Zoological Society, '307 



Among the circumstances which are here recorded, and which are 

 not very usually mentioned, if indeed they are known at all, are — that 

 of Halley's appointment to the mint above mentioned — his having 

 drawn up a synopsis of Newton's system for the use of James II., at 

 the desire of the latter— ^hat his first voyage, by express direction, 

 was meant to be one of discovery in the Southern Ocean — and that 

 his acquaintance with Newton began about 1 684. 



II. Translation of a paper by Dr. Gibers in the AsLronomische 

 ^aclirichten, No. 268, on the approaching return of Halley's comet. 

 Translated andcommunicated by Mr. Galloway. This communication 

 was given entire in our last Number, p. 45. 



HI. Observed Transits of the Moon and Moon-culminating Stars 

 over the Meridian of Edinburgh Observatory, in October and Novem- 

 ber, 1834, by Mr. Henderson. They are given in the Monthly No- 

 tices. 



IV. Transits of the Moon with Moon-culminating Stars, observed 

 at Cambridge Observatory in the month of November, ]834. Also 

 given in the Monthly Notices. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETV. 



1834. Dec. 9. — The reading was concluded of a Paper entitled 

 " Notes on the Natural History and Habits of the Omit horhynchus pa- 

 radoxus, Blum.," by Mr. George Bennett, Corr. Memb. Z.S. ; in which 

 the author gives a detailed account of his inquiries and researches on 

 the subject in question, made in the Colony of New South Wales, 

 and in the interior of New Holland, at the end of 1832 and com- 

 mencement of 1833. He commences by a description of the exter- 

 nal character of the animal, as observed by him in the living and 

 recent state ; from which it appears that the greater or less degree 

 of nakedness of the under surface of the tail is dependent on age, 

 and is probably a result of the mode in which that organ trails upon 

 the ground; that the colour of the upper mandible above, in an 

 animal recently taken out of the water, is of a dull dirty greyish 

 black covered with innumerable minute dots, and the under surface 

 of the lower white in the younger specimens, and mottled in the 

 more aged, while the inner surface of both is of a pale pink or flesh 

 colour ; that the eyes are brilliant, and light brown ; and that the 

 external orifices of the ears, which are with difficulty detected in 

 dead specimens, are easily discoverable in the living, the animal ex- 

 ercising the faculty of opening and closing them at will. When 

 recent, and especially when wet, the Ornithorhynchus has a peculiar 

 fishy smell, proceeding probably from an oily secretion. It is used 

 as food by the Natives, by whom it is called, at Bathurst and Goul- 

 burn Plains, and in the Yas, Murrumbidgee and Tumat countries, by 

 the names of Mallangong or Tamhreet. Mr. G. Bennett is inclined to 

 regard the two species usually described in modern books as not 

 differing sufficiently from each other to justify their separation, 

 and he therefore retains the name of Orn. paradoxus given to the 

 animal by Professor Blumenbach, the universal adoption of which 

 renders it inexpedient in this instance to recur to the older name 



2 R 2 



