66 Zoological Society. 



The exhibition was resumed of Mr. Cuming's shells, accompanied 

 by characters from the pen of Mr. G. B. Sowerby : the following 

 are the names of the species exhibited on the present occasion. Cu- 

 mingia (a new genus, which should be placed near to Amphidesma) 

 mutica, lamellosa, coarctata, and trigonularis ; Coebula nuciformis , 

 (found at a depth of six fathoms in sandy mud at Real Llejos, Cen- 

 tral America, and also in a fossil state near Guayaquil,) bicarinata, 

 biradiata, nasuta, ovulata, radiata, and tenuis', Bulinus Chilensis, 

 punctulifer, rugiferus, pruinosus, Laurentii, unifasciatus, bilineatus, 

 corneus, erythrostoma, and chrysalidiformis. 



. At the request of the President, Mr. Gould exhibited a specimen of 

 a Toucan, remarkable for the peculiar form of the feathers on the back 

 part of the head and cheeks. They are without barbs towards 

 their extremities, the shafts being widely expanded ; those of the 

 crown of the head are curled and horn-like, and, being of a jet black 

 colour, bear some resemblance to fine ebony shavings ; as they pro- 

 ceed along the neck they become straighter, narrower, and spatulate : 

 the feathers of the cheeks have the latter form, and are straw-coloured 

 slightly tipped with black. Mr. Gould proposed for it the name of 

 Pteroglossus ulocomus. 



March 26. — Specimens were exhibited of numerous Mammalia re- 

 cently obtained by the Society from that part of California which 

 adjoins to Mexico. They comprehended several species hitherto ap- 

 parently undescribed, to which the attention of the Meeting was 

 particularly called by Mr. Bennett, who characterized them as follows: 

 Mephitis nasuta; Didelphis Calif ornica, and breviceps ; Spermo- 

 philus spilosoma, and macrourus ; Sciurus nigrescens ; and Lepuswz- 

 gricaudatus. Mr. Bennett concluded by calling the attention of the 

 Society to two skins forming part of the same collection, which, not- 

 withstanding their marked difference in fur and colour from an arctic 

 specimen of the Meles Labradoria, Sabine, he felt disposed to con- 

 sider as referrible to that species. They accord sufficiently with the 

 Tlacoyotl of Hernandez. 



A specimen was exhibited of a species of Sepiola from the Mauri- 

 tius, which had been presented to the Society by Charles Telfair, 

 Esq., Corr. Memb. Z.S., and Dr. Grant explained its distinctive cha- 

 racters by comparison with a specimen of the Sepiola vulgaris of the 

 Mediterranean, exhibited for that purpose. He showed that while 

 the body of the Eastern species is four times the size of that of the 

 European, its arms do not exceed in length those of the latter species. 

 On account of this comparative shortness of its members he proposed 

 to designate it as the Sepiola stenodactyla, regarding it as the type of 

 a new species distinguished from the single species previously known 

 not merely by the important structural character just noticed, but 

 also by the greater number of pedunculated suckers on its tentacula, 

 and by the markings of the tentacula, which are transversely banded, 

 those of the European species having round spots. 



Dr. Grant described the animal in detail, and exhibited a drawing 

 in illustration of his description. 



Dr. Grant subsequently gave a demonstration of the structure of 

 the heart and of the distribution of the blood-vessels of the large In - 



