Miscellaneous. 15^ 



statement no less novel than true. Yet a moment's reflection will 

 show that a country abounding in wolves, foxes, hyaenas, antelopes, 

 bovine antelopes, and gazelles, bustards and sandgrouse, can scarcely 

 be a part of the Malay or so-caUed Indian zoological province, where 

 not a single representative of one of these animals exists. In this 

 very instance, the squirrels attributed in error to India proper be- 

 long to a group shown by Mr. Blyth (Cat. Mam. Mus, As, Soc. p. 101, 

 note) to be peculiar to the Indo-Chinese and Malay countries, and 

 foreign to the peninsula of India with Ceylon. And that this most 

 important fact of the mixture of African and Malay forms, the 

 former prevailing in the plains, the latter in the hiUs, and perhaps 

 on the Malabar coast of the Indian peninsula, is not recognized 

 generally by European naturalists-, I believe to be mainly due to the 

 careless way in which specimens are labelled " India," when in 

 reality they come from other parts of South-east Asia. 



I am, Gentlemen, your obedient Servant, 

 Aden, Dec. 15th, 1867. William T. Blanford. 



Preservation of Objects of Natural History. 

 To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural Historij. 



Gentlemen, — I am not aware whether the following practical hint 

 on the preservation of natural-history obj ects in glycerine is known 

 or not; but, taking the risk of its being known, as it is a useful one, 

 I send it for insertion in the ' Annals ' if it be worth anj^thiug. 



The specimens are to be soaked tlioroughly for some days in the 

 glycerine, the glycerine is then to be poured off, all but some five or 

 six drops, and the bottle is to be well corked. 1 have by me some 

 specimens of a species of Vagimdus, from Mauritius, which were, 

 by accident, prepared in this way, and they look now (nearly one 

 year since they were preserved) as fresh as they were on the next 

 day after they were collected. 



Of course the chief value of this method consists in its economy : 

 and none who have tried glycerine as a preserving medium, but, 

 I should think, would prefer it to alcohol ; but the expense has 

 hitherto been a bar to its common use. 



I am, your obedient Servant, 



WiLMOT H. T. Power, 



Portland, Dorsetshire. Assistant- Surgeon, Idth Light Infantry. 



On Leskia mirabilis. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &e. 



Professor Loven has received some specimens of this interesting 

 Echinoderm, which I first published in the second series of this 

 Journal, vol. vii. p. 134, and figured in the Catalogue of the Recent 

 Echinidse or Sea-eggs in the British Museum, t. 4. f, 4, They were 

 obtained by Mr. Kinberg in the Indian seas between Singapore and 

 Batavia. Dr. Loven, in a paper in the Proceedings of the Swedish 

 Academy for 1867, confirms the opinion that I expressed in the 

 Museum Catalogue, that it is intermediate between the Spatangoid 



