12 REPORT OF THE 



home by her brother, Mr. James Backhouse, from Australia 

 and New Zealand, a large number of duplicates which were 

 desiderata to the Society's Collection. A specimen of the 

 Orange Cowrie, a rare and costly shell, has also been pre- 

 sented to the Society by Miss Wheeler, of Bristol. The foreign 

 Collection has been further augmented, by exchange with the 

 Rev. William Thornton, of Kimbolton, and Mrs. Davies, of St. 

 Leonard's Place, York. An instructive example of the genus 

 Magilus from the Red Sea, imbedded in coral, was purchased 

 in London during the spring, at a trifling cost. The Society has 

 received from Mr. Joseph Clarke, of Cincinnati, another series 

 of North American land and fresh-water shells. It contains 

 many duplicates which are useful in carrying out the system of 

 exchanges, from which considerable benefits have already been 

 derived. The British Marine Collection has also received 

 several useful additions during the year. 



The Collection of Comparative Osteology has been augmented 

 by a specimen of a well developed head of the Blue-faced 

 Mandrill, presented by the Curator of that department. The 

 preparations of the sclerotic bones of birds in this Collection 

 have enabled the Curator, Mr. Allis, to confirm, by additional 

 evidence, the propriety of placing the Dodo amongst the Colum- 

 bidse, in accordance with the recent investigations of Mr. H. 

 Strickland and Dr. Melville, in their work on that extinct bird. 

 Out of seventy species whose sclerotic rings are separately 

 exhibited, three species of Columbidse are the only birds which 

 have but eleven separate bones to form the sclerotic ring, this 

 being the precise number met with in the Dodo, and being the 

 smallest number Mr. Allis has ever met with in any bird, with 

 the single exception of the Australian Podargus, in which bird 

 the ring is composed of only one bone. 



The Library has continued to receive, by donation, the Tran- 

 sactions of several learned Societies, and some original works 

 have been presented by their authors. In addition to the 

 various periodical publications for which the Society subscribes, 

 three works have been purchased during the year, viz : Mr. H. 

 Strickland and Dr. Melville's important work on the Dodo, 

 Mr. Cumming's History of the Isle of Man, and Swainson's 



