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Show 428 PROF. P. M. DUNCAN ON DEEP-SEA [May 16, Quite distinct from this species is the Viverra megaspila (Blyth, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, xxxi. 1863, p. 331) from Pegu and the M a layan peninsula. It grows to nearly twice the size of V. tangalunga, with which it agrees only in having the black median dorsal streak continued along the tail, and not interrupted by the light rings, which are incomplete and few in number. In an adult female from Pinang (Cantor's V. tangalunga) the body measures three feet from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, the tail 17 inches. The black spots on the body are large, very distinct, not ocellated, and arranged in five longitudinal series. This peculiar coloration is already sufficiently distinct in a very young individual, whose total length is only 19-J inches. As this species has never been figured, or acknowledged by naturalists, I have thought it better to draw their attention to it by the accompanying figure (Plate XXXVII.) drawn from our specimens from Pinang. 2. Notices of some Deep-sea and Littoral Corals from the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean, Indian, New-Zealand, Persian Gulf, and Japanese &c. Seas. By Prof. P. M A R T I N D U N C A N , F.R.S., Pres. Geol. Soc. [Received May 16, 1876.] (Plates XXXVIII.-XLI.). The corals which are described in this communication are nearly all remarkable forms. They are not the usual reef-building species, nor are they found in very deep seas; but, coming from remote districts, they present a most varied generic assemblage. It has been necessary to establish several new genera in order to classify the species, and also to introduce into the recent coral fauna two genera, one hitherto considered to be represented only in the Cretaceous, and the other in the Miocene formation; but lately the last has been found in the Caribbean by Agassiz and Pourtales. Three of the species closely resemble fossil forms ; and they are Conocyathus zealandia, Deltocyathus orientalis, and Antillia Ions-daleia, variety. The first of these belongs to a genus which is a most marked one, and very well differentiated. It is allied to Conocyathus sulcatus, D'Orb., from the Miocene or Oligocene of Mayence. Deltocyathus orientalis is closely allied to Deltocyathus italicus (of the Italian Miocene) ; and Antillia lonsdaleia, var., differs very slightly from the form from the San-Domingan Miocene, described by m e in the 'Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,' vol. xx., in an essay on the fossil corals of the West Indies. This is of course a most important species; for its being found large and well developed in the Japanese seas implies that the Caribbean was once open to the west. The other evidence of this former connexion between the |
