355 



The Treasurer reported that the note to the Corre- 

 sponding Secretary read at the last meeting was intended 

 as a notice of the bequest of Mr. Phillips, and that the 

 Executors were waiting the action of the Society. 



It was, therefore, voted " that the Society accept the bequest of 

 the late Hon. Jonathan Phillips." 



It was also voted " that the Treasurer be authorized to receive 

 the amount in behalf of the Society, and to give to the Executors 

 of his estate a satisfactory discharge for the same." 



Dr. Christopher Johnston, of Baltimore, Md., was 

 elected a Corresponding Member, and H. P. Binney, of 

 Boston, a Resident Member. 



October 17, 1860. 



The President in the Chair. 



A letter was read from Mr. H. D. Thoreau, of Concord, 

 Mass., in reference to a Canada lynx [Lynx Canadensis) 

 killed in Carlisle, Mass., Sept. 9, 1860. 



This animal was a female, as large as any of«its kind described, 

 and had naked soles. Audubon and Bachman, in the Quadrupeds 

 of North America, and Emmons, in the Massachusetts Reports, 

 give hairiness of the soles as a specific character of the Canada 

 lynx, as distinguishing it from the bay lynx (X. rufiis), which has 

 naked soles. Baird, in his Report on the Mammals of North 

 America, mentions having received a specimen of the Canada 

 lynx in summer pelage, in which the pads of the feet were dis- 

 tinctly visible, not being overgrown as in winter specimens. It 

 appears from these specimens that hairiness of the soles is not a 

 specific character in the Canada lynx. In Mr. Thoreau's animal 

 there is a distinct black line commencing at the eye and terminat- 

 ing in the black portion of the ruff; he believes that some of the 



