Zoological Society. 147 



be given at least every alternate day ; but, when the weather will per- 

 mit, it should be fed once a day. Half an egg (boiled hard) and the 

 liver of a fowl or other bird will suffice for a meal. Finally, the ani- 

 mal should be kept warm, and well supplied with clean straw. It will 

 be as well to nail two or three pieces of wood (battens) across the 

 floor of the cage, to prevent the animal from slipping about when the 

 ship is unsteady. 



April 8. — A Letter was read, addressed to the Secretary by John 

 Hearne, Esq., Corr. Memb. Z. S., dated Fortau Prince, Feb. 15, 1834. 

 It accompanied a present to the Society of a pair of the common Goats 

 of Hayti ; referred to various Birds which it is the intention of the 

 writer to forward when the season is more advanced $ and gave some 

 particulars of a bird known in the island by the name of the Musician, 

 respecting which Mr. Hearne hopes to obtain, in the course of a jour- 

 ney which he projects into the higher lands of the interior, more full 

 information than he at present possesses. 



Some extracts were read from a Letter, addressed to Mr. Yarrell 

 by Dr. A. Smith, Corr. Memb. Z. S., dated Cape Town, Jan. 12, 

 1834. It refers to the projected expedition from the Cape of Good 

 Hope into the interior of Africa, which it is the intention of the writer 

 to accompany. It is designed to proceed directly northward from 

 Latakoo $ and Dr. Smith anticipates in this new field numerous ad- 

 ditions to his Zoological stores : along the eastern and western coasts 

 he has already penetrated to a considerable distance. Speaking of 

 the Rodentia, so numerous in Southern Africa, he mentions as col- 

 lected by him, in his late visit to Port Natal and the Zoola country, 

 a second species of his genus Dendromys. He also notices a new 

 species of Chrysochloris obtained by him in the same country. 



At the request of the Chairman, Mr. Gould exhibited an exten- 

 sive series of Birds of the genus Trogon, Linn., comprising twenty- 

 five species. The greater number of them form part of the Society's 

 Museum, and the others were derived from his own collection. 



He pointed out the distinguishing marks of the two sections of 

 the genus, one of which is confined to America, while the other 

 inhabits the Old Continent. He also pointed out among the species 

 exhibited there which he regarded as hitherto undescribed ; these he 

 named and characterized as Trogon erythrocephalus, Malabaricus, 

 and elegans. 



Mr. Bennett briefly recapitulated the facts and reasonings which 

 have from time to time been brought before the Society on the sub- 

 ject of the abdominal glands of the Monotremata, regarded by Meckel 

 and by Mr. Owen as mammary, and by M. GeofTroy- Saint Hilaire 

 as connected with a peculiar function, to which, however, differ- 

 ent results have been attributed by that learned zoologist at various 

 times*. The object of the recapitulation was to introduce an abstract 

 of a recent Memoir by M. Geoftroy-Saint- Hilaire, " On the structure 

 and use of the Monotrematic glands, and particularly on those glands 



* See Lond. and Edinb. Phil. Mag., vol. i. p. 384 ; vol. ii. p. 71 ; vol. iii. 

 pp. C2. 301 ; vol. iv. p. « r >4; and the present article, p. 145. 



U2 



