Miscellaneous. 385 



more room for the proper treatment of the rightful natives. To our 

 readers we would give the advice that they should at once purchase 

 the ' Birds of South Africa/ as, the sooner this edition is sold off, the 

 sooner we may expect the new and improved one. To Mr. Layard 

 we tender our best wishes for his health and zeal, that he may 

 successfully prosecute his task. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Natica catenata {Phllippi). 

 To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 



Gentlemen, — What is the true habitat of Nation catenata ? 



Eeeve, in his monograph of the genus, gives " Sicily," but without 

 quoting any authority. 



Moreover Philippi, whose description Reeve copies, in his original 

 account of the species (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1851, p. 233), in which he 

 describes it from specimens in the collection of Mr. Cuming, assigns 

 no locality ; it may therefore be presumed that none was attached 

 to the Cuming specimens. 



Some shells in the collection of this Museum, belonging to this 

 species, are labelled as from Mazatlan ; but no authority is given for 

 the habitat. T should therefore be glad to know if any examples of 

 this species have been recently obtained, and, if so, from where. 



I perceive Reeve changes Natica Incei, Philippi, into N. Incii, and 

 Natica caribcea, Philippi, into N. cainbbcea. 



Do not these seem rather unnecessary alterations, and apparently 

 founded on no good reason ? 



I have, &c., 



Institution, Bristol. T. Graham Ponton. 



Balatro calvus, a New Genus and Species of Rotatoria entirely desti- 

 tute of Vibratile Cilia. By E. Claparede. 



M. Mecznikow has lately described (Siebold and Kolliker's ' Zeit- 

 schrift,' 1866, p. 346), under the name of Apsihis leyitiformis, a 

 Rotatorian entirely destitute of vibratile cilia ; and M. Claparede 

 now communicates an account of an animal of the same kind 

 observed by him some years ago in the Seime, a small river of 

 the Canton of Geneva. It was found creeping on the bodies of 

 Trichodrili and other small Oligochaeta. 



The body of this animal, to which M. Claparede gives the name 

 of Balatro calvus, is more or less vermiform and very contractile. 

 Its posterior extremity (foot) is divided into two lobes, of which the 

 ventral is semilunar, with acute angles which are capable of inva- 

 gination. The dorsal lobe forms a flattened cyUnder terminated by 

 three mammillfe. Between the two lobes the anus is situated. 



The anterior extremity, which is indistinctly annulated, is capable 

 of retraction as in other Rotatoria. The mastax is not largely de- 

 veloped and is armed with a very small incus and with two curved 



