Zoological Society. 231 



ence of branchial apertures was a structure so likely to influence 

 not only the habits of an amphibious reptile, but also the struc- 

 tural modifications of the osseous and vascular parts of the re- 

 spiratory organs, as to render it highly improbable that the Me- 

 nopoma should be related generically to a species having no trace 

 of those apertures. He thought, therefore, that the question of 

 the Menopoma and gigantic Japanese Salamander being different 

 species of the same genus, could be entertained only on the sup- 

 position, that the branchial apertures were a transitional structure 

 in the former reptile as they are in the latter. That this was the 

 case he considered as highly improbable ; for, besides the ossified 

 state of the hyoid apparatus, there was evidence in the Hunterian 

 Collection that both the male and female generative organs in the 

 Menopoma have arrived at maturity without any change having taken 

 place in the condition of the branchial apparatus usually considered 

 as characteristic of the Menopoma. He therefore considered it to be 

 undoubtedly generically distinct from the gigantic Salamander of 

 Japan, the true affinities of which could only be determined satis- 

 factorily after a complete anatomical investigation, especially of its 

 sanguiferous, respiratory, and osseous systems. 



Mr. Ogilby exhibited a drawing, made by Major Mitchell, of a 

 Marsupial animal found by that officer on the banks of the river 

 Murray, during his late journey in the interior of New South Wales. 

 Mr. Ogilby stated his original belief that the animal in question be- 

 longed to the Perameles, under which impression he had proposed 

 to name it Per. ecaudatus, from its entire want of tail, a cha- 

 racter found in no other species of the same group ; but a drawing 

 of the fore-foot, afterwards found by Major Mitchell, and likewise 

 exhibited to the Society on the present occasion, had considerably 

 shaken this first opinion, and induced Mr. Ogilby to suspect that 

 the animal may eventually form the type of a new genus. Ac- 

 cording to Major Mitchell's drawing, and the notes which he took 

 at the time of examining the specimen, it would appear that there 

 were only two toes on the fore-feet, which were described as having 

 been so perfectly similar to those of a pig, as to have procured for 

 the animal the name of the pig-footed bandicoot, among the per- 

 sons of the expedition. 



The drawing of the foot, in fact, very closely resembles that of 

 the genus Sus in form and characters ; two toes only are represented, 

 short, and of equal length ; but there is a swelling at the base of 

 the first phalanges, which renders it probable that there may be two 

 smaller ones behind. The Perameles, on the contrary, have three 



