25 



March 13th, 1838. 

 ■VVilliam Yarrell, Esq., in the Chair. 



Mr. Ogilby read a letter from Mr. V. der Hoeven, in vhich the 

 writer expresses his belief that the large Salamander preserved in a 

 living statė at Leyden ought to be regarded as a species of Harlaji's 

 genus Menopoma ; its specific characters eonsisting in the absence 

 of the branchial apertures, which are present in the species upon 

 which Harlan founded his genus. M. V. der Hoeven thinks iti:)ro- 

 bable that the branchial apertures were present in the Leyden Sala- 

 mander in the young statė, and he proposes to adopt the generic 

 term Cryptohranchus in preference to that of Menopoma, and to give 

 it the specific name of Japonicus. He further statės that his obser- 

 vations upon this singular reptile \vill shortly be published in a 

 Dutch Journal. 



Mr. Owen obser\'ed, \vith reference to the opinion of M. V. der 

 Hoeven respecting the relations of the Gigantic Salamander of 

 Japan to the Menopome of the AUeghany Mountains, that the persist- 

 ence of branchial apertures was a structure so likely to influence 

 not only the habits of an amphibious reptile, but also the struc- 

 tural modifications of the osseous and vascular parts of the re- 

 spiratory organs, as to render it highly improbable that the Me- 

 nopome should be related generically to a species ha^ing no trace 

 of those apertures. He thought, therefore, that the ąuestion of 

 the Menopome and gigantic Japanese Salamander being different 

 species of the šame genus, could be entertained only on the sup- 

 position, that the branchial apertures were a transitional structure 

 in the forraer reptile as they are in the latter. That this was the 

 case he eonsidered as highly improbable ; for, besides the ossified 

 statė of the hyoid apparatus, there was evidence in the Hunterian 

 Collection that both the malė and female generative organs in the 

 Menopome have arrived at maturity Avithout any change having taken 

 place in the condition of the branchial apparatus usually eonsidered 

 as characteristic of the Menopome. He therefore eonsidered it to be 

 undoubtedly generically distinct from the gigantic Salamander of 

 Japan, the true affinities of which could only be determined satis- 

 factorily after a complete anatomical investigation, especially of its 

 sanguiferous, respiratory, and osseous systems. 



Mr. Ogilby exhibited a drawing, made by Major Mitchell, of a 

 Marsupial animal foimd by that officer on the banks of the river 

 MuiTay, during his late journey in the interior of New South Wales. 

 Mr. Ogilby stated his original belief that the animal in ąuestion be- 

 longed to the Perameles, under which impression he had proposed 

 to name it Per. ecaudatus, from its entire want of tail, a cha- 



No. LXIII. — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



