Zoological Society. 435 



the straightness of the unexserted laniaries. The species is most 

 rare ; its flesh excellent ; its manners resemble those of Sus in general, 

 but with some marked differences. 



Genus Taxidea, Waterh. 



Taxidea Leucurus, mihi. Tibetan Badger. — Head laterally and 

 above whitish, divided by a blackish line through the eye. Body 

 above and laterally yellowish grey, paling towards the flanks. Below, 

 from chin to vent exclusive, black ; and limbs the same. Tail un- 

 mixed yellowish white. Ears black basally, white apically. Snout 

 to vent 27 in. ; head §\ in. ; tail 10 in. ; palma and nails 3 J in. ; 

 planta and nails 4 in. ; ear, with tuft, 2 in. 



Hob. Plains of Tibet. 



July 27. — William Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 The following papers were read : — 



Note of the Circulation of Crocodilus lucius. By 

 Edward Fry. 



In a recent dissection of a spemcien of the Crocodilus lucius, 

 measuring about five feet four inches, I discovered an arrangement 

 of the arterial system which is, as far as I am aware, anomalous, and 

 which may perhaps be therefore worth recording. 



In all the drawings of the Saurian circulation with which I have 

 met, the left ventricle is represented as giving off, in addition to the 

 right aortic arch, a common trunk, which divides into two arteries 

 for the supply of the fore-part of the body, which for a short course 

 are to be considered as arterise innominatae, when they give origin 

 to the subclavian arteries and pass upwards, one on either side, as 

 carotids, for the supply of the head and face. In the individual in 

 question, however, the arrangement was this : beside the right 

 aortic arch, two trunks are given off from the bulbus of the left ven- 

 tricle ; of which, one passes immediately to the supply of the right 

 fore-limb, and the other proceeds upwards, shortly gives off a con- 

 siderable branch as a left subclavian, and then continues its upward 

 course on the mesial line lying immediately on the under side of the 

 bodies of the vertebra?, in a channel between the longitudinal muscles 

 of either side, and above the trachea, until it almost reaches the 

 posterior nares, where it subdivides, its branches passing over the 

 under side of the temporal muscles, and going to feed the lower jaw, 

 as well as supplying the sides of the head. 



The parts which this singular artery supplies prove it to be the 

 analogue of the carotids, whilst the consideration of its origin, course 

 and termination induces me to believe that its homological relation 

 is with the inferior pharyngeal. 



The absence of any such arrangement in the whole subkingdom of 

 the Vertebrata is to be remarked ; and in conjunction with the fact that 

 the figure of the Saurian circulation given in Miiller's ' Physiology ' 

 (by Baly, vol. i. p. 1 74) is stated to be from an individual of the same 

 species, viz. Crocodilus lucius, induces me to suppose the anomaly 

 above recorded to have been an individual peculiarity. 



31* 



