Zoological Society, 293 



considered that they were not so : he expressed his desire to see the 

 female hybrid that had produced the three-quarter Pheasants then 

 in the room, and hoped that the opportunities whicli tlie Menagerie 

 of the Society afforded of obtaining additional evidence on this in- 

 teresting subject would not be lost sight of. 



The Chairman (Mr. Owen) stated, that it was the opinion of John 

 Hunter that hybrids were not productive except in cases where the 

 generative organs were in a state of perfection, which might be re- 

 garded as unnatural in hybrids, as in the rare cases recorded of fertile 

 Mules, between the Horse and Ass. Constant fertility in the hy- 

 brid j)roved, in the opinion of Hunter, that the parents were varie- 

 ties of the same species, not distinct species. But the Chairman 

 stated, that the experiments recorded by Hunter in the ' Animal 

 CEconomy ' relative to the fecundity of the hybrids from the Dog 

 and Wolf and Dog and Jackal were incomplete, from the cir- 

 cumstances of the hybrids having always bred from a perfect 

 species and not having propagated the intermediate variety inter 

 se. He trusted that in a short time this test would be applied in 

 experiments now in progress at the Society's Menagerie, and thus 

 an additional element be gained towards the solution of this inter- 

 esting question. 



A small collection of Birds from Swan River, presented to the 

 Society by Lieut. Breton and Capt. Brete, were on the table. Mr. 

 Gould, at the request of the Chairman, observed upon the collection 

 generally, and selected two species which he considered as unde- 

 scribed, a Gallinule and a species of Duck, the latter strictly refer- 

 rible to the genus Oxyura of L. Bonaparte, Prince of Musignano, 

 (genus Undina of Gould). Mr. Gould named the Gallinule, Gallinula 

 ventralis, and the Duck, Oxyura Australis, this being the only in- 

 stance he had seen of this limited group from Australia. Of this spe- 

 cies the collection contained both male and female, the latter of 

 which, in the general distribution of its markings and colouring, 

 bore so close a reseml)lance to the Hydrohates of Temminck that 

 the bill alone presented the obvious distinction. 



Oct. 11, 1836. —A series of Mammalia selected from the collection 

 of the Society was exhibited. Mr. Gray made some remarks upon 

 them illustrative of the value which he conceived was to be placed on 

 the characters used by M. Cuvier to separate the plantigrade from the 

 digitigrade Carnivora, and he concluded by stating that be did not re- 

 gard the nakedness of the sole as a good character to separate the 

 genera into larger or smaller groups, though from its permanence in 

 all ages and the state of the species, it furnished excellent characters 

 to distinguish species, to separate them into sections, and often to 

 characterize the genera of carnivorous animals ; and in proof of the 

 latter, he referred to the excellent character which it furnished to 

 distinguish the species of the genera Herpestes, Mephites, and Lutra. 

 He further observed, that in many instances the extent of the naked- 

 ness of the soles appears to depend upon the temperature of the coun- 

 try that the animal inhabited, and mentioned that several of the 

 animals living in countries covered with snow, which apply the 



