71 



June 15, 1842. 



Regular meeting, Mr. C. K. Dillaway in the Chair. 



Dr. Storer communicated Descriptions of Acipenser rubi- 

 cundus, A. platyrhyncus, and Rutilus Storerianus, accompa- 

 nied with figures, which he had received from Dr. J. P. 

 Kirtland of Ohio. 



Dr. K., in his description of A. rubicundus, observes, that the 

 varieties occasioned by age, sex, locality and other circumstances, 

 have occasioned him much perplexity. But, after five years' ex- 

 amination, he feels great confidence in considering the A. rubicun- 

 dus and maculosus of Le Sueur, and the Scotinus Ohioensis, and 

 macrostomus of Rafinesque, and the fish of which he had sent a 

 description to the Society under the name of " A. nudus" to be all 

 the same species. 



The true Rutilus plagurus of Raf., Dr. K. had been able finally 

 to determine. The species formerly supposed by him to be such, 

 he now proposes to call R. Storerianus. 



Dr. J. B. S. Jackson read portions of the Letter from Dr. 

 Savage respecting the habits of the Chimpanzee, its food, 

 method of fighting, and flight from enemies, parental affec- 

 tion, &c. 



He also mentioned some particulars in which the specimens of 

 crania sent to the Society did not conform to the description of the 

 osseous system given by Mr. Owen. The cranial sutures were 

 not persistent, but completely obliterated. Dr. O. states that the 

 Chimpanzee has but one suborbital foramen on each side, while 

 the Black Ourang has three or more ; but in the Society's spe- 

 cimens, the Ourang has but one, and the Chimpanzee has two. 



Dr. Gould exhibited a series of specimens of a species of 

 Neritina, presenting very wide differences in coloring and 

 marking, the extremes of which would never have been 

 suspected to belong to the same species, some specimens 

 having black, others red, and others yellow for the ground 

 color, and others having two or the three colors intermixed 

 sometimes in bands, and sometimes in longitudinal marks. 



