45 



April 25 th, 1837. 

 Thomas Bell, Esq. in the Chair. 

 A letter was read addressed to N. A. Vigors, Esq.. M.P., from 



Sn n'^i^^Tf °^ ^^^'^^' '^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^ fi^^ °iale specimen of the 

 bnowy Owl had been recently captured at Selby in Yorkshire 



frnnf'T ^^^ l^'^ fl^ibited the horn of a Deer supposed to'come 

 from India, which he considered as characteristic of a new species 

 pecuhar for the elongate acute form of the basai branch, which ap- 

 pears to have been depressed, and directed obhquely across the fore- 

 head of the anima . This horn. which had not attained its fuU period 

 of growth. agreed with that of the Rein Deer, in being paimate and 

 m havmg the basai frontlet depressed, in which latter characte; it is 

 Sn K ^^^I'^d.^a^^ species called by Mr. Gray Cervus Smithii. 

 \:ZBlūtM^.:;:':^^^'''^^ '° ^'^ ^°"^^^^°" °' GeneralHardwick 

 Mr Gray then adverted to some observations which he had made 

 on a tormer occasion during a discussion upon the nature of the re- 

 lation existmg between the Argonaut sheU and the Cephalopod 

 ^vhIch mhabits it. On that occasion, one argument made nse ofC 

 him in favour of the parasitic nature of this animal, was, that the 



^?tMn V/ " \'n"'? '^'" ^^ ^"^^^^ ^^^^ -"Id be ^ontained 

 ^ithm the eggs which often accompany the Ocythoe. He is now 

 disposed to attach less importance to this circumstance, havin^ re- 

 cently observed that the eggs of some moUusca, as the Buccinum 

 undatum^ ^r,or to the period of hatching, are eight or ten times a^ 

 large m diameter as when first deposited 



A paper vvas then read by Thomas Bell, Esq., entitled " Observa- 



CZ \fT^ ^"f ?'' ^'^^ '^ description of a new species." 

 Mr. Bell in 1826 laid before the Zoological Club of the Linnean 

 bociety some remarka upon a living female Grison which had been 

 Severai years in his possession, and he then proposed to consider the 

 species asconstitutmg a new generic type, to which he gavę the 

 name of Gabctis but without assigning its distinctive generic cha- 

 racters. Smce that period the examination of a specimen in the 

 collection of the Zoological Society. exhibiting a distinct specific dif- 

 ference from the former, but agreeing .vith it in the more essential 

 particulars, has confirmed the propriety of establishing this genus • 

 and m the present communication the author points out the charac- 

 ters and affimties of Galictis, and gives a description of the new 

 species under the name of G. AUamandi, M. Allamand having figured 

 a specimen m the fourth edition of Buffon's Natūrai Histor? which 

 may perhaps be identical with this second species. In constitutine 

 this new genus of MustelidcB. Mr. Bell has been guided solelv b v the 

 semiplantigrade form of the foot. for in no other important ^chlrac! 

 ter does it deviate from tlie typical genus of that family. A know- 



