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Show 1887.] MR. A. DENDY ON THE WEST-INDIAN CHALININ.E. 503 Cymborhynchus, but coloured with very pure tints of blue, green, and yellow; a green-and-blue Ploceus (Munia ?), a large sooty Turdinus, a very large Arachnothera of peculiar style of coloration, a Barbet, a Leucocerca, and a number of others. The only ground-birds obtained were a pair of Partridges. The only Pitta was P. arcuata. The only Nectarinia at all abundant was N. temmincki, of which the 2 w a s also secured. The only mammals obtained were two or three species of Rats, Squirrels, and a Tupaia, with a Shrew. The Tupaia seems to be new, as also one of the Squirrels, an animal not much larger than the pigmy Sciurus exilis, and having long tufts of hair to the ears." Dr. Gunther exhibited a hybrid specimen produced by a male Golden Pheasant (Thaumalea picta) and a female Reeves' Pheasant (Phasianus reevesi). It was a male in its second year, and had been bred by Ralph Saunders, Esq., of Exeter, who had presented the specimen to the British Museum. Dr. Gunther exhibited also a hybrid specimen produced by a male white Fan tail Pigeon and a female Collared Dove (Turtur risorius). The specimen was the survivor of the last of three broods reared by these birds in Dr. Giinther's aviaries. Dr. Gunther, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., communicated a paper by Mr. A R T H U R D E N D Y , B . S C , F.L.S., Assistant in the Zoological Department of the British Museum, containing Observations on the West- Indian Chalinina, with Descriptions of new Species, which will appear in full, with illustrations, in the ' Transactions' of the Society. The paper was divided into two sections-(1) Introductory Remarks ; (2) Description of Genera and Species. It was based upon the study of the large collection of West-Indian Chalinine Sponges accumulated in the Natural-History Museum. In the first part of the paper it was pointed out that the species described in the second part were especially interesting from two points of view :-(1) they afforded excellent illustrations of the great variability in external form to which species of Sponges living in shallow or comparatively shallow water are subject; and (2) they illustrated in a very striking way the manner in which the siliceous spicules gradually degenerate and ultimately completely vanish as the horny skeleton becomes more and more strongly developed. The first of these two general laws was best exemplified in the cases of Spinosella sororia, D. & M., and Pachychalina variabilis, n. sp. The second was clearly demonstrated, first, by the genus Siphonochalina, in which the various species described showed different degrees of degeneration in the spicules, ranging from Siphonochalina spiculosa, n. sp., with great numbers of well-developed spicules, constituting a most important part of the skeleton-fibre, to Siphonochalina ceratosa, n. sp., in which the skeleton consisted almost entirely of spongin, the spicules being represented by the merest vestigial traces lying in the horny fibre. |
