Yertebrata. Zoological Colteetions. JSw 



than those of the mother ; but this fact alone is not sufficient to prove that 

 there is no communication between the vascular systems of the mother and 

 the foetus, because the difference in size of the globule depends on the blood 

 of the foetus being more watery than that of the mother, which is proved 

 by the globules of the blood of the mother enlarging when diluted with 

 water. 



M. Prevost advances, as another proof that the vessels of the foetus do 

 not communicate with those of the mother, the circumstance of his having 

 seen, by means of the microscope, the blood of the chorion of the foetus of 

 a sheep, (at an early period of gestation, when that organ had not yet adhered 

 to the uterus,) passing directly from the veins into the arteries ; but this is 

 no proof that the vessels of the foetus and mother do not communicate at 

 any period of gestation, seeing that a communication might be established, 

 after the chorion had contracted adhesions with the uterus, by means of 

 placentae. 



By the aid of the microscope, together with injections made in different 



ways, M. Breschet and I have come to the conclusion that no vascular 



communication exists between the uteryts and the chorion.— J^nn. des ScL 



d' Observation, I. 474. » ' 



'Mibif.niks- , 



The Albatross An interesting discovery, which I made during an 



excursion to Ponte-du-Bambou, is that of an albatross, the Diomedea 

 fuliginosa, Linnaeus, which was dying on the sand, and which 1 took 

 possession of. This beautiful sea bird, the same, I believe, which waa 

 found near the antarctic polar circle, by Cook and Forster, rarely comes 

 so far as the tropics. There had been, for some days, a very strong breeze 

 from the S. E., and probably the bird was sick. Its stomach was filled with 

 a great number of small ascarides, of an inch long, pale, with some reddish, 

 shades ; I also found in it two mandibles, and two crystalline lenses of the 

 Octopus. No one in the island remembers having before seen this species 

 of albatross Julien Desjaedins Ann. des Sci. Nat. Dec. 1830. 



JRemarks on the Anatomy of the Draco fuscus. By A. A. Sebastian. 

 — The establishment of this species of flying lizard having given rise 

 to disputes, and its characters not being everywhere stated identically, 

 M. Sebastian first describes the individual he examined, which came from 

 Java. The fore part of the animal is of a clear brown, the back part 

 deeper ; around the outside of the wings there are large spots of a deep 

 brown ; on the inside, and on the back, small spots of the same colour. On 

 the head is a large round dark spot ; on its sides, a brown line, which extends 

 transversely almost over the eyes. The largest scales are on the fore part 

 of the head, on the sides of the neck, on the middle of the back, and on the 

 sides of the tail and limbs ; the smallest, on the anterior surface of the 

 wings, and on the part stretched between their nerves ; on the posterior 

 surface of the same organs, these scales were seen to be altogether wanting, 

 at least to the naked eye. The guttural pouch, of a little more than an 

 inch and a half in extent ; the wings, attached to the anterior surface of 

 the upper parts of the thigh, which is fixed to the leg by a fold of tlie 

 skin, extending lower than was represented by Tiedemann in the green 

 dragon ; the tail, grooved by nine rows of scales, which make it angular. 

 Such are the characters which constitute the description of the individual, 

 which was six inches in length. 



As to its anatomy, we shall only mention in what it differed from the 

 descriptions of previous authors. The wings, are formed by the six first 

 false ribs, which are prolonged' laterally, and covered by the skin ; the 

 ribs, therefore, have become organs of locomotion — a function they also 

 perform in serpents. This change of use is so much the less remarkai)Ie, 

 as, vice versa, parts of the extremities may replace the ribSj aS; far as these* 



