Januavy 27, 1835. 

 Lieut.-Col. Sykes in the Chair. 



Extracts were read from a Letter addressed to the Secretary by 

 J. B. Harvey, Esq., Corr. Memb. Z. S., and dated Teignmouth, Ja- 

 nuary 22, 1835. It was accompanied by a large collection of SheUs 

 from the south coast of Devonshire, and by specimens of Echinoder- 

 viata and Crustacea from the šame coast, which the ■nTiter presented 

 to the Society. It was also accompanied by drawings of a large 

 specimen of Caryophyllia Smithii, now living in Mr. Harvey's pos- 

 session : the drawings represent the animal shortly after feeding, 

 ■v\hen it is expanded sufficiently to contain the food, extending rather 

 above the level of the coral and raised in the middle ; and also as it 

 appears three or four hours after haAing been fed, when it expands 

 itself to the fuUest extent, and ejects, in the form oi floccuU, the crude 

 undigested matter. 



A Note \vas read from the Secretary of the United Service Mu- 

 seum, accompanying several skins of Birds transmitted for exhibi- 

 bition by direction of the Ornithological Sub-Committee of that 

 Museum. 'J'he specimens \vere brought under the notice of the 

 Meeting. 



The exhibition \vas resiuned of the SheUs collected by Mr. Cuming 

 on the western coast of South America and amongthe Islands of the 

 South Pacilic Ocean. Those brought before the present Meeting 

 Avere accompanied by characters by Mr. G. B. Sowerby, and com- 

 l^rised the foUowing species ; 



Genus HipPoxYx. 



" Of this remarkable genus Mr. Cuming brought home three spe- 

 cies in such perfect condition, as respects the shell, as to possess 

 both valves in situ. The two specimens which exhibit these three 

 species appear to me so interesting that I shall venture upon a par- 

 ticular description of thera. The first, of the species w'hich I have 

 named Hipp. Mitrula, is a group of about twenty individuals, of va- 

 rious sizes, from Vt to ^ an inch in diameter, adhering by their lower 

 or flat valves to an irregular piece of stone ; the attached valves as 

 usual, are conformed to the irregularities of the surface of the stone, 

 and when they have been at first attached to a cavity, they are hol- 

 Iow : the upper valves are also somewhat modified in form by the 

 šame cause, so as to be more or less regular according as the lower 

 valve has adhered to a more or less smooth and even part of the 



