PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



COMMITTEE of SCIENCE and CORRESPONDENCE 



OF THE 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 10, 1832. 



Joshua Brookes, Esq., in the Chair. 



Specimens were exhibited of several Birds, Land-Shells, and 

 Corals, together with the cranium of a Balanoptera, haCėp., ali 

 collected at the Cape of Good Hope by Dr. Andrevv Smith, Corr. 

 Memb. Z. S., and presented by him to the Society. In illustration 

 of the subjects exhibited, extractswere read from a Jetter from Dr. 

 Smith which accompanied his present. The Balceiioptera vvas there 

 referred to as Bul. Capensis : it is apparently the Rorąunl du Cap 

 of M. Cuvier in his ' Ossemens Fossiles,' which has since been 

 named by M. Desmouiins Bal. Poeskop, and by M. Fischer Bal. 

 Lalandii. 



Specimens were also exh:bited of several Mainmalia, Birds, and 

 Fis/ies, collected by Mr. H. Cuming chiefly in Chili. 



Araong the Mammalia, Mr. Bennett pointed out as apparently 

 new to science an Otter and a Mouse, which n)ay be characterized 

 as follovvs : 



LuTRA Chilensis. Lut. supra saturate vinaceo-brunnea, infrh 

 pallidior ; caudd brunneo-nigricante, corporis dimidio parum 

 breviore. 



Hab. in aquis Chilije. 



The fur is composed of hairs of two kinds : the inner vvoolly and 

 thickly furnished ; the outer silky, also thickly set, and completely 

 concealing the inner. The colour of the fur of the upper surface 

 is glossy brovvn on the head, (vvhere the hairs are comparatively 

 short,) and increasing in depth as it proceeds backwards becomes 

 blackish on the rump, and still more decidedly so on thetail. The 

 lovver surface of this niember, for the extrerae three-fourths of its 

 length, is of the šame colour with the upper ; near the vent it be- 

 comes paler and assumes a reddish hue ; and this colour is conti- 

 nued, vvith a slight canescent tint, along the whole of the under 

 [No. XV.] ZooL. Soc. Proceedings of the Coajm. of Science. 



