126 



and the requisite adaptations can be effected by muscular 

 action only. In those Waders which roost on one leg, the 

 balancing of the body becomes a matter of still greater 

 nicety; and in these, too, the tibia is not flexed upon the 

 tarsus, therefore the tension of the tendons, as stated by 

 Bovelli, would not be effectually produced. In bending the 

 leg of a dead bird, the toes do not adapt themselves to the 

 surfaces on which they rest. He thought the explanation 

 must be found in reflex muscular action, an explanation 

 which had been suggested to him by Dr. S. Cabot. 



A letter was read from Mr. Roswell Field, of Greenfield, 

 Mass., thanking the Society for his election as Correspond- 

 ing Member. 



Dr. A. A. Gould presented the~result of an examination 

 of some deep dredgings off the coast of Georgia and Florida, 

 by the officers of the Coast Survey, as follows : — 



Svvainson, (in Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia, 1840,) indicates 

 the genus Pedicularia for some small patellifbrm shells, of an 

 irregular outline, conforming to the bits of coral from which they 

 were taken. He describes them '' as, in general, oval, without a 

 distinct apex, with a callous, prominent rim, placed on one side 

 only of the inner surface." His specimens were from Sicily, 

 and he calls them Pedicularia Sicula. Mr. J. E. Gray, com- 

 menting upon it, (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1846, p. 428,) says 

 the same thing was described by Philippi, under the name of 

 Thyreus paradoxus. Mr. Gray, from an examination of a dried 

 animal, considers it allied to Concholepas, which. the shell, 

 though so small, greatly resembles. We liave now specimens 

 obtained off the coast of Georgia, from the extraordinary depth 

 of 400 fathoms, in company with two or three other minute 

 shells. It is evidently a species of Swainson's genus, and ena- 

 bles us to give more fully the characters of the genus. The 

 apex, though somewhat obtuse, is well marked, very much like 

 that of Condwlejms on the left side, at the upper third. It is 

 well indicated in this species by the delicate radiating lines of 



