Zoological Society, 529 



Mr. Gray then adverted to some observations which he had made 

 on a former occasion during a discussion upon the nature of the re- 

 lation existing between the Argonaut shell and the Cephalopod 

 which inhabits it. On that occasion, one argument made use of by 

 him in favour of the parasitic nature of this animal, was, that the 

 nucleus of the Argonaut shell is larger than could be contained 

 within the eggs which often accompany the Ocythoe. He is now 

 disposed to attach less importance to this circumstance, having re- 

 cently observed that the eggs of some moUusca, as the Buccinum 

 undatum, prior to the period of hatching, are eight or ten times as 

 large in diameter as when first deposited. 



A paper was then read by Thomas Bell, Esq., entitled ** Observa- 

 tions on the genus Galictis, with a description of a new species." 

 Mr. Bell in 1826 laid before the Zoological Club of the Linnaean 

 Society some remarks upon a living female Grison which had been 

 several years in his possession, and he then proposed to consider the 

 species as constituting a new generic type, to which he gave the 

 name of Galictis, but without assigning its distinctive generic cha- 

 racters. Since that period the examination of a specimen in the 

 collection of the Zoological Society, exhibiting a distinct specific dif- 

 ference from the former, but agreeing with it in the more essential 

 particulars, has confirmed the propriety of establishing this genus ; 

 and in the present communication the author points out the charac- 

 ters and affinities of Galictis, and gives a description of the new 

 species under the name of G. Allamandi, M. Allamand having figured 

 a specimen in the fourth edition of BufFon's Natural History, which 

 may perhaps be identical with this second species. In constituting 

 this new genus of Mustelidce, Mr. Bell has been guided solely by the 

 semiplantigrade form of the foot, for in no other important charac- 

 ter does it deviate from the typical genus of that family. A know- 

 ledge of this character led Thunberg to place it among the Ursidcs 

 under the name of Ursus Brasiliensis, to which group it slightly ap- 

 proximates, and in which it may probably be represented by the 

 genus Ratellus. By Desmarest it is arranged in the genus Gulo, and 

 the name Gulo vittatus given to it by that author has been adopted 

 by the Cuviers, and all other subsequent writers, with the exception 

 of Dr. Traill, who in the third volume of the Memoirs of the Werner- 

 ian Society restores it to its proper family, the Mustelidce, but under 

 the erroneous name of Lutra vittata, for it has no nearer affinity to 

 the Otters than any other genus of that family. By Schreber it 

 was placed among the Viverree, under the name of Viverra vittata, 

 and the name has been retained by Gmelin and others. 



The characters of Galictis, and the description of the two species 

 which at present constitute this genus, are as follows. 



Fam. MusTELiDiE. 

 Genus Galictis, Bell. 



Char. Gkn. Denies molares spurii ^• 



Rostrum breve. 



Palmcc atque plants nudae subplantigradae. 

 Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 1-2. No. 77. June 1838. 2 X 



