416 Miscellaneous. 



condyle in Megaptera, which also has a greater curvature and 

 thickness of the body of the mandible, and shorter horns to the 

 hyoid bone. 



It is unfortunate that the soft parts of the Tay Whale were so 

 decayed as to be useless for investigation, since many important 

 features, e. g. the condition of the mucous membrane of the jeju- 

 num, were thus placed beyond the reach of the anatomist. 



The work is a noteworthy contribution to the anatomy of Mega- 

 ptera, though, perhaps, its interest and value might have been 

 increased if more frequent references had been made to the labours 

 of previous observers. A clearer conception of what has and what 

 has not been previously described would thus have been obtained. 

 Dr. Struthers, indeed, is to be congratulated on this further addition 

 to his researches on the Cetacea, and though his official duties (from 

 which, it is much to be regretted, ill-health has now relieved him) 

 may have hampered and limited his work, yet this treatise is evi- 

 dence of that scientific enthusiasm for which Scotch anatomists, 

 such as tbe earlier Monros, Goodsir, and Turner, have been so 

 famous. We look forward to further contributions from the pen of 

 Dr. Struthers. W. C. M. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On Excavations made in Bodes by Sea- Urchins. 

 By J. Walter Fewkes *. 



The author has had an opportunity of observing excavations made 

 by Strongylocentrotus drdbachiensis on the coast of Grand Manan, 

 New Brunswick, where the reefs of hard mica-schist with veins of 

 harder quartzite are bare at low tide but covered at high water. 

 The cavities were so numerous that the rock was roughly honey- 

 combed with these shallow excavations, and, moreover, spreading 

 Algse (Lithoihamnion and Mehbesia) sometimes covered the rock and 

 the cavities. The author, indeed, thinks the presence of the latter 

 may be necessary to the Sea-Urchins " for some reason." It would 

 be as useful, however, to speculate on the relation of the samo to the 

 boring Annelids, unless the Algae are eaten by the Echini — just as 

 the common British Echinus fills its intestine with fragments of the 

 stems of Laminarice, with perhaps a few fragments of the tubes of 

 SerpuloB. He gives some interesting observations on the borings of 

 E. lividus in pot-holes at Biarritz by Prof. Jules Marcou. In regard 

 to the modus operandi of the borers Mr. Fewkes, after previous 

 observers, gives the chief weight to the dental apparatus, probably 

 assisted by the voluntary movements of the spines and the involun- 

 tary action caused by the waves moving the animal in situ. Two 

 interesting plates illustrate the paper. W. C. M. 



* ' American Naturalist,' January 1890. 



