Miscellaneous. 71 the other 22 inches long. I have not been able to discover any difference between them and the specimen we have from Western Africa. The anterior filaments are very long : in the larger they are 9, in the smaller, 7 inches long, and evidently much contracted in drying. Early Notice of the Tjpaia found in Pulo Condore. By Dr. J. E. GRAY, F.R.S. &c. In Mr. W. Ellis' s drawing (now in the Banksian Library at the British Museum) of the animals observed during Cook's third voyage, there is a figure and description of a species of T^paia, marked as coming from Pulo Condore. In the MS. which accompanies the drawing it is described as J>. " Sciurus (dissimilis)^a,uricu[is rotundis, rostro elongate, dentibus primoribus #. Habitat in Insula Pulo Condore. Statura S. vulyaris. Caput, dorsum, et cauda supra colore leporino : infra pallido-grisea. Dentes superior es duo breves rotundati obtusi, inferiores 4 longiores exserti cuneati acute 1! Pedes pen-tadactyli. Cauda depressa longitudine corporis, supra et utrinq. pilis longis, infra brevibus tecta!! Mystaces breves." According to his Authentic Narrative of a Voyage,' 8vo, 1 782, vol. i. p. 337, they were at Pulo Condore on the 20th of January 1780. I may here observe that Mr. Ellis, in his MS. now in the Bank-sian Library, proposed and characterized several genera of birds, fish, &c., which have since been published by other authors. But he appears to have been restrained from publishing them by the strong prejudice that then existed against making any addition to the genera allowed by Linnaeus, though that author, in his various editions of his ' Systema,' constantly altered and added to the genera. This prejudice continued until a much later date : thus, Dr. Horsfield, in order to ensure the publication of his paper on Japanese Birds, was obliged to erase a considerable number of genera, which have since been universally adopted. New British Species of Hydra. To the Editors of the Annals of Natural History. GENTLEMEN. Only three species of Hydra (//. viridis, H.fusca, arid PI. grisea) have hitherto been found ; or perhaps it would be safer to say, only three have been described in the works accessible to me ; and I therefore think it not wholly superfluous to send you word that a fourth species exists, apparently in great abundance, in the ponds of Wimbledon Common. I have there found, besides the three species already known, a beautiful bright-red species, which I propose to call Hydra rubra. The colour differs in intensity in different states of the animal, being sometimes of a brick-dust hue, and sometimes very like the red Dianfhus.
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