190 

 2. Zoological Society of London. 



4th May, 1897. — The Secretary read a report on the additions that 

 had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of April 1897, 

 and called attention to a young male specimen of the Wild Ass of Somaliland 

 [Equus somalicus) and to a pair of Smith's Bronze-winged Pigeon [Geophaps 

 Smithi]j both acquired by purchase. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas, F.Z.S., exhi- 

 bited a selection of the Mammals recently collected by Mr. A. Whyte during 

 his expedition to the Nyika plateau and the Masuku mountains, North Nyasa. 

 Mr. Thomas described as new a Squirrel [Xerus lucifer] , brilliant rufous 

 throughout, with a black dorsal patch; a Reed-rat [Thryonomys Sclateri), allied 

 to T. gregorianus, but with a longer tail, whitish instead of yellowish under- 

 side, and narrower and differently shaped skull; a Mole-rat [Georychus 

 Whytei), like G. nimrodi, but with longer and broader frontal premaxillary 

 processes; a Pouched Mouse [Saccostomus elegans), of a general buff colour 

 and with a longer head than S. campestris] and Mus nyihae^ a Rat of the size 

 of Mus chryscphihis, but darker in colour and with a more rounded skull. A 

 new subgeneric term [Gerbilliscus] was suggested for GerbiUus Boehmi^ Noack, 

 of which Mr. Whyte had sent home specimens. Mr. Thomas also stadet that 

 the peculiar bulbous-tipped tail-hairs described in Petrodromus proved to be 

 confined to and characteristic of East African examples of the genus, which 

 might therefore be specifically separated from the Zambezi forms as P. sultani. 

 — Mr. Howard Saunders, F.Z.S., exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Henry 

 Evans, a series of instantaneous photographs of the Great Grey Seal [Hali- 

 choerus gryphus) which had been taken in the Outer Hebrides. — Mr. J. E. S. 

 Moore gave a general account, illustrated with the optical lantern, of the 

 zoological results of his expedition to Lake Tanganyika in 1895 and 1896. 

 Mr. Moore stated that the main object of the expedition had been to obtain 

 materials for the morphological study of certain hitherto uninvestigated animal 

 forms. It appeared that a key to the general interpretation of the lake-faunas 

 of Central Africa would be most readily obtained by a study of their Mollus- 

 can Types. These showed that the faunas of most of the vast inland reser- 

 voirs of Africa were composed of normal lacustrine stocks, but that in Lake 

 Tanganyika there were strange forms which certainly could not be included 

 among such groups. All these forms appeared to have marine affinities; but, 

 as they could not be directly associated with any living oceanic species, it 

 was argued that they were probably the survivors of the marine fauna of 

 some more ancient times, when Tanganyika was connected with the ocean. 

 This theory was supported by the similarity of certain Tanganyika gastropods 

 to ancient fossil shells. — A communication was read from Mr. Walter E. 

 Collinge, F.Z.S., »On some European Slugs of the Genus Ariona. This 

 memoir treated of the constancy of anatomical characters in the genus; of 

 the reversion of a colour-variation noticed in a specimen of Arion empirico- 

 rum\ of the specific validity of Arion fuscus\ of a new species proposed to 

 be called Arion coeruleus: and concluded with a synopsis and classification 

 of the genus Arion and a list of the literature on the subject. — Mr. S da- 

 ter read a communication from Mr. Frederick J. Jackson, F.Z.S., containing 

 field-notes on the Antelopes of Mau District, British East Africa, and made 

 remarks on some of the species mentioned. — The Rev. H. S. Gorham, 

 F.Z.S., contributed a paper on the Coleoptera of the family Endomychidae 

 of the Eastern Hemisphere. Eighteen species were described, of which eleven 



