94 



June 28, 1831. 



Rev. W. Kirby in the Chair. 



A letter from Sir Robert Ker Porter, Corr. Memb. Z. S., 

 dated City of Caracas, Venezuela, March 25, 1831, was read. It 

 announced his having recently obtained possession of a specimen of 

 the American Tapir, (Tapir Americanus, Gmel.), which it was his 

 intention to transmit to the Society at the earliest opportunity. It 

 embraced a full description of the animal $ and entered at consider- 

 able length into an account of its habits. The letter was accompa- 

 nied by two drawings of the Tapir, and by sketches of its proboscis- 

 like upper lip. 



Mr. Gray exhibited the skins and skulls of two Mammalia brought 

 from China by Mr. Reeves, together with the skull of a third, of 

 which a skin was also in his possession. On these he proposed to 

 found three new genera, the characters of which may be given as 

 follows : 



Helictis. 



Dentes primores & : laniarii -f i : molares f. £ 5 e 



riores falsi conici compressi ; carnivori 4- -f, in maxilla superiori 

 3-lobati, cum processu interno subcentrali lato 2-acuminato ; tu- 

 berculares -f -}-, superiores mediocres transversi, inferiores exigui. 

 Caput elongatum. Pedes breves ; plantce ad calcaneum Jere 

 nudce ; digiti 5 — 5 ; ungues validce, anteriores longcs compresses. 

 Cauda cylindrica mediocris. 

 This genus, which inhabits eastern Asia, has the general appear- 

 ance and colouring of Mydails, combined with a dentition resem- 

 bling that of Gulo or Mustela, but differing from both the latter 

 genera in the large internal central lobe of the upper carnivorous 

 tooth. The species exhibited may be characterized in the follow- 

 ing terms. 



Helictis moschata. Hel. supra argentata, pilis singulis basi 



cinereis apice argcnteo-albis, colore argenteo ad latera corporis et 



versus apicem caudce dominante, capite pedibusque anticis in 



fusco-cinerascentem vergentibus ; striga inter, aliisque duabuspone, 



oculos, macula interauriculari nuchalique, labio superiore, mento, 



guld, gastrceo medio, femoribusque internis, albis. 



1 The entire length of the animal is 234 inches, of which the tail 



measures 8. It inhabits China, and smells strongly of musk. 



Mr. Gray added that the Gulo orientalis of Dr. Horsfield's ' Zoolo- 

 gical Researches in Java' appeared to him to form a second species 

 of the genus, closely resembling the Chinese in its general characters, 

 and in the disposition of its colouring, but differing in its browner 

 colour and in the larger proportion of white upon the head and 



