392 Zoological Society, 



albd utrinque a labio superiore supra oculos per nucham, alterdque 

 latiore a labio superiore per latera ad cauda apicem ductis. 

 Junior. Strigis colli lateralihus obsoletis. 



Obs. Epidermide remotel subalbida est strigis lactescentibus. 



Hab. in " Novti Cambria Australi." Dr. Mair. — Muss. Chatham 

 et Brit. 



Mr. Gray also exhibited a specimen of the New Holland Ibis of 

 Dr. Latham, for the purpose of directing the attention of the Meet- 

 ing to the spatulate form of the feathers of its neck; a form of 

 feather which he believes not to have been previously recorded as oc- 

 curring in any Grallatorial Bird. In this instance they are elon- 

 gated, lanceolate, and bear some resemblance to straws. The spe- 

 cimen was obtained from the neighbourhood of Macquarrie River. 



Mr. Gray subsequently exhibited adult specimens of the Geoemyda 

 spinosa and Emys platynota, two species of fresh-water Tortoise re- 

 cently described by him from young individuals at the Meetings of 

 the Society on June 24 and August 26 (present vol. p. 152). He 

 pointed out in detail the peculiarities of the adult animals and shells, 

 which he is about to describe in his * Synopsis of Indian Animals ' ; 

 and demonstrated on the specimen of the former the existence of those 

 characters on which he had founded the genus Geoemyda, and which 

 he had previously had occasion to observe in Ge. Spengleri alone, 

 — his knowledge of the animal of Ge. spinosa having at the time of 

 his proposing the genus been limited to the figure published by Mr. 

 Bell. 



In the adult individual exhibited the sternum was concave ; and 

 Mr. Gray, in calling particular attention to this point, took occasion 

 to remark on it as evidencing, in an additional character to those 

 already adverted to by him, the affinity of Geoemyda to the Land 

 Tortoises, that genus and the genus Cistuda, Say, being the only ge- 

 nera among the Emydidce that possess the concavity of sternum which 

 is common to most of the species of Testudinidce. 



A Paper was read " On Nycteribia, a genus of wingless Insects, by 

 J. O. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S., &c." 



The author commences by remarking on the existence of certain 

 groups of animals, generally limited in extent, which exhibit in their 

 organization, with reference to the groups to which they naturally 

 belong, such anomalies as have constantly proved a source of per- 

 plexity to the systematists who have endeavoured to assign to them 

 their real place in the system of nature. In many instances the ano- 

 maly involves the transition from the structure of one group to that 

 of the adjoining ones; such instances constituting the osculant groups 

 of Mr. W. S. MacLeay in his ' Horae Entomologicse'. Of these os- 

 culant groups some exist between the great divisions of the animal 

 kingdom; others among the classes of which each of these great 

 divisions is composed ; others again between the orders, the fami- 

 lies, and the minor subdivisions. The genus Nycteribia is thus os- 

 culant not between the families or even the orders of a class, but 

 between two of the classes themselves of the Annulose Sub-kingdom 

 — ^the Arachnida and the Haustellata. It is remarkable, moreover, for 



