

 lensis fistulosus laringae similis. He calls this species corallina tubularia meli- 

 tensis, cum scolopendris suis, tentaculis duobus duplicato-pinnatis, instructis.-|- 



On taking the tubes and animals of this curious Maltese coralline out of the 

 spirits of wine, where they had been preserved, he perceived a small slimy bag, 

 in which they seemed to be inserted, and to take their rise from, as may be ob- 

 served at letter d. What has been the use of this bag is uncertain, unless it was 

 the matrix of several of these scolopendras in their embryo state. The tubes, 

 which are built by the inclosed animals, as they rise in height, gently increase in 

 diameter; the texture of their outside coat is formed of an ash-coloured earthy 

 matter, of different shades in different strata, and closely united to an inner coat, 

 which is of a tough, horny, transparent, and very smooth substance ; the cavity, 

 or inside, of the tube, is perfectly round, though the animal is of a long com- 

 pressed figure, like a leech extended It appears, from the marks of its feet on 



• The species referred to at letter d is the tubularia incUvisa of Linneus. That referred to at letter 

 c is the tubularia muscoides, Linn. 



t This is the sabella penicillus of Linneus. It is however more properly referred to the genus 

 amphitnte, and is the amjihilrite ventHabntm of the Gnnelinian edition of the Systema Naturae. 



