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Show 730 DR. E. L. MOSS ON A VIRGULARIAN ACTINOZOON. [Nov. 18, " From the above it would appear that I am wrong in supposing that the White Stork of China is the same as that of Japan, m y new Ciconia boyciana (see anteh, pp. 512, 513). " I have also to state that Pitta nympha, figured in the •* Fauna Japonica' from a Japanese drawing, seems to be a reality. A live Pitta in a lark's cage was brought to me on the 13th August. It was said to be from this province, and had evidently been long in a cage, as the lower mandible of the bill had outgrown the upper, and the bird had all the appearance of a prisoner. It answers well to the description in the ' Fauna Japonica' of Pitta nympha, except that its chin is as white as the crescentic band on its throat. " I was scarcely prepared for a Pitta so far north, and do not doubt now that a similar bird occurs in Corea. It wants the white crescent on its black axillaries, and seems to have its nearest ally in P. oreas oi Formosa. It devours grasshoppers greedily, and has a wailing cry like that of a puppy dog in distress." The following papers were read :- 1. Description of a Virgularian Actinozoon from Burrard's Inlet, British Columbia. By E D W A R D L. Moss, M . D . , F.R.C.S.L, Surgeon in charge R.N. Hospital, Esquimalt. [Received September 24, 1873*.] (Plate LXI.) The men employed in the dog-fisheries at Burrard's Inlet, close to the northern mouth of the Frazer river, have from time to time captured a strange-looking animal in their nets. Its soft tissues did not admit of easy preservation; and consequently all sorts of stories were afloat as to the appearance of the animal in its fresh and perfect state ; but its skeleton (a hard central axis, very like a peeled willow-wand, requiring no preparation beyond the removal of its gelatinous investments) has long been familiar to every one in the colony who took any interest in natural history ; and occasional specimens have strayed through the States or round the Horn to the learned in such matters of England and Germany. In this way its skeleton has stood sponsor for the creature, and has, I am informed, received the provisional title of Osteocella septentrionalis from Dr. Gray, in Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1872, ix. p. 4061. The specimen which I now have an opportunity of describing is one from a number en route to that gentleman from m y friend Justice Crease, of Victoria, who has requested me to give him a description of its present appearance, in case the preservative fluid in which its brethren are forwarded should not prove capable of keeping them in a state fit for investigation at the end of their long journey home. * Communicated (together witb a letter from Dr. Moss) by Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. t See also articles in 'Nature' for 1872, vol. vi. pp. 432, 436, & 516.-ED. v |