118 



of all the species of recent animals hitherto described (estimated to be at 

 least 386 000 in number), Mr. Sclater shortly recapitulated the Rules which 

 were intended to be used in the preparation of this important work. The 

 main divergences from the Stricklandian Code were pointed out to be three 

 in number: — 1) The permission to use the same generic names in zoology 

 and botany; 2) the use of «tautonyms«, that is the same generic and specific 

 name for a species in certain cases; and 3) the adoption of the tenth edition 

 of the »Sytema Naturae« instead of the twelfth as the commencement of 

 binary nomenclature. The advantages of, and objections to, these alterations 

 of the Stricklandian Code were discussed, and other minor points of nomen- 

 clature were touched upon, amongst which was the use of trinomials, which 

 Mr, Sclater approved of as designations for subspecies. — A communication 

 was read from Graf Hans von Berlepsch, C.M.2.S., expressing his regret 

 at not being present on this occasion, and giving his opinion on the three 

 points specially discussed. He was not disinclined to give way on the first, 

 but maintained the necessity of the second and third alterations proposed 

 by the German Rules. — After some remarks by the Chairman, Mr. E. 

 Hartert spoke in defence of the German Rules, and was followed by Prof. 

 Lankester, Mr. H. J. Elwes, Dr. Sharp, Mr. Blanford, Mr. H. O. 

 Forbes, and Mr. Kir by, who made remarks on various points. — A com- 

 munication was read from Graf Hans v. Berlepsch and Mons. J. Stolz- 

 man n on the ornithological researches of M. J. Kalinowsky in Central Peru. 

 The collections made in the years 1890 — 93 had been transmitted to the 

 Branicky Museum of Warsaw, and contained examples of 295 species and 

 subspecies, of which an account was given in the present paper. Five species 

 and twenty-two subspecies were described as new. — Dr. David Sharp, 

 F.R.S., on behalf of the Committee for investigating the flora and fauna of 

 the West India Islands, communicated a paper on West-Indian terrestrial 

 Isopod Crustaceans prepared by M. Adrien Dollfus. The paper contained 

 an account of the Armadilloidian Isopods, of which specimens had been ob- 

 tained by Mr. H. H. Smith in the islands of Grenada and St. Vincent and 

 the adjacent islets. These were referred to thirteen species, all but one of 

 which were described as new to science. — P. L. Sclater, Secretary. 



2. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



January 7th, 1896. — Mr. Benjamin Sharp made his second com- 

 munication on the ethnology of Alaska and Siberia. 



January 14th. — H. A. Pilsbry »New species of the helicoid genus 

 Polygyrav.. — Mr. H. A. Pilsbry exhibited and described a specimen of 

 Pleurotomaria from Mulliea Hill, N. J. It resembles P. solariformis and 

 P. periata but is much more discoidal and is probably the imperfectly de- 

 scribed P. crotaloides of Morton. 



January 21th. — Henry A. Pilsbry: «Descriptions of new species of 

 Mollusks«. Witmer Stone : »The moulting of birds with special reference 

 to the plumages of the summer birds of Eastern North America«. Prof. Edw. 

 D. Cope exhibited and described the remains of fossil Balaenidae of which 

 he had determined sixteen species from the Neocene of Maryland, Virginia 

 and North Carolina. The earbones of an apparently undescribed Balaenoptera 

 and of a Balaena, apparently identical with a/finis, were also described. — 

 A resolution was adopted urging on the attention of the Smithsonian Institu- 



