532 Zoological Society : Dr. Falconer and Capt. Cautley 



1777 



3000 



2132 3646 



Blood from a vein of the pinion. 



Moustache Pigeon (Columba 

 mystacea, Temm.). 

 L.D. S.D. 



2000 3200 



2900 4800 



1714 3000 



2100 3512 



Blood from a vein of the pinion. 



Galling. 



Bonham's Partridge {Perdix Bon- 



hami, Fi'aser). 



L.D. S.D. 



2000 3200 



1895 3555 



2400 4000 



1600 2666 



Nuclei. 

 4570 10666 



Blood from a vein of the thigh 

 of a female. 



Geallatores. 



Scarlet Ibis {Ibis ruber, Lacep.). 

 L.D. S.D. 



2000 3200 



1777 



2666 4500 



1600 2400 



1948 3153 



Blood from a vein of the wing. 



Lesser Bittern (Ardea minuta, 



Linn.). 



L.D. S.D. 



2000 4000 



1895 



2400 5000 



1777 3000 



1993 3827 



1933 3282 Blood from a vein of the wing. 



March 26. — A communication was made by Dr. F'alconer, con- 

 veying the substance of a paper bj'^ Capt. Cautley and himself on 

 the osteological characters and palseontological history of the Colos- 

 sochelys Atlas, a fossil tortoise of enormous size, from the tertiary 

 strata of the Sewalik hills in the north of India — a tertiary chain 

 apparently formed by the detritus of the Himalaya mountains. 



A great number of huge fragments, derived from all pai'ts of the 

 skeleton except the neck and tail, were exhibited on the table, illus- 

 trative of a diagram by Mr. Scharf of the animal restored to the 

 natural size. 



The communication opened with a reference to the reptilian forms 

 discovered in the fossil slate, among which colossal representatives 

 have been found of all the known tribes, such as the Iguanodon, Me- 

 galosaurus,' Labyrinthodon, &c., besides numerous forms of which no 

 living analogues exist, such as the Enaliosaurian reptiles and Ptero- 

 dactyles. No fossil Testudinata remarkable either for size or devia- 

 tion from existing forms, have hitherto been found in the fossil state. 

 The Colossochelys supplies the blank in the first respect, while it 

 differs so little from the land-tortoises in the general construction 

 of its osseous frame as hardly to constitute more than a subgenus 

 of Testudo. 



The plastron or sternal portion of the shell affords the chief di- 

 stinctive character. The episternal portion in the adult is six and a 

 half inches thick, and contracted into a diameter of eight inches, bifid 



