62 Zoological Society, 



Feb. 26. — A specimen was exhibited of a Seal, presented to the 

 Society by Mr. Henry Reynolds. It was obtained by that gentleman . 

 from a native of New Holland, who stated that he brought it from the 

 interior of the country adjoining the settlement of New South Wales. 

 The marine habits of the animal' (a species of Arctocephalus, and most 

 probably the Otaria Peronii, Desm.) render this statement problema- 

 tical. Should it be correct, it would seem to indicate the existence of 

 salt water in large masses at a distance remote from the coast. 



A specimen was exhibited of the Carolina Cuckoo, Coccyzus Caroli- 

 nensis, Bon., which was killed in the last autumn in the preserves of 

 Lord Cawdor in Wales : it was communicated for exhibition by His 

 Lordship. Two instances of the occurrence of a bird of the same 

 species in Ireland have been recorded. 



Dr. Grant called the attention of the Society to a specimen of a 

 Cephalopod, forming part of his own collection, which he exhibited in 

 illustration of a paper " On the Zoological Characters of the Genus 

 Loligopsis, Lam., and Account of a New Species from the Indian 

 Ocean." 



Mr. Yarrell read a Paper "On the Laws which regulate the Changes 

 of Plumage in Birds." 



March 12. — A letter was read, addressed to the Vice- Secretary by 

 M.Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire, For. Memb. Z.S., and dated Paris, March 

 5, 1833. It acknowledges the receipt of the copy of the letter of Lieut, 

 the Honourable Lauderdale Maule to Dr. Weatherhead respecting 

 the Ornithorhynchus, and states that the writer has proposed a system 

 calculated to put an end to the controversy respecting these animals. 

 This system is contained in a " Memoir on the Abdominal Glands of 

 the Ornithorhynchus, falsely presumed to be mammary, but which 

 secrete, not milk, but mucus, destined for the first nutriment of the 

 young, when newly hatched," published in the ' Gazette Medicale,' 

 under the date of Feb. 18th. A copy of the Memoir was laid on the 

 table, and an abstract of it was read. 



M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire translates the whole of Lieut. Maule's 

 letter, and quotes also Mr. Owen's observations on the Mammary 

 glands of Echidna, from the Proceedings of the Committee of Science 

 and Correspondence. He then enters into some details on the history 

 of our knowledge of the Monotremata, and on the various opinions which 

 have been held respecting their mode of generation, and the nutrition 

 of their young. Recurring to the very curious observation of Lieut. 

 Maule, he admits the effusion of a fluid of a milky appearance, but he 

 doubts that this fluid was actually milk. " To arrive so rapidly at this 

 decision," he proceeds, " many impossibilities must have been for- 

 gotten. You have not the function, nor the result of the function 

 which characterizes the Mammalia, if the organs that produce it are 

 truly wanting. Now this is what I think I can demonstrate ; and 

 what I undertake to do in the following remarks. 



" For this purpose I seek for analogous facts ; and they have long 

 since been furnished to me by the Shrews. There are on each side 

 of the bodies of these animals two kinds of glands arranged parallel 

 to each other. 1 st, Internally, conglobate and truly lactiferous glands, 



