216 

 II. Mittheilungen aus Museen, Instituten etc. 



Zoological Society of London. 



15th February, 1898. — The Secretary read a report on the additions 

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

 1898. — A letter was read from Mr. Dudley le Souëf, of Melbourne, con- 

 taining a summary of some observations on the transfer by the mother of 

 an embryo Kangaroo [Macropus giganteus) by her mouth into her pouch. — 

 A report was read, drawn up by Mr. A. Thomson, the Society's Head- 

 Keeper, on the insects exhibited in the Insect-house during the year 1897, 

 and a series of the specimens was exhibited. — The Secretary exhibited a 

 series of specimens of Butterflies, which had formed part of a collection 

 lately on view at the Dunthorne Gallery, in illustration of the mode of mounting 

 employed in "Denton's Patent Butterfly Tablets". — Mr. W. P. Py craft read 

 the first of a series of contributions to the Osteology of Birds. The present part 

 (of which the following is an abstract) related to the Steganopodes: — 



**The fact that in the Tropic-birds, Cormorants, Gannets, and Frigate- 

 birds all the toes are united by a common web, has led to the belief that 

 these forms are closely related; they form the suborder Steganopodes or Toti- 

 palmatae of authors. 



"A comparison of the Osteology of the group confirms this opinion. 

 Phalacrocorax may be taken as the type of the suborder, which may be divi- 

 ded into three sections according to the form of the basitemporal plate. In 

 Phalacrocorax and Flatus this is seen in its most generalized form, and 

 agrees with that of the Ciconiae, Sula is the nearest ally of the Cormorants, 

 as is shown by the close resemblance in the form of the fused palatines, and 

 of the pectoral and pelvic girdles and limbs. Sula^ it is evident by the form 

 of the basitemporal plate, leads to Fregata. The Pelecans resemble the Cor- 

 morants and Gannets in the form of the palatines — which are, however, more 

 highly modified than in these families — as also of the sternum, lachrymal, 

 and nasal hinge. Fhaèthon is the most aberrant of the group, but agrees 

 most nearly with the Pelecans in the form of the basitemporal plate, which, 

 diflfers from that of the preceding families. Its sternum, though distinctly 

 Steganopodous, diff'ers in that the free end of the clavicle does not articulate 

 with the coracoid by a flattened facet. Fhalacrocorax^ it is contended, must 

 be regarded as the typical Steganopod. Sula and Fregata fall into places on 

 the one side, Pelecanus and Pha'êthon on the other side of this Family. P/ia'é- 

 thon and Fregata represent the two extremes of the suborder; they alone retain 

 the vomer, and in them the modification of the palatines and of the maxillo- 

 palatine processes is comparatively slight.'' 



Dr. W. G. Rid e wo od, F.Z.S., read a paper on the Skeleton of Re- 

 generated Limbs of the Midwife-Toad [Alytes obstetricans). He demonstrated 

 the possibility of the development, in the regenerated hind limb of the larva, 

 of tarsal, metatarsal, and phalangeal cartilages identical in every respect 

 with those of the normal limb, — Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S., described 

 a new species of Sea-Snake from Borneo, which he proposed to name Nydro- 

 p Ms Flow eri, after Mr. Stanley Flower, its discoverer. — Mr. Boulenger 

 also gave an account of the Reptiles and Batrachians lately collected by Mr. 

 W. F. H. Rosenberg in Western Ecuador. Seventj'-seven species were 

 enumerated, of which 23, viz. 11 Reptiles and 12 Batrachians, were descri- 

 bed as new. — P. L. S dater, Secretary. 



Druck Ton üreitkopf & Hârtel in lieipzig. 



