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feet broad, and six inches deep, and having a further depth of six inches of fine sand, in which these animals ordinarily burrow quite out of sight. But if I draw over the surface of the sand a piece of oyster, mussel, or meat, or even if I touch it ever so lightly with the feeding forceps, the points of which smell of food, then in a few moments may be perceived the tips of the long proboscis of the molluscs projecting here and there above the sand, and gradually working through it higher and higher, till presently the shells themselves emerge (each one bearing on its upper surface a little load of sand, which presently drops off), and travelling to and fro with much earnestness of purpose till the food is discovered, or till the whole surface of the sand is diligently searched for it. They look exactly like little elephants moving about with their trunks aloft, and when they are half in and half out of the sand, with their proboscis above its surface, they remind me of a picture I have somewhere seen of elephants crossing a river, the body of the animal being submerged, with only a part of the trunk visible above the water's surface. Sometimes I place in the tank a half-picked mutton or beef bone, and in a few minutes it becomes completely covered with nassas, and in the course of some hours they leave it perfectly bare, and then descend into the sand. It is impossible, in fact, to introduce any animal substance, living or dead, into the tank, without these Whelks smelling it, and coming up to see what is to be got.—W. Alford Lloyd.

Dead Sea Water.—Some time since, having obtained a quart of water from the Dead Sea, through the kindness of a friend who had recently come from the Holy Land, I of course must needs yield to my aquarium predilections, and arrange it in a glass jar for the maintenance of plants and animals, and accordingly I exposed the glass of water, with some shingle at the bottom, to the influence of light, in order to get some vegetation to grow, but none ever came, as it would have done in any ordinary sea-water in one-fourth of the time. Nor would any animal live in it. I tried various small hardy crustaceous fish, molluscs, sea-anemones, and other creatures, but all in vain; it was most intractable stuff, intolerably nauseous to the taste and sticky to the touch, and of very high specific gravity; so I soon bottled it up again.—W. Alford Lloyd, Zoological Gardens, Hamburg.

Sea Anemones.—Mr. Lloyd asks whether any one has ever seen a small specimen of Sagartia parasitica or Tealia crassicornis? I have had little Parasitica born in my tank, and they have grown up and flourished. I have also had Crassicornis born, but only from a deep-water species obtained on the south-coast. The common Thickhorn has never bred in my aquaria. Adamsia palliata has bred by division into two halves, as is the habit in Corynactis, &c. It was very singular to see the annoyance of the Pagurus Prideauxii at the division; he tore off one of the halves and cast it away, and fed the other at once. There is an article in the November number of Annals of Natural History, for 1863, giving some insight into the relations subsisting between these two animals. I have frequently dredges Parasitica attached to Maia Squinado and other large crabs, but do not remember ever having dredged on Adamsia, except on an univalve shell. I have, however, a very beautiful specimen attached to the rockwork in one of my aquaria, its crab having been killed in a battle. I envy Mr. Lloyd his opportunities of studying marine natural history, and wish I could manage to see the Hamburg aquariua. Even in my comparatively small aquaria the sturdy is of the deepest interest, and with care I manage to keep very delicate animals alive. The fifteen-spined stickleback bred in my tank two years ago, and the building of their nest was most interesting to watch. I have a very fine pair of that handsome deep-water crab, Gomplex angulata; they have built a regular house, pushing small rocks together and completely clearing out the sand, carrying it away in armsful to a considerable distance The Aldheus ruber has the same habit, and has subterranean ways all round the tank in which he lives. He is a wonderfully interesting animal, and I have never heard of his being kept alive before. He was sent to me from Guernsey, and has been with me for eighteen months, having just cast his shell for the fourth time. He is now as big as a rather large prawn, and of a brilliant pellucid scarlet. Keepers of aquaria should have the Haliotis (ormer or ear shell) if possible, there is no mollusc like them for keeping the vegetation within bounds. I think few people know how beautiful an object a vase of sea anemones may be made, with their brilliant colours and elegant forms. I took a photograph of one of my aquaria two years ago, solely to record the graceful form of some of my favourites. I am very anxious to compare the various anemones of the British coast. Would any of your readers join with me in this, by sending me, for examination, specimens from their own part of the coast?—S. W., F.Z.S.

Intermittend Fountain.—M. l'Abbé Laborde, writing to Les Mondes, describes a simple apparatus for producing an intermittent fountain. It consists of an inverted flask fitted with a cork, through which pass two tubes of unequal length. The longer reaches nearly to the bottom of the flask, and outside has a length of some twenty inches. The shorter tube merely pierces the cork, and does not extend to any length inside, and outside it ends immediately in a jet, which can be curved round. The flask is filled with water, fitted with the two tubes, and then, with the finger on the shorter tube, is inverted