BY N. DE MIKLOUIIO-MACLAY. 1205 



The animal being then in a dying condition, presenting no chance 

 of living much longer, I made a small incision near the linea alba, 

 and introduced the thermometer into the abdominal cavity. It 

 then showed, after lying there for a few minutes, exactly the same 

 temperature as in the cloaca (i.e., 25° 2 C, or 77° 3 F.) Taking 

 the mean of the two observations, the temperature of the body of 

 Ornithorhynchus paradoxus is — 24° 8 C, or 76° 6 F. 



NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 



Mr. W. H. Caldwell, B.A., exhibited several specimens which 

 he had recently obtained in Queensland, showing the stages in the 

 development of the Monotremes from the laying of the egg to the 

 hatching. 



Mr. J. Mitchell of Bowning, exhibited a large number of Silurian 

 fossils collected by him in the neighbourhood of Bowning. They 

 consisted of a variety of Molluscs, Corals and about sixteen species 

 of Trilobites. Among the Trilobites are Phacops caudatus, P. longi- 

 caudatus, P. encrinurus punctatits, and P. Jamesii (1), Calymene 

 ( Lenaria ?), Harpes ungula, Staurocejrfiahis Murchisoaii, Broateus, 

 and several of the genus Acidaspis one of which attained a consid- 

 erable size. The molluscs included representatives of Pentamerus, 

 Orthoceras, Avicula, Strophomena. &c. 



Mr. Macleay exhibited a specimen of Ophiophagus elaps, a 

 venemous snake of the Indian region, and the largest known species 

 of the venemous Colubrine snakes. He had received it from the 

 Rev. J. E. Tenison- Woods from Perak. The specimen measured 

 142 inches in length, but the species had been known to attain 

 a length of 170 inches. As its name implies, it preys on other 

 snakes, and its venom is so deadly, that it is said to kill a man in 

 three minutes and an elephant in a couple of hours. 



