143 

 2. Zoological Society of London. 



5th March, 1895, — The Secretary read a report on the additions 

 that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of February, 

 and called special attention to a fine female Giraffe recently arrived from 

 South Africa. This was believed to be the first example of the large, dark- 

 blotched race ever seen alive in Europe, the Giraffes previously exhibited 

 having belonged to the smaller and paler form found in Northern Tropical 

 Africa. The Society has also purchased a pair of Sable Antelopes [Hippo- 

 tragus nig er) and a pair of Brindled Gnus [Connochaetes taurina) , all in ex- 

 cellent condition. — The Secretary exhibited on behalf of Mr. Walsey, 

 of the Hudson's Bay Company, tvfo Martens' skins which had been received 

 from two distinct districts widely apart. The peculiarity in these skins con- 

 sisted in the fact that one of the fore legs in each skin was wanting, and 

 there was nothing to indicate that a limb had ever existed at that part. — 

 Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., read a paper on some distinctive structu- 

 ral characters in the hyoid bone in certain Parrots. The Author represented 

 two lateral processes of the basihyal (for which he proposed the name para- 

 hy al processes) as probably distinctive of the whole of the Psittaci. He found 

 that in the genera Loritts , Eos, and Trichoglossus these processes were de- 

 veloped into a remarkably delicate parahyal arch. He also described the 

 h.yo\di oi Strivgops^ showing that it was completely Psittacine , buth with 

 some special characters probably peculiar to it. — Mr. A. D. Michael read 

 a paper on a new Freshwater Mite found in Cornwall , and belonging to the 

 genus Thyas, of which only two species were previously known. It is a very 

 handsome species, flattened in form, scarlet and orange in colour, and with 

 remarkable whorls of large lanceolate spines tipped with scarlet on the legs. 

 It was found near the Land's End in a small stream close to where the rapid 

 falls into the sea. It is proposed to call it Thyas petrophilus. — Mr. G. A. 

 Boulenger, F.R.S. , read a paper »On the Nursing-habits of two South- 

 American Frogs«, and exhibited a specimen oiHylaGoeldii with the eggs on 

 the back. He also made remarks on a male specimen of Phyllohates trinitatis 

 from Venezuela , carrying its tadpoles on its back , in the same way as had 

 previously been observed in frogs of the genus Dendrobates from Surinam 

 and Brazil, — P. L. Sclater, Secretary. 



3. 3oojiormecKoe OT;i,*JieHÌe ÜMnepaTOpcKaro OomecTBa .Ilroôme- 



Jieil ECTeCTB03HaHÌa, AnTponOJIOrin h 9TH0rpa()|)ÌH. (Zoologische Ab- 

 theilung der kaiserlichen Gesellschaft der Freunde der Naturwissenschaften, 

 Anthropologie und Ethnographie.) 

 Sitzung des 17. (29.) Januar, 1895. — lipo*. H. K). Borpca*!, (Prof. 

 N. Zograf) machte eine Mittheilung über seine Studien an den Zähnen der 

 russischen Störe. Früher wurden die Zähne bei Acipenseriden nur für eine 

 Alterstufe beschrieben, wo die Thiere eben erst ausgeschlüpft waren, und 

 Prof. Salenski setzte voraus, daß die Zähne beim Acipenser ruthenus gegen 

 den zweiten Monat seines Wachsthums verschwinden. Aber schon im .Jahre 

 1887 hatte Prof. Zograf gezeigt , daß bei einigen Fischen, deren Verbrei- 

 tungsbezirk östlicher liegt , als der des Sterlet , wie bei Scaphirhynchus und 

 bei Ac. stellatus, die Zähne sich bis in ein höheres Alter erhalten. Indem er 

 diese Thatsachen und den Umstand in Betracht zieht, daß die Zähne von 

 Polyodon gladius aus dem Jantsekiang das ganze Leben des Thieres bleiben und 



