240 



cation from the Prosector contained some remarks on the recent death of the 

 young male Giraffe in the Society's Gardens, in the course of which it was 

 stated that an examination of the neck of the animal had revealed an injury 

 to the 4th and 5th cervical vertebrae. This injury had caused the two bones 

 to ankylose, and the bend in the neck, so noticeable in the living animal, 

 was due to the epiphyses having grown only on one side of the bones. — 

 Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, F.Z.S., read, on behalf of Mr. E. Degen, a paper 

 entitled "Ecdysis, as Morphological Evidence of the original Tetradactyle 

 Feathering of the Bird's Fore-limb, based specially on the perennial moult of 

 Gymnorhina tilncen.'''' The material on which the paper was based consisted 

 of a large series of specimens of the Gymnorhina obtained at regular inter- 

 vals throughout the moulting-period, and the author had thus been able to 

 give a very complete account of the perennial replacement of the feathers, 

 avoiding the errors due to observations on the altered habits as produced by 

 captivity. The author showed that the moulting of the wing-feathers took 

 place in definite groups, and indicated a composite origin of the modern 

 feathering. He suggested that the new facts brought forward strengthened 

 his already published theory of the wing-feathers being derived from the 

 digital feathers of a four-fingered manus. Incidentally he suggested that the 

 eutaxy of the Passeres was essentially different from that of such primitive 

 birds as the Gallinae. — A communication from Prof. W. Blaxland Benham, 

 F.Z.S., contained some notes on the osteology of the Short-nosed Sperm- 

 Whale [Cogia breviceps], based on an examination of a specimen which had 

 been washed ashore on the coast of Otago, New Zealand. The soft parts of 

 the same specimen had formed the subject of a paper presented to the Society 

 by the same author in May of last year. — Two additional papers on the 

 results of the "Skeat Expedition" to the Malay Peninsula were read. The 

 first, by Mr. F. F. Laidlaw, gave an account of the Dragon-flies (with the 

 exception of Agrioninae) collected, and a list of all other species that had 

 previously been known from the Peninsula. One new genus, Climacobasis, 

 and twelve new species were described. The second paper, by Mr. W. E. 

 Collinge, contained an account of the collection of non-operculate Land 

 and Freshwater Mollusca made by the Expedition, and included descriptions 

 of three new genera [Apoparmarion, Paraparmarion, and Cryptosemelus) and 

 eight new species, besides contributions to the anatomy of certain species. 

 Descriptions of three species of Prisma in the British Museum collection, one 

 of which, P. Smithi^ was new, were also in the paper. — A communication 

 from Mr. W. F. Kirby contained a list of twenty-three species of Ortho- 

 ptera, of which specimens were contained in a collection made by Sir Harry 

 Johnston, K.C.B., in the Uganda Protectorate. — P. L. Sclater, Secretary. 



III. Personal -Notizen. 



Necrolog. 



Am 15. Januar starb in Cambridge, Mass., Alpheus Hyatt, der vor- 

 treffliche Zoolog und Paläontolog. Er war am 15. April 1838 in Washington, 

 D.C., geboren. 



Drnck von Breitkopf ts Härtel in Leipzig. 



