Ill 



acquainted, the contents of the stomachs which he had examined 

 having been too far digested to enable him to ascertain their nature. 



Mr. Yarrell concluded by remarking, that, to the differences be- 

 tween the species, indicated in their fur, their osteology, and their 

 internal anatomy, a fourth series might be added, derived from their 

 habits. The bank Camnagnol frequents hedge-bottoms and ditch- 

 banks, and is said to make its nest of wool : thejield Campagnol pre- 

 fers living among the long herbage of water-meadows and moist 

 pastures, and makes its nest of dried grass. 



An Extract was read from the * Analyse des Travaux de la 

 Societe d'Histoire Naturelle de Pile Maurice, pendant la 2de Annee : 

 it was communicated to the Committee by its author, M. Julien 

 Desjardins, Corr. Memb. Z. S., the Secretary of the Society whose 

 labours are enumerated in it. 



Among the novelties which have occupied that Society during 

 the season of 1830-1831 have been some observations by M.J. 

 Desjardins on the Zoology of the Mauritius as compared with that 

 of the Isle of Bourbon, from which has resulted the curious fact, 

 that notwithstanding that these islands are situated in such close 

 proximity to each other, are of the same formation, and present a 

 most remarkable analogy in their soil, their animals are not univer- 

 sally the same, some species being met with in the one which never 

 occur in the other. 



In the department of Ornithology Madagascar has furnished to 

 M. J. Desjardins the opportunity of describing specimens ob- 

 tained from thence of the Ardea alba, Linn., and Ard. Garzetta, 

 Linn., and also of a Platalea, regarded by him as the Plat, leuco- 

 rodia, Gmel., but which, from his description forwarded to the 

 Committee, is evidently the species described by Mr. Vigors, on 

 February 22, 1831, (Part i. p. 41,)under the name of Plat. Telfairii; 

 it was at that time stated by mistake to be a native of the Mauri- 

 tius ; its true habitat, as pointed out by M. Desjardins, is Madagas- 

 car, where it was obtained in Imirne, a kingdom of the interior, in 

 which is situated Tananarivoe the capital of the island. Of another 

 bird, which is common in Madagascar, the Cuculus canorus, Linn., 

 a single specimen has been shot in the Mauritius. An Ibis, which 

 is regarded by M. Bojer as the species sacred an*ong the ancient 

 Egyptians,* has been obtained, with several other birds, from 

 Agalega, one of the islands of the north-eastern Archipelago of 

 Madagascar. In some remarks on the bones of the Dodo, (con- 

 sisting of a sternum, a cranium, and four bones of the extremities,) 

 which were sent by M. Desjardins to Paris, and which excited so 

 much attention during the past summer from M. Cuvier and M. de 

 Blainville, occasion is taken to correct some errors which have crept 

 into the published statements respecting them. They were disco- 

 vered, in 1786, in a cavern on the island of Rodriguez. 



In Ichthyology, three species have been described by M.Lienard, 

 sen., two of which belong to the genera Pleuronectes and Holocen- 

 trum. Another fish belonging to the family of the Perches with a 



