298 Zoological Society, 



" The skins of smaller animals must not be subjected to so length- 

 ened a process, or they will become harsh, and the pelt impover- 

 ished.— W. W." 



A brief description was read of a pair of Doves, now living at 

 the Society's Gardens, which had been pointed out by Mr. Vigors 

 as representatives of a species hitherto undescribed. It was cha- 

 racterized as Columba Princeps, Vig. 



Dr. Grant exhibited a preparation of the cloaca of a female Condor, 

 Sarcorfiamphus Gryphus, Dum., which recently died at the Society's 

 Gardens. He entered into a series of observations on the subject, 

 demonstrating the differences of structure and appearance existing 

 in its several parts, and the several orifices opening into it. He ad- 

 verted to the imperfect development of the right oviduct and ovary 

 in the class of Birds, and considered it as probably dependent on 

 the position of the aorta in that class. To the position of the aorta 

 in the Mammalia he was also disposed to attribute the inferior powers 

 of the left side of the animals composing that class, an inferiority 

 which is very striking in the cranial structure of the Cetacea, to 

 which he had occasion to refer at the last Meeting of the Society. 

 He dwelt particularly on the bursa Fabricii, remarkably evident in 

 this large bird, and explained the several uses which had been at- 

 tributed to that organ by its discoverer and by subsequent ana- 

 tomists. With M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire he regarded it as the 

 analogue of Cowper's glands in the Mammalia, and adduced various 

 reasons in favour of this view. 



Mr. F. D. Bennett exhibited a dried preparation of the upper 

 larynx and adjoining parts of the Albatross, Diomedea exulans, Linn., 

 for the purpose of demonstrating the existence in that bird of an 

 epiglottis. 



Having demonstrated this and the adjacent parts on the prepara- 

 tion exhibited by him, Mr. F.D.Bennett added that as it had been the 

 opinion of naturalists in all ages that no bird possesses an epiglottis, the 

 structure which he had brought under the notice of the Society ap- 

 peared to him highly interesting. So fixed was the opinion to 

 which he had adverted that when Warren showed the existence in 

 the Ostrich, Struthio Camelus, Linn., of a structure which he re- 

 garded as an epiglottis, the denomination was generally rejected 

 even in this anomalous bird, and the part was considered as a mere 

 elevation at the base of the tongue, a rudiment, but without the 

 function, of the organ. In the Albatross, however, the function is 

 that of an epiglottis -, and the size, though small, is sufficient for the 

 protection of that portion of the rima glottidis which cannot be 

 closed in the manner usual in Birds by the apposition of its mar- 

 gins. With a peculiar structure of the glottis there exists an ap- 

 paratus equally peculiar in the class, as a provision against the in- 

 convenience which might otherwise result from the deviation from 

 the normal structure. 



Mr. F. D. Bennett also exhibited several specimens of a species 

 of Pyrosoma captured bv him, on the 6th September 1832, at sea, 

 in lat. 1° 4,1' N., long. 11° 56' W. Between 2 and 4 a.m. the sea, 



