Zoological Society. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



January 25, 1831. Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart, in the Chair. 

 A specimen of the Cereopsis Novce HoUandice, Lath., which had 

 recently died at the Society's Menagerie in the Regent's Park, was 

 exhibited. Mr. Yarrell stated that having examined the body of 

 the bird, he had remarked that its trunk was much shorter than that 

 of the true Geese, and more triangular in its shape : the pectoral 

 muscles were large and dark coloured. The trachea was of large, 

 but nearly uniform, calibre, without convolution, and attached in 

 its descent to the right side of the neck as in the Heron and Bit- 

 tern -j in the form of its bone of divarication and bronchia it most 

 resembled the same part in the Geese. The muscles of voice were 

 two pairs ; one pair attached to the shafts of the osjurcatorium t the 

 other to the inner lateral surface of the sternum. The lobes of the 

 liver were of large size, morbidly dark in colour j their substance 

 broke down under the finger on the slightest pressure. The sto- 

 mach, a true gizzard, was of small size as compared with the bulk 

 of the bird. The first duplicature of intestine was six inches in 

 length, at the returning portion of which the biliary and pancreatic 

 ducts entered ; from thence to the origin of the cceca four feet six 

 inches ; the cceca nine inches each ; the colon and rectum together 

 five inches : the whole length of the intestines was seven feet five 

 inches. The stomach and intestinal viscera were loaded with fat 5 

 the other parts exhibited nothing remarkable. 



Internally this bird,which was a male, resembled the true Geese ; 

 but externally, in the character of the bones, particularly in the 

 rounded form of the edge, and great depth, of the keel of the ster- 

 num, and the lateral situation of the trachea in reference to the cer- 

 vical vertebrtz, it was decidedly similar to the Ardeidce. 



Mr. Yarrell availed himself of the occasion to remark that the 

 Natatores of Mr. Vigors's systematic arrangement in Ornithology 

 were placed between the Grallatores or Waders on the one side, and 

 the Raptores or Birds of Prey on the other: and that the order con- 

 tained five groups, two of which, the Alcadae and Colymbidce^ were 

 called normal, containing those birds which were considered to be 

 the types of the true Swimmers, and three groups, Anatidce^ Peleca- 

 nidce, and Laridce, called aberrant, as deviating from the type, and 

 exhibiting some characters which connected them either with the 

 Grallatores or the Raptores. Some of the Laridcc and Pelecanidce in 

 the length of their wings, their consequent power of flight, and the 

 mode of taking their food in the air, exhibited their obvious affinity 

 to the Birds of Prey on the one hand ; while some of the Anatidce, 

 by their lengthened legs and neck, and their habit of passing much 

 of their time on land or frequenting shallow pools of water, showed 

 an equal affinity to some of the Waders. This was the case with 

 the Cereopsis, and occurred also in the Semipalmated Goose and in 

 another Goose now living in the Society's Gardens, the Anserju- 

 batus, Spix. 



It was stated that in proportion as these birds departed from the 

 characters of the true Gccsc in their external appearance and habits, 



and 



