184 

of those directly facing the gale. I naturally expected to have 
it strong in my face ; but, on the contrary, I found I had almost 
as perfect a shelter from the wind as if I had been on the other 
side. C, M. INGLEBY 
Malvern Wells, July 3 


AFFINITIES OF THE SPONGES 
Vi H. J. CARTER is devoting much attention at 
the present moment to the study of the Protozoa. In 
March last he published in the Anmals and Magazine of 
Natural History the results of his investigations on Coc- 
coliths and Coccospheres, stating his opinion that these 
minute bodies are of vegetable and not animal organisa- 
tion, as hitherto supposed. Should his supposition prove 
correct, it will materially modify the theory of the mode 
of support of animal life at great depths, advocated by 
many recent deep-sea explorers. In the pages of the 
same journal for this month (July), Mr. Carter lays before 
us the results of his more recent researches into the ulti- 
mate structure of the marine calcareous sponges, and 
which entirely harmonise with those already arrived at 
by Prof. James Clark, of Boston, U.S. The sum total of 
these are that the Spongiadz, as a group, are most closely 
allied to the Flagellate Infusioria ; the animal portions of 
the genera Leuconia, Grantia, and Clathrina among the 
calcareous sponge-forms, and Sfongilla, [sodictya, Hy- 
meniacidon, and Cliona among the silicious representa- 
tives examined by Mr. Carter, being found by him to con- 
sist, for the most part, of aggregations of the same peculiar 
funnel-bearing ciliated cells characteristic of the new 
Flagellate Infusorial genera Codosiga, Salpingeca, Bico- 
seca, &c., introduced by Prof. Clark. The only point at 
issue between these two explorers in the same field is, 
whether each separate cell possesses a distinct mouth, or 
is capable of engulphing food, after the manner of an 
ordinary Rhizopod, through any portion of its body. Mr. 
Carter here adopts the latter view. 
The most important result of Mr. Carter’s investiga- 
tions is, however, the additional evidence he brings 
forward in refutation of Ernst Haeckel’s no longer tenable 
hypothesis, that the sponges are most closely allied to, 
and should even be collated in the same primary group as, 
the Ccelenterata. Prof. Haeckel’s opinions have already 
been strongly opposed by myself (See Azz. and Mag. Nat. 
Hist. for March and September 1870) ; and Mr. Carter’s 
recent investigations practically deprive Prof. Haeckel and 
those supporting his views of their last foot-hold. The 
Calcispongiz is the group on which Ernst Haeckel and his 
collaborateur Mickluco-Maclay have more particularly 
concentrated their attention ; it is the especial one, again, 
they have made choice of, as demonstrating in their 
opinion, more closely than any, the relationship they would 
seek to establish. Prof. Clark and Mr. Carter, however, 
prove beyond doubt their bond of union with the Flagel- 
late Infusoria, the addition of a general investing sarcode 
layer and a spicular or horny supporting skeleton being, 
indeed, the only clearly defined characters that separates 
them from the group. 
In seeking to establish other affinities, Mr. Carter is 
scarcely so happy. In his opinion, the Spongiade are 
more closely allied to the compound Tunicata than to the 
Ceelenterata, but he allows himself to be led further away 
here by analogous or general external resemblances than 
even Prof. Haeckel. To effect his purpose, he proposes 
that the branchial openings in the gelatinous mass of 
Botryllus “are analogous if not homologous” with the 
pores of the Spongiadz, while the common cloacal cavity 
and fzecal orifice are respectively analogous to the excre- 
tory canal system and vent. Fascinating as these ex- 
ternal resemblances may appear at first sight, we must 
penetrate a little beneath them, and before Mr, Carter can 
hope to substantiatethe affinities he would establish, he must 
demonstrate to what extent the individual zooids of the As- 
NATURE 

[ Fuly 6, 187% 
cidian colony canbe correlated withthe single or aggregated. 
ciliated cells of the sponges. In the former we have 
highly-organised animals, possessing a well-developed 
neural, heemal, digestive, and respiratory system, while in 
the latter, simple uniciliated cells and undifferentiated sar- 
code are the only materials to be dealt with. Mr. Carter, 
again, would institute comparisons between the tough, 
gelatinous, or albuminous mass in which the Ascidian 
zooids are embedded, and that sarcode layer more or less 
generally diffused throughout all sponge structures ; but 
in the first we have formed matter, like bone, horn, or shell, 
no longer possessing vital properties, while in the sarcode 
of the sponge we have living substance constantly alter- 
ing its conditions of relationship, secreting the supporting 
skeleton, and contributing to the general welfare of the 
sponge community. Mr. Carter’s inference in support of 
his proposition, drawn from the presence of calcareous 
bodies resembling spiculee being met with in certain com- 
pound Ascidia, is but of little importance, considering that 
comparisons on the same grounds might be made between 
the sponges and the Nudibranchiate Mollusca ; these 
latter likewise frequently secreting calcareous spiculz in 
the substance of their integument. 
The hiatus between the Spongiadz and the Tunicata is 
far too wide to admit of such an institution of homological 
comparisons ; the group of the Coelenterata is evidently 
the nearest related to the former, but even here there are 
at present too many important links wanting to justify our 
uniting thetwoin one sub-kingdom, as proposed by Haeckel. 
Inter se, the sponges constitute a very natural division of 
the Protozoa, intimately related on the one hand through 
their special ciliated cells to the Flagellate Infusoria, and 
by the remaining sarcode layer, or skeletal secreting por- 
tion, to the simpler Rhizopoda. 
In the paper here alluded to, Mr. Carter describes, 
under the name of 77ychogypsia,a new calcareous sponge 
form differing from all others with which he is acquainted 
in possessing linear fusiform and no triradiate or quadri- 
radiate spicules. The genus Aphroceras, described by 
Dr. Gray in 1858 (see Proc. Zoo. Soc., pp. 113, 114), is 
recognised by the same characters. 
W. SAVILLE KENT 

ON RECENT MOA REMAINS IN NEW 
ZEALAND 
iy January 1864 a remarkably perfect specimen of 
Dinornis robustus, Owen, found on the Manu- 
herekia Plains in the interior of the Province of Otago, 
was transmitted to the museum at York, and formed the 
subject of a memoir by Prof. Owen in the Transactions of 
the Zoological Society for 1869. These remains were 
considered unique on account of the well-preserved con- 
dition of some parts of the skeleton, portions of the liga- 
ments, skin, and feathers being still attached to some of 
the bones, whereas Moa bones in the condition in which 
they are usually found are partially fossilised, or have at 
least undergone a sufficient change to deprive them not 
only of all ligamentous appendages, but to some extent 
of their proper proportion of organic matter. The dis- 
covery in the following year of the unique specimen (now 
in the museum) of a Moa’s egg containing the bones of 
an embryo chick and attached membranes—within twenty 
miles of the same locality—was recorded by me in 1867 
(Proc. Zool. Soc. p. 991.) I have now to announce the 
acquisition of another interesting specimen from the same 
district, being the cervical vertebrae of a Moa, apparently 
of the largest size, upon the posterior aspect of which the 
skin, partly covered with feathers, is still attached by the 
shrivelled muscles and ligaments. 
I saw the specimen in question in the possession of 
Dr. Thomson, of Clyde, who obtained it from a gold 
miner, It was discovered in a cave formed by an over- 
