Zoological Society. 61 



him always more gratifying to get rid of an error in science than to 

 introduce into it an additional observation. 



The Vice- Secretary stated, that the request of M. Geoffroy-Saint- 

 Hilaire for a copy of the letter in question had been complied with. 

 He also referred to the Proceedings of the Committee of Science 

 and Correspondence, Part II. p. 179, for an account of the glands 

 discovered in Echidna by Mr. Owen, (see our last report, under 

 Oct. 23, vol. ii. p. 476.) who, in his observations there published, 

 briefly adduces several reasons why little difficulty should be ex- 

 perienced in the consideration of the Monotremata as oviparous or 

 ovoviviparous, and at the same time as mammiferous animals. 



A letter was read from William Willshire, Esq., Corr. Memb.Z.S., 

 H.M.'s Vice- Consul at Mogadore, giving an account of a Reptile, 

 known by the Arabs under the name of el Dub. A living specimen 

 of the animal, presented to the Society by Mr. Willshire, accom- 

 panied the letter. It is the Uromastyx acanthinurus, described and 

 figured by Mr. Bell in the first volume of the * Zoological Journal/ 

 from specimens brought from Fezzan by Capt. Lyon. The Dub is 

 noticed by Marmol, Capt. Lyon, and other travellers j but the pre- 

 cise species to which the reptile so named was referrible had not, 

 previously to the arrival of Mr. Willshire's specimen, been satisfac- 

 torily ascertained. 



A note from Col. Hallam was read, accompanying drawings of 

 the Mango-Jish, Polynemus paradisceus, Linn. ; and of two indivi- 

 duals of a race of pigs with only two legs, the hinder extremities 

 being entirely wanting. The latter, Col. Hallam states, were ob- 

 served " at a town on the coast in the Tanjore country, in the year 

 1795 : they were from a father and mother of a similar make, and 

 the pigs bred from them were the same." 



The exhibition was resumed of the collection of Shells formed by 

 Mr. Cuming on the western coast of South America, and among 

 the islands of the South Pacific Ocean. The new species brought 

 on the present evening under the notice of the Society were accom- 

 panied by characters by Mr. G. B. Sowerby. They were named as 

 follows : — Byssoarca Lithodomus opacified, altemata, maculata, mu- 

 tabilis, divaricata, decussata, illota, velata, solida, pusilla, truncata, 

 lurida, and parva ; Arca ( § aequivalves ) tuberculosa, Nux, reversa, 

 concinna, emarginata, formosa, auriculata, biangulata, multicostata, 

 (§§ inaequivalves,) obesa, lahiata, labiosa, quadrilatera, brevifrons, 

 and cardiiformis : the shell last named has at first glance the ap- 

 pearance of, and might easily be mistaken for, a common Cockle. 



At the request of the Chairman, Mr. Martin read Notes of his 

 dissection of a slender Loris, Loris gracilis t Geoff., which had re- 

 cently died at the Society's Gardens. It was presented by Captain 

 Faith. 



The specimen of Apteryx australis, Shaw, which was figured in 

 the * Naturalists' Miscellany,' plates 1057 and 1058, was exhibited ; 

 and Mr. Yarrell called the attention of the Meeting to its several 

 parts in detail, which he described fully, with reference to the illus- 

 tration of a paper on that interesting bird. 



