376 



The European Widgeon was killed in the year 1852, by Mr. 

 Morse's companion at Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, opposite 

 Tuckerton. 



Dr. Cabot, in presenting the specimens, remarked that he be- 

 lieved that there was no previous instance recorded of the Eris- 

 matura having been procured further north than the island of 

 Jamaica, its habitat being South America. Of the Mareca Pen- 

 elope, a few specimens have been procured on this side of the 

 Atlantic, although it is exceedingly rare. Dr. C. reminded the 

 Society that its Cabinet was already indebted to Mr. Morse 

 for one of the most remarkable specimens to be found in any col- 

 lection, viz : the wild hybrid of Mergus cucullatus and Glangula 

 Americana, upon which he had read a paper a few years since. 



The thanks of the Society were voted to Mr. Morse 

 for his valuable donations. 



May 19, 1858. 



The President in the Chair. 



The President gave an account of some observations 

 which he had made upon the formation of the peculiarly 

 shaped egg-case of Skates. 



At a former meeting he had stated that in a single instance he 

 had found one of these cases partially formed in the oviduct, and 

 was struck with the fact that it contained no yolk. Through the 

 kindness of Mr. Green, the Curator of Comparative Anatomy, 

 he had had an opportunity of examining the oviduct of a skate 

 in which an incomplete egg-case existed in each oviduct ; two of 

 the horns and the bundle of threads at their base, and a portion 

 of the body of the case were already formed, but there were no 

 yolks in the oviduct, and only one corpus luteum in the ovaiy, 

 probably connected with the previous detachment of an ovum. 

 These observations would seem to show that this egg-case is more 

 or less completely formed first, the yolk subsequently introduced 



