SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
403 
cast up to the light of day for some time past, was an enormous cuttle-fish 
observed by the crew of a French ship of war, the Alecton , about 40 leagues 
N.E. of Teneriffe. This monstrous cephalopod was 15 to 18 feet long, with 
eight arms 5 or 6 feet long covered with suckers, eyes of enormous 
size, and beak 18 inches in diameter. It was estimated to weigh 4,000 lb. 
Unfortunately, it was not secured, although wounded and seized with a 
harpoon. As a balance against these vast additions to the Fauna of our 
globe, we must strike out one of the most considerable of our quadrupeds 
from the roll. In the year 1854, the indefatigable Dr. Gray, of the British 
Museum, described the horn of a rhinoceros, which was so remarkably 
curved, and so different from the horns of known species, that he founded 
upon it a new species, which he called R. Crossii. That excellent Indian 
zoologist, Mr. E. Blyth, has recently discovered, however, that the extra- 
ordinary horn in question is but the “ well-developed anterior horn of an 
old male Rhinoceros sumatranus, the common species of these provinces” 
(Maulmein). So that the number of species of these great pachyderms 
must be reduced by the erasure of Rhinoceros Crossii from the list. 
There ig no division of the animal kingdom to which more numerous 
and systematic accessions are constantly being made than to the various 
orders of insects. It could not be otherwise, when we bear in mind the 
vast proportion which the insect world bears to the other divisions of 
animals. The insect collector has many things in his favour : there is 
endless variety, and endless novelty ; no fear of exhausting the subject, 
and comparatively little labour in the preparation of his specimens. It 
thus happens that insect collectors, both in this and in foreign countries, 
are numerous and successful. Mr. H. W. Bates, the indefatigable collector 
in an inexhaustible field, continues to enrich science with his lists, the 
latest being that of Longicorn beetles .in the valley of the Amazon. 
Angola, too, has yielded some new beetles belonging to the same division ; 
and to the Weevils other collectors have swelled the lists in their respective 
departments— as for instance the fertile discoveries of Mr. Adams, among 
the Mollusca of the Sea of Japan, have most recently added many new 
species to the Acephalous division, as well as a long list of Opisthobranchs, 
belonging to the families Cyichnidse, Bullidee, and Phylinidee ; while Mr. 
J. Yate Johnson has carefully systematised the Sea-anemones of the 
neighbourhood of Funchal, the capital of Madeira, adding six new and 
remarkable species from his own researches. 
But the additions to the British Fauna should not be passed over in 
silence, and we will briefly state, in conclusion, what new inhabitants of 
our own islands have recently come to light. The pages of the “ Zoolo- 
gist” faithfully record the occurrence of unusual visitors, chiefly birds, 
to various parts of these islands. Among them is mentioned a species of 
goat-sucker ( Caprimulgus ruficollis), killed some time since near Newcastle. 
Dr. Gray announces in the “ Annals ” the addition to the British collection 
of the rare fish, Diodon pennatum, caught near Charmouth; and the second 
specimen found on these coasts. A continental beetle ( Enstica plicata ) 
has been met with at Stockwell ; and new additions to the Lepidopterous 
Fauna are not unfrequent, — species of Gelecliia, Tinea, and other insects, 
which will be, no doubt, duly collected and recorded by Mr. Stainton, in 
NO. III. 2 E 
