3014 Radiata, fyc. 



have escaped the observation of so many diligent inquirers. — R. Wakefield ; Lower 

 Clapton, November 16, 1850. 



Notice of a specimen of the Goniastor Equestris with Six Rays. — This specimen 

 was brought me on the 5th ult., and was taken from twenty fathom water, off the Bay 

 of Gamrie. The diameter of the disk portion is from five to five and a half inches. 

 The greatest distance between the extremities of two opposite rays or arms is nine 

 inches. The madriporiform tubercle is two-eighths of an inch in diameter, and si- 

 tuate one-third of the radial distance from the centre. The colour of the upper 

 surface, when newly out of the water (referring to ' Werner's Nomenclature of Colours ') 

 was tile-red; that of the lower surface, between buff-orange and cream-yellow. When 

 recent, the upper surface was turgid, and showed five depressions radiating to the 

 points intermediate between the rays, the fifth depression passing in a line with the 

 external edge of the additional arm or ray. The fluid that dropt from it was tinged 

 of the same hue as that of the soft tuberous thready matter which occupied the inte- 

 rior, and was of an aurora-red tint. Referring to ' Forbes' British Star Fishes,' the 

 normal form of this star-fish is pentangular, although he also notices a specimen of a 

 square form, which is described and figured by Dr. Johnston in the ' Magazine of 

 Natural History' for March, 1836. In the present example, the form which is hex- 

 agonal, is therefore to be regarded as abnormal, and the specimen supplies abundant 

 confirmation of this. In the first place, the external depressions are five ; secondly, 

 there is the same number of partitions or walls dividing the internal parts ; thirdly, 

 the additional arm is rather smaller than any of the others, and the edge-line of the 

 plates on the lower surface somewhat irregular ; fourthly , it comes away more abruptly 

 than the others from the disk, and its avenue, instead of terminating in the centre of 

 the fish, terminates in the avenue of the adjacent ray, which, in consequence, has suf- 

 fered distortion. On these grounds, I should think, the specimen must be set down 

 as an irregularity, and this may have originated in some damage sustained at an 

 early period of its growth. — George Harris ; Manse of Gamrie, October 16, 1850. 



Notices of New Books. 



Game Birds and Wild Fowl.* 



Mr. Knox is already so well known to our readers as an acute and 

 patient observer of living birds that an introduction is perfectly unne- 

 cessary. His ' Ornithological Rambles in Sussex,' of which a full 

 notice was given in a former number, will be fresh in the recollection 

 of our readers. The second work is doubtless called forth by the well- 

 merited success of the first, and we venture to predict that it will prove 

 a still greater favourite. Its getting up is admirable, and the illustra- 



* ' Game Birds and Wild Fowl, their Friends and their Foes.' By A. E. Knox, 

 M.A., F.L.S. Van Voorst, 1850. 



