On the Animal of the Organ-pipe Coral. 377 



lished on the 6tli of January 1852, Prof. Costa enters upon 

 lengthened details in connexion with his genus, of which the 

 Orthis anomioides, Scacchi, is stated to be the type; he also, 

 in pi. 3 bis, gives illustrations of its internal details. In the 

 i Annals & Mag. of Nat. Hist.' for May 1852, will be found 

 my description and figures of the Morrisia anomioides ; and it 

 is singular that none of the many conchologists and palaeon- 

 tologists who have adopted my genus should have been ac- 

 quainted with Costa's work, or been aware of his genus and 

 priority. 



XL VII. — Notes on the Animal of the Organ-pipe Coral (Tubi- 

 pora musica). By Ed. Perceval Wright, M.D., F.L.S., 



Professor of Botany and Zoology, Trinity College, Dublin. 



[Plate XXIII. ] 



Here and there, all along many of the fine sandy bays of 

 Mane" and Praslin, will be found, cast up by the tide, masses 

 of various sizes of the bright-red skeleton of the well-known 

 organ-pipe coral ; and in some places the finely broken-up 

 fragments are so mixed up with the sand as to impart to it a 

 slight red colour. Finding the skeletons so common, I ex- 

 pected with a little search to discover the living coral in situ, 

 and with this object in view I searched many a mile of coral- 

 reef, but without success. Hearing from some of the fisher- 

 men that, on a bank famous for such fine fish as Mesoprion 

 ergthrinus, Gerres arggreus, &c, quantities of red coral were 

 often brought up on their hooks, I proceeded to the spot, and 

 found large quantities of the skeletons of Tubipora musica, 

 but no trace of the polyps. In October of 1867 I was resi- 

 ding on the eastern side of Praslin ; and, taking advantage of 

 the " grandes marees " of that month, I investigated very 

 closely the extensive coral-reefs on the western side of the 

 beautiful little island called Curieuse. My plan was to com- 

 mence work about two hours before low water. Sending a 

 small pirogue to row beside the outer edge of the reef, which 

 here encircles the land, I used to walk along this edge, at- 

 tended by Edward, the black captain of my black crew. His 

 duty was to carry glass jars, into which to put my captures, 

 and to help me in my encounters with eels and cuttlefish ; 

 while by the aid of the pirogue I could cross over the deep 

 gullies which very frequently occurred in the coral-reef, with- 

 out the necessity of having to go to the shore so as to get 

 round them. I need scarcely say that even when wading to 

 my waist in the tepid waters, and half a mile from the shore, 



