Zoological Society. 353 



He also exhibited a Linnet killed during the height of the breeding 

 season, when the crown and breast of that species are ordinarily 

 bright crimson, in which those parts were of the same hue as in 

 many Crossbills ; and observed that the same variations were no- 

 ticeable in the genera Corythruix and Erythrospiza. Mr. Blyth called 

 attention also to the fact, that in the genus L'mota the females oc- 

 casionally assumed the red breast, supposed to be peculiar to the 

 other sex, and that they continue to produce eggs when in this 

 livery ; a circumstance very apt to escape attention, as most natu- 

 ralists would at once conclude such specimens to be males without 

 further examination. 



October 9, 1838.— Rev. F. W. Hope in the Chair. 



The reading of a paper by Richard Owen, Esq., on the Osteology 

 of the Marsupialia, was commenced. 



Mr. Martin drew the attention of the Meeting to the crania of 

 the Sooty and White-eyelid Monkeys, Cercopiihecus fuliginosus and 

 C. JEthiops, which were placed upon the table, and upon which he 

 proceeded to remark as follows : 



" It is now some years since I stated to the late Mr. Bennett that 

 in the skeleton of a Sooty Monkey I had discovered the presence of a 

 distinct fifth tubercle on the last molar of the lower jaw ; recently I 

 have observed the same fact in the skull of the Collared or White- 

 eyelid Monkey ( C. JEthiops), circumstances of some interest, as this 

 tubercle appears to be always absent in the Cercopitheci, and also in 

 such as the Malbrouck, Grivet, and Green Monkeys, &c, which have 

 been separated from the Cercopitheci under the subgeneric title 

 Cercocebus, Geoff., the Sooty and the White-eyelid Monkeys being 

 included ; though, as far as we can see, on no feasible grounds, dif- 

 fering from the foregoing species, as they do, in physiognomy and 

 also in style of colouring. However this may be, the Sooty and 

 White-eyelid Monkeys approximate to their supposed congeners in a 

 more remote degree than has hitherto been supposed. Now with re- 

 gard to the genera Semnopithecus and Macacus, both of which are from 

 India, and the African genera Inuus and Cynocephalus^ this fifth tu- 

 bercle is a constant character and accompanied by the presence of 

 laryngeal sacculi; and in another African genus, viz. Colobus, a fifth 

 tubercle also exists, but whether accompanied or not by laryngeal 

 sacs is still to be determined. May not this fifth tubercle, it may 

 here be asked, bring the Sooty and White-eyelid Monkeys within the 

 pale of the Macaci ? and the question will bear considering. Our 

 reply, however, would be in the negative ; for as we have ascertained 

 Ann. Nat. Hist. Vol.3. No. 18. July 1839. 2 c 



