Zoological Society. 231 



judging from authentic specimens in our possession, only states of L. 

 ^accharina. He however indicates (Diet. Class, d'llist. Nat. ix. 

 p. 1 90) no fewer than three supposed new species allied to L. diyitatay 

 no descriptions of which have, we believe, been anywhere published. 

 The present work is in a more sumptuous form, but is otherwise 

 got up in the style of the author's well-known * Nereis Austrahs.' 

 No student of marine botany should lose a moment in securing a 

 copy. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



November 12, 1850.— W. Yarrell, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 

 The following papers were read: — 

 1. Notice of the discovery of a living specimen of the 

 NoTORNis. By Gideon Algernon Mantell, Esq., LL.D., 



F.R.S. ETC. 



Amongst the fossil bones of birds collected by my eldest son in the 

 North Island of New Zealand, which I had the honour of placing 

 before the Zoological Society in 1848, in illustration of Professor 

 Owen's description of the crania and mandibles of Dinornis, Pal- 

 apteryxy &c., there were the skull, beaks, humerus, sternum, and 

 other parts of the skeleton of a large bird of the Rail family, which 

 from their peculiar characters were referred by that eminent anato- 

 mist to a distinct genus of Rallidce allied to the Brachypteryx^ under 

 the name oiNotornis * ; a prevision, the correctness of which is con- 

 firmed by the recent specimen that forms the subject of the present 

 communication. 



Towards the close of last year I received from Mr. Walter Man- 

 tell another extensive and highly interesting collection of fossils, 

 minerals, and rock specimens, obtained during his journey along the 

 eastern coast of the Middle Island, from Banks' Peninsula to the 

 south of Otago, in the capacity of Government Commissioner for the 

 settlement of native claims. This series comprised also a fine suite 

 of birds' bones from Waingongoro, the locality whence the former 

 collection was chiefly obtained, and among them were relics of the 

 Not amis, and crania and mandibles oi Palapteryx. 



The results of my son's observations on the geological phsenomena 

 presented by the eastern coast of the Middle Island are embodied in 

 a paper read before the Geological Society in February last, and pub- 

 lished in vol. V. of the * Quarterly Journal.' It will suffice for my 

 present purpose to mention that they confirm in every essential par- 

 ticular the account given of the position and age of the ornithic ossi- 

 ferous deposits, in my first memoir on this subject f . 



The only fact that relates to the present notice is the nature of 

 the bone-bed at Waikonaiti, whence Mr. Percy Earl, Dr. Mackellar, 



-'' Zoological Transactions, vol. iii. p. 366. f Geological Journal, vol. ir. 



