262 proceedings: biological society 



Owing to the very scanty material from which Cope and others had 

 described the types in the Museum of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences it was extremely difficult to identifj^ the material 

 collected by the speaker. He had collected the skulls of three species 

 of porpoises but no vertebrae of the same individuals. As Cope's 

 type specimens of these animals from the Miocene consisted only of 

 a few vertebrae the speaker was not able to determine which name to 

 apply to these skulls. Mr. Palmer exhibited teeth like those which 

 had once heen the basis for the false statement that the Hippopotamus 

 was among the early animals of America. Leidj^ had described similar 

 teeth as those of a porpoise, but the speaker thought thej^ belonged to 

 another animal because of their peculiar structure. The communica- 

 tion was illustrated by many specimens, among which was the skull 

 of a small Zeuglodon. Many of these Miocene fossils are similar to 

 Pliocene types from the cliffs near Antwerp, Belgium, and a compari- 

 son of the American and European material is extremely desirable. 

 The communication was discussed by M. W. Lyon. 



The second communication was by Paul B. Popenoe who pre- 

 sented an account of Arabic zoology. After a short sketch of the rise 

 of Arabic zoology he gave some curious extracts from the writings of 

 Kamal al Din Muhammad ibu Musa al Damiri, whose encyclopedic 

 work, Hayat al Hayawan or the Lives of Animals, finished in 1371, 

 has since beerf the standard authority among the Moslems. The 

 amusing extracts related to the elephant, the cat, the gorilla, and 

 other species. 



The third communication, by Wells W. Cooke, was an account of 

 the National Bird Census taken last July by the Biological Survey in 

 cooperation with the ornithologists of the United States. The objects 

 of the census and methods employed were given, together with results 

 based on the reports that had been obtained. An account of the 

 speaker's personal enumeration of the birds near Viresco, Virginia, 

 and results were exhibited by figures on the blackboard. Several 

 persons took part in the discussion which followed. 



The 531st meeting was held in the Assembly Hall of the Cosmos 

 Club, Saturday, November 28, 1915, with President Bartsch in the 

 chair and 31 persons present. One person was elected to active 

 membership. 



Under the heading Brief Notes, etc., C. W. Stiles gave a short 

 account of certain results of his efforts at sanitation in relation to 

 intestinal parasites. Messrs. How'land and Lyon, took part in the 

 discussion. Wm. Palmer exhibited some interesting fossils from the 

 Miocene deposits of the Chesapeake collected by him during the 

 present week. 



The regular program consisted of three comnumications: 



A porcupine skull shoiving an extra pair of upper incisors: M. W. 

 Lyon, Jr. The specimen under consideration was the skull of a half 

 grown porcupine collected in Borneo by Dr. Abbott which, so far as can 



