239 



history of centipedes and has been brought to the notice of the 

 Zoological Society of London by members of the Club. Un- 

 fortunately this i^articular specimen died on the voyage to Lon- 

 don and no additional evidence was forthcoming until a few 

 weeks ago, when Mr. Giuseppi presented me with one engaged in 

 this interesting operation. I was enabled to take a few notes 

 on the subject, but they are necessarily very incomplete and 

 much more has still to be learned with regard to this curious 

 habit. Another object of merit which was first exhibited at a 

 Club meeting, was the fine specimen of Galictis bo.rbara shot by 

 Mr. J. Mitchell and presented by him to the collection. Ano- 

 ther equally valuable one was a number of plants collected by 

 Mr. Broadway during an excursion with Mr. Urich to Diebe 

 Valley. Mr. Harris Ganteaume of Bolivar, a corresponding mem- 

 ber, who has never been al^le to attend one of our sittings, has 

 manifested the greatest sympath}^ with our proceedings and has 

 •added considerably to the eclat of several of them by the valuable 

 objects he has presented the Club, amongst which are the Indian 

 blowgun l)y which the natives of the l)anks of the Orinoco kill 

 birds and even many large animals ; the skin of an ocelot and an 

 anaconda and a live ant bear which has recently died. Dr. Rake 

 has, oia many occasions, contributed lai'gely to the entomological 

 section, notably some bees and spiders which are likely to turn 

 out new species, and so have Messrs. Broadway, Potter, Hewlett 

 and Eagle. A racoon acquired by the Club, some time since wf s 

 a visitor at one meeting and was apparently as interested in the 

 proceedings as he was interesting to the members. Two small 

 tortoises found at Matura, lent by Mr. Gray to the Club, have 

 demonstrated the fact that our knowledge of the various species 

 found in this Island may be considerably extended. Another 

 exhibit was a pair of 3'oung crocodiles from the Orinoco lent by 

 Mr. "Williamson, and a leech j^resented by Mr. Corrie. 



During the past twelve months 20 original papers have been 

 read at the Club meetings and published in the Journal &nd these 

 were nearly all illustrated by objects in connection with the sub- 

 jects on which they were written. Among the most important of 

 these were Dx*. Rake's " Natural History Notes in India," Mr. 

 Tanner's second paper on the " jEcodoma cephalote^" " somepeculie-r 

 types of Rhyncophorus Beetles, " Mr. Oldfield Thomas's " Pz-eliminai y 

 list of Trinidad Mammals." In connection with this paper I am 

 afraid that the British Museum authorities have been misinformed 

 upon some points and that some of the animals sent to them ^^ears 

 ago, as being indigenous to the Colony, really came from Venez- 

 uela. It will be, I trust, the endeavour of the Club to find out 

 whether this is so or not. The other papers calling for special 

 mention were Mr. Broadway's elaborate description of " the Na- 



