25 



January 25, 1831. 

 Sir Thomas Pliillipps, Bart. in the Chair. 



A specimen of the Cereopsis Novcb Hollandice, Lath., which had 

 recently died at the Society's Menagerie in the Regent's Park, was 

 exhibitetl. — Mr. Yarrell stated that having examined the body of 

 the bird, he liad remarked that its trunk was much shorter than that 

 of the true Geese, and more triangular in its shape : the pectoral 

 museles weie large and dark coloured. The trachea was of large, 

 but nearly uniform, calibre, vvithout convolution, and attached in 

 its descent to the right side of the neck as in the Heron and Bit- 

 tern ; in the form of its bone of divarication and bronchice it raost 

 resenibled the šame part in the Geese. The museles of voice were 

 two pairs; one pair attached to theshafts of the osjurcatorium, the 

 other to the inner lateral surface of the sternum. The lobas of the 

 liver were of large size, morbidly dark in colour ; their substance 

 broke dovvn under the finger on the slightest pressure. The sto- 

 mach, a true gizzard, was of small size as compared with the bulk 

 of the bird. The first duplicature of intestine was six inches in 

 length, at the returning portion of which the biliary and pancreatic 

 ducts entered ; from thence to the origin of the ccsca four feet six 

 inches ; the cceca nine inches each ; the colon and rectum together 

 five inches : the vvhole length of the intestines was seven feet five 

 inches. The stomach and intestinal viscera were loaded with fat j 

 the other parts exhibited nothing remarkable. 



Internally this bird,which was a malė, resembled the true Geese ; 

 but exteriially, in the character of the bones, particularly in the 

 rounded fonu of the edge, and great depth, of the keel of the ster- 

 num, and the lateral situation of ihe trachea in reference to the cer- 

 vical vertebrce, it was decidedly similar to the Ardeidce. 



Mr. Yarrell availed hiraself of the occasion to remark that the 

 Natatores of Mr. Vigors's systematic arrangement in Ornithology 

 were placed between the GraUatores or IVaders on the one side, and 

 the Raptores or Birds ofPrey on the other: and that the order con- 

 tained five groups, tvvo of which, the Alcadce and Colymbidce, were 

 called normai, containing those birds which vvere considered to be 

 the types of the true Sivimmers, and three groups, Anatidce, Peleca- 

 nidce, and Laridce, called aberrant, as deviating from the type, and 

 exhibiting some characters which connected them either wiih the 

 GraUatores or the Raptores. Some of the Laridce and Pelecanidče in 

 the length of their wings, their cousecjuent povver of flight, and the 

 mode of taking their food in the air, exhibited their obvious affinity 

 to the Birds of Prey on the one hand ; vvhile some of the Anatidce, 

 by their lengthened legs and neck, and their habit of passing much 



[No, III.] ZooL. Soc. Proceedings of the Comm. of Science. 



