224 



the year 1900; and a series of the specimens was laid upon the table. — 

 Mr. Sclater exhibited, on behalf of Capt. Stanley Flower, F.Z.S., photographs 

 of a young female Giraffe, a young male White Oryx [Oryx leucoryx\ and 

 a male Ostrich, with the vocal sac extended, which had been taken from 

 examples living in the Zoological Garden at Ghizeh, Egypt. — There were 

 exhibited, on behalf of Dr. Einar Lönnberg, two photographs of a skull of 

 the Musk-Ox from East Greenland. — Dr. Smith Woodward read a paper 

 on some remains of extinct Reptiles obtained from Patagonia by the La 

 Plata Museum. They included the skull and other remains of a remarkably 

 armoured Chelonian, Miolania, which had previously been discovered only 

 in superficial deposits in Queensland and in Lord Howe's Island, off the 

 Australian coast. The genus was now proved to be Pleurodiran. There was 

 also a considerable portion of the skeleton of a large extinct Snake, appa- 

 rently of the primitive genus of the S. American family Ilysiidae. Along 

 with these remains were found the well-preserved jaws of a large carni- 

 vorous Dinosaur, allied to Megalosauriis. Either the Dinosaurian Reptiles 

 must have survived to a later period in S. America than elsewhere, or 

 geologists must have been mistaken as to the age of the formation in 

 which the other reptiles and extinct mammals occurred. The discovery of 

 Miolania in S. America seemed to favour the theory of a former antarctic 

 continent; but it should be remembered that in late Secondary and early 

 Tertiary times the Pleurodiran Chelonians were almost cosmopolitan. Future 

 discovery might thus perhaps explain the occurrence oi Miolania in S.America 

 and Australia, in the same manner as the occurrence of Ceratodus in these 

 two regions was already explained. — Mr. R. L Po cock, F.Z.S., read a 

 paper containing descriptions of six new species of Trap- door Spiders from 

 China. One of these, Haloproctus Ricketti, was remarkable as constituting 

 a new genus of a specialized group of Ctenizidae, hitherto known only from 

 the Sonoran area of North America. Another, Latouchia Jossoria, also a new 

 genus, was a more typical Ctenizoid. — Mr. R. H. Burne, F.Z.S., read a 

 paper on the innervation of the supraorbital canal in the Sea-Cat [Chiniaera 

 mon s ir osa) J in which he showed that the two lateral line sense-organs of the 

 supraorbital canal (stated by Cole to be innervated in this fish by a branch 

 of the vphthalmicus profundus V., and which would thus form an- exception 

 to the otherwise universal innervation of the supraorbital canal by the Vllth 

 nerve) received their nerve-filaments from a compound nerve formed by the 

 union of a branch of the profundus V. with two twigs derived from the 

 ophthalmicus superficialis VII. The nerve-fibres derived from the super- 

 ficialis VII. in all probability were distributed to the two lateral line organs, 

 which brought them, as regards their innervation, into harmony with the 

 other organs of the supraorbital canal, while the fibres belonging to the 

 profundus probably formed the small branches that innervated the skin in 

 this region. — Mr. F, E. Beddard, F.R.S., read descriptions of certain new 

 or little-known Earthworms belonging to the genera Po/yforcw^//« and Typhoeus. 

 — Mr. Beddard also described the clitellum and spermatophores in the 

 Annelid Alma Stuhlmanni. — P. L. Sclater, Secretary. 



Druck von Breitkopf & Härtel iir Leipzig'. 



