154 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



of mammals. Mr. Wheeler reports 159 species of birds, and eight spe- 

 cies of reptiles are noted by the Eev. T. A. Marshall. The same gen- 

 tleman has contributed lists of 567 species of Coleoptera and 172 species 

 of ITymenoptera. Mr. Eeach has detected 71 species of Mollusca, and 

 Drs. Abercrombie and Wilson, 87 species of Diatom acese. Collections of 

 several of the tribes investigated have been commenced to serve as a 

 permanent record. It was also urged that it would be exceedingly de- 

 sirable that the same work should be done for the whole county which is 

 being done for this district. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Highest Beds of the English Chalk. — For a long time the fossils 

 from the Norwich chalk have been known to present slight, but peculiar 

 distinctions from those of other districts ; and the Norwich chalk has 

 been often regarded as a higher stratum than any other in England. The 

 recent description by M. Binkhorst (see " Reviews," vol. vi. p. 240) of the 

 fossils from strata at Maestricht, containing casts of univalve-shells, such 

 as occur in similar beds between Dover and St. Margaret's, showing their 

 proximity to the highest cretaceous beds, has directed my attention 

 afresh to a portion of one of the most interesting chalk sections in Eng- 

 land, — that in the vicinity of Dover. Since William Phillips's admirable 

 paper, read before the Geological Society in 1818, nothing has been pub- 

 lished on the geology of that part of the Kentish coast ; but, during a late 

 visit, having obtained from the low cliffs at Xingsdown (left-side of view, 

 Plate VIII.) specimens of Micraster cor-anguinum, unlike those usually 

 found in the Dover and Maidstone Upper Chalk (see ordinary form, Fig. 6, 

 Plate III ), but agreeing closely witht he gibbous variety so abundant in the 

 Norwich chalk, I beg to solicit information from geologists of the cha- 

 racteristic features and fossils of the highest beds of chalk in any locality 

 with which they may be acquainted. As the beds in the Kingsdown cliffs 

 rise at a sharper angle than the general surface of the land, it is possible 

 that the uppermost beds have more or less been sliced off by some denuding 

 action towards Walmer Castle (to the right of the view, Plate VIII.). 



Mr. S. P. Woodward informs me the chief characteristic shells of the 

 highest beds of the Norwich chalk are — Pecten concentricus, Ostrea larva, 

 Terebratulma gracilis, Terebratella elegans, Rhynchonella octoplicata, 

 Ma gas jpumila, and Ckama incequirostrata. The occurrence of these shells 

 in any locality will be therefore indicative of the presence of strata repre- 

 sentative of the Norwich beds. S. J. Mackie. 



Didymodon Vauclusianum. — Since my memoir on this subject was 

 published, the specimen has been thoroughly cleaned out by Mr. Davies, 

 of the British Museum, and he has distinctly shown that the interpretation, 

 that the last tooth in the jaw w as the third molar, was erroneous. This 

 tooth is therefore the second molar ; the one immediately preceding it be- 

 ing the first ; and the fractured tooth, instead of being 1 he first molar, turns 

 out to have been the last premolar. The specific and generic distinction of 

 the Didymodon is, however, not invalidated by the detection of this error 

 on my part, w hich, as in all similar cases, I hope to be the first to point out. 



C. Carter Blake. 



Mammalian Remains in Hamfshibe Geavel. — The remains referred 

 to at page 110, have been kindly forwarded to us by Lieut.-Colonel Nicols. 



