Zoological Society. 71 



observed in that group. In this respect it as far exceeds the ivory- 

 billed Woodpecker of the United States, Picus principalis, as the lat- 

 ter does the Pic. Martins of Europe. Mr. Gould described it as the 

 Picus imperialis : this species is readily distinguishable from the 

 Pic. principalis by its much larger size ; by the length of its occipital 

 crest, the pendent silky feathers of which measure nearly 4 inches ; 

 by the absence of the white stripe which ornaments the neck of that 

 bird ; and by the bristles which cover its nostrils being black, whereas 

 those of the Pic. principalis are white. 



August 28. — Mr. Owen read some Notes on the Anatomy of the 

 Flamingo, Phcenicopteris ruber, Linn. : they were derived frsm-tne ex- 

 amination of an individual which died about three months since in the 

 Society's Menagerie. 



"The principal diseased appearances were in the lungs, which were 

 filled with tubercles and vomiae. I was much struck with finding the 

 inner surface of the latter cavities, and that of most of the smaller ra- 

 mifications of the bronchial tubes, covered over with a green vegetable 

 mould or mucor. As the individual was examined within 24 hours 

 after its death, it seemed reasonable to conclude this mucor had grown 

 there during the life-time of the animal. Thus it would appear that 

 internal parasites are not exclusively derived from the animal kingdom, 

 but that there are Entophyta as well as Entozoa *." 



No Entozoa were met with in the specimen dissected by Mr. 

 Owen : but Col. Sykes permitted him to examine two tape-worms, 

 which he found blocking up the duodenum of a Flamingo dissected by 

 him in Dukhun. From the marginal disposition of the lemnisci and 

 the general habit of this species, it evidently appertains to the true 

 TanUe, and from the structure of the head ranks among the rostellate 

 species with an armed proboscis. It does not accord with any of those 

 described in the * Synopsis Entozoorum' of Rudolphi, and is of so 

 peculiar a form that Mr. Owen felt no hesitation in characterizing it 

 as Taenia lamelligera. 



September 11. — Dr. Weatherhead communicated to the Committee 

 several extracts from a letter which he had recently received from 

 Lieutenant the Hon. Lauderdale Maule of the 39th Regiment, now 

 in New South Wales. They referred to the habits and ceconomy of 

 the Ornithorhynchi. 



" During the spring of 1 83 1 ," writes Lieut. Maule, " being detached 

 in the interior of New South Wales, I was at some pains to discover 

 the truths of the generally accepted belief, namely, that the female 

 Platypus lays eggs and suckles its young. 



* The fact here stated must be regarded as a very interesting and re- 

 markable one; there is no reason a priori why Entophyta should not exist; 

 but in the case now before us, — as a certain number of hours did intervene 

 between the death and the examination of the Flamingo, and we have rea- 

 son to believe that mucor will occasionally form very rapidly on dead animal 

 substances, while the vomicce and bronchial tubes of the animal must have 

 contained matter in a high degree susceptible of being organized (whether 

 by seeds and ova or otherwise) into either mucor or animalcula, — it is 

 equally probable, perhaps, that the formation of the mucor did not take place 

 until after death. — Edit. 



