THE VICTOUIAX XATURALIST. 11^ 



on its ossicles, and has a very large development of the small 

 membranous tubes (papulae) in the spaces on its back. This 

 interesting form — which is, I think, new, and which I propose 

 to call A. Wihofii — lives, I imagine, in places where the water 

 is muddy or thick, or in some other way poor in oxygen, and 

 I presume that the ^reat development of the papula (which 

 are of value as respiratory organs) is in correlation with the 

 difficulty of getting oxygen. I should be greatly obliged to 

 you if you could find time to examine into this matter and to 

 put my theory to the test of fact. — Believe me, yours truly, 



F. JEFFREY BELL. 

 J. Bracebridge Wilson, Esq. 



Memo, from Mr. Wilson. 



This starfish was dredged in about twenty feet water on a 

 rocky hottom, but not far from the muddy deposit caused by the 

 detritus of the Barwon River. 



SIR RICHARD OWEN ON AN EMBRYO OF 



ORNITHORRHYNCHUS, IN A LETTER TO BARON 



VON MUELLER. 



East-Sheen, 27th September, 1887. 



My Dear Baron, — I fear, you will think me both indifferent 

 and ungrateful for your most friendly and acceptable trans- 

 mission of the embryo-ornithorrhynchus, — the wished for since 

 ig^2^ — and which on my eightieth birthday I concluded would 

 enrich a successor in my line of research ; — but I wished to 

 accompany my thanks with evidence of having made use of my 

 much longed-for rarity. 



I could not make up my mind, to mutilate the unique specimen, 

 — having confidence in ultimate reception — (life and dissecting 

 ability being spared) of a duplicate-subject for the scalpel. 



I trust you to be the expressor of my best thanks also to the 

 Worthy and Reverend Pastor Hagenauer. 



The conclusion, which his unique specimen has brought me — 

 at the actual stage of evidence — is that, although skin-shelled 

 eggs have been found in the nests of both Ornithorrhynchus and 

 Echidna, some degree of foetal development has taken place prior 

 to exclusion, and that the Monotremes — like certain reptiles — 

 are ovo-vknparous. To this I have become inclined through the 

 opportunity, kindly offered in my eighty-third year. 



Believe me, dear Baron, with every good wish, yours gratefully 

 and most truly, 



RICHARD OWEN. 



