246 Miscellaneous. 



It may be noted, as the fact is not general among the Urodela, 

 that the Pleurodeles Waltlii observed in the menagerie of the 

 Museum accomplished all their transformations without quitting the 

 water, and the most developed still remain there habitually. — 

 Comptes Bendus, July 12, 1880, p. 127. 



On the Tertiary Echinida of Belgium. By M. G. Cotteau. 



We have just investigated and described the Echinida of the 

 Tertiary deposits of Belgium. The species, belonging to seventeen 

 genera, are thirty-one in number. This little fauna, notwithstanding 

 its comparative poverty, is none the less very interesting, whether 

 we study it from a stratigraphical point of view, or compare it with 

 the fauna which was developed in other countries at corresponding 

 epochs, or examine the species from a purely zoological point of 

 view. 



Of the thirty-one species, twenty-three belong to the Lower 

 Tertiary or Eocene group. Eour of these occur in the Landenian 

 system — Holaster Dewalquei, Hemiaster nux and Vincenti, and 

 Schizaster Corneti. Three of these are new and hitherto peculiar 

 to Belgium ; only one, Hemiaster num, was previously known and 

 described from a higher level, in France in the beds with Serpula 

 spircea at Biarritz, in Italy in the Eocene of Yiccnza and Verona, 

 and in Swizerlaud in the Numniulitic deposits of Yberg. 



The Laekenian is the system richest in Echinida, including sixteen 

 species, some of which are very abundant, namely Cyphosoma 

 tertiarium and Vincenti, Caratomus Lelwni, Nucleolites approteimatus, 

 EcMnolampas affinis and Duponti, Pygorkynchus Gregoirei, Echino- 

 cyamus propinquus and gracilis, Lenita patellaris, Scutellina lenti- 

 cularis and rotunda, Brissoj)sis bruxellensis, Schizaster acuminatus, 

 Spatangus pes equuli, and Maretia grignonensis. Five of the most 

 abundant and best characterized of these species, Pygorhynchns 

 Gregoirei, Lenita scutellaris, Scutellina lenticidaris and rotunda, and 

 Maretia grignonensis, have been collected in the Calcaire grossier 

 of the neighbourhood of Paris, and establish the concordance of 

 those deposits with the Laekenian system of Belgium. One species, 

 Echinolampas ajjinis, is wanting in the environs of Paris, but occurs 

 in France at Cassel (Nord) and at Blaye (Gironde) in the Eocene, 

 and in Switzerland in the Nummulitic deposits of Yberg. There 

 remain ten species at present peculiar to Belgium. 



Eight species belong to the Pliocene group, the Diestian and 

 Scaldisian systems, namely Cidaris belgica, Echinus Nysti and 

 Colbeaui, Psammechinus spharoideus, Dewalquei, and Cogelsi, Echi- 

 nocyamus Forbesi, and Schizaster Scilla?-. The last two only have 

 been indicated outside of Belgium, namely Echinocyamus Forbesi, 

 common in the Bed Crag of Suffolk, and erroneously confounded 

 by Forbes with the E. pusillus of the European seas, and Schizaster 

 Scillcr, which, in the south of France and Northern Italy, charac- 

 terizes the Pliocene marls of Perpignan, Nice, and Asti. 



Several of these species, both Eocene and Pliocene, deserve par- 

 ticular notice from a zoological point of view. We may cite in the 



