202 



aperturd pallescente ; columelld superne emarginatd, in medio 



denticulatd: long. 0'7, lot. 0*7 5 poll. 

 Hab. ad Insulas Polynesias. 

 Found on the coral reefs at Ducie's and Easter Islands. — G. B. S. 



Genus Ancylus. 

 Ancylus obliquus. Anc. testd subovatd, diaphand, longitudina- 



liter minutissime striatd; mucrone verticis obliquo : long. T V> 



lat. tV poll. 

 Hab. in Chili in rivulis, saxis adherens. — W. J. B. 



The stomach, cccca, cranium, &c. ot Hyrax Capensis were exhibited, 

 the former forming part of the collection of Mr. Thomas Bell. Mr. 

 Owen, who had anatomically examined the individual from which they 

 were obtained, read the following account of its structure. 



"It is unnecessary to enter before this Committee into the scien- 

 tific history of Hyrax Capensis, since it has already been fully given in 

 the * Ossemens Fossiles,' and in the ' Decas Mammalium ' of Hemp- 

 rich and Ehrenberg : it may even appear presumptuous in me to 

 occupy your time with the anatomical description of an animal that 

 has already been described by the most accomplished anatomist and 

 zoologist of his age. Since the time, however, that the Cape Hyrax 

 was dissected by Pallas, no other original account of the structure of 

 the soft parts of this animal has appeared ; for I infer from the de- 

 scriptions of some parts, as the digestive organs, which appear in 

 several places of the 'Lecons d'Anatomie Comparee,' that Cuvier had 

 not, al the period of his preparing that work for the press, himself 

 dissected the Hyrax ; and this may probably account for his silence 

 respecting some other remarkable anomalies in the structure of the 

 Hyrax described by Pallas, but which the illustrious author of our 

 only text-book in comparative anatomy was probably averse to give 

 his sanction to, without having confirmed them by personal observa- 

 tion. On this account I feel that even a simple confirmation of the 

 observations of Pallas would be acceptable to every zoologist j but 

 in the following communication some additional facts, as well as more 

 particular descriptions of the most remarkable anomalies, have been 

 given, the amount of which will be readily appreciated by whoever 

 will compare this account with the original description of Cavia Ca- 

 pensis, in the ' Spicilegia,' and ' Miscellanea Zoologica/ of Pallas. 



" The specimen here described was a full-grown male, placed tem- 

 porarily in the Society's Menagerie by Thomas Beli, Esq. It lived in 

 the Gardens through the greater part of last summer, and died at the 

 winter repository for the smaller animals a few days ago. 



" As it was already skinned when I first saw it, its dimensions will 

 be more safely given from the skeleton; 1 shall only therefore here 

 observe that its length from the anterior surface of the upper incisors 

 to the vent was 1 foot 5| inches. 



" On laying open the abdomen, which was of considerable capacity, 

 the viscera were found disposed in the following manner : — the liver 

 occupied the epigastric region and the atlantal part of both hypo- 



