55 



" The powers of contraction and dilatation very much resemhie 

 those of the Caryophyllia, which I have still alive, and which I have 

 kept for two years. Upon the slightest touch all the feelers are in- 

 stantly contracted ; but the shaking of the water does not at all in- 

 commode them. I kept several clusters in the same bowl with my 

 Caryophyllia ; but I found that, every time they came near it, (either 

 by being touched or by shaking the vessel) they were devoured : I 

 therefore, now keep them by themselves, but I fear that I shall not 

 be successful in preserving them, as the river tide cannot be imitated 

 in confinement. 



" The locality of this polype is very confined. The Dart floating 

 bridge is propelled upon two chains, about 6 feet distant from one 

 another, and stretching across the river. On the western chain not 

 a cluster could be seen, but on the eastern one there were upwards 

 of a hundred groups of them, in spite of the immense friction to 

 which they were exposed. They are only found within 100 feet of 

 the northern shore at low water. I have since observed the same 

 animals growing on the links over which the floating bridge at De- 

 vonport runs, and there they do not occupy a space exceeding 150 

 feet. 



" The most singular circumstance attending the growth of this 

 animal, and which I discovered entirely by accident, remains to be 

 mentioned. After I had kept the clusters in a large bowl for two 

 days, I observed the animals to droop and look unhealthy. Ou the 

 third day the heads were all thrown oiF, and lying on the bottom of 

 the vessel ; all the pink colouring matter was deposited in the form 

 of a cloud, and when it had stood quietly for two days, it became 

 a very fine powder. Thinking that the tubes were dead I was going 

 to throw them away, but I happened to be under the necessity of 

 quitting home for two days, and on my return I found a thin trans- 

 parent film being protruded from the top of every tube ; I then 

 changed the water every day, and in three days time every tube had 

 a small body reproduced upon it. The only difl^erence that I can dis- 

 cover in the structure of the young from the old heads, consists in 

 the new ones wanting the small red papillce, and in the absence of 

 all colour in the animal." 



The skin was exhibited of a species of Cynictis, Og., which had 

 recently been presented to the Society by Captain P. L. Strachan, 

 by whom it was obtained at Sierra Leone. The exhibition was ac- 

 companied by a description of the animal by Mr. Martin, which was 

 read. 



Mr. Martin regards the animal as especially interesting on ac- 

 count of its presenting the second instance of the new form among 

 the Viverrida which was described by Mr. Ogilby at the Meeting 

 of the Society on April 9, 1833, under the generic ajjpellation of 

 Cynictis, and of which a detailed description and figure has since 

 been published in the Transactions, vol. i. p. 29. It agrees with that 

 genus, which is intermediate between Herpestes and Ryzcena, in its 

 general form ; in the number of the toes with which its feet are fur- 



