202 



apertnrd pallescente ; columelld supeme emarginatd, in medio 



dentiatlatd : long.O'l, lat. O'l o poli. 

 Hab. ad Insulas Polynesias. 

 Found on the coral reefs at Ducie's and Easter Islands. — G. B. S. 



Genus Ancylus. 

 Ancylus obliouus. Ane. iestd subovatd, diaphand, longUudina- 

 llter niinutissinik striatd; mucrone verticis obliguo : long.-i\, 

 lat. -Ciy poli. 



Hab. in Chili in rivulis, saxis adhaerens. — W. J. B. 



The stomach, cccca, cranmm, &c. oi Hyrai Capensis \vere exhibited, 

 the former forming part of the collection of Mr. Thomas BtlI. Mr. 

 Owen, vvho had anatomicaliy examined the individual from ivhich they 

 were obtained, read the follo\ving account of its structure. 



"It is unnecessaiy to enter before this Committee into the scien- 

 tific history of Hyrax Capensis, since it has aiready been fully given in 

 the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' and in the ' Decas Mammalium ' of Hemp- 

 rich and Ehrenberg : it may even appear presumptuous in me to 

 occupy your time with the anatomical description of an animal that 

 has alrcadv been desciibed by the most accomplished anatomist and 

 zoologist of his age. Since the time, hovvever, that the Cnpe Hyrnx 

 was dissected by Palias, no other original account of the structure of 

 the sof't parts of this animal has appeared ; for I infer from the de- 

 scriptions of some parts, as the digestive organs, which appear in 

 several places of the 'Lecons d'Anatomie Comparcc,' that Cuvier had 

 not, ai the period of his preparing that \vork for the press, himself 

 dissected the Hyrax ; and this may probably account for his silence 

 respecting some other remarkable anomalies in the structure of the 

 Hyrax described by Palias, but which the illustrious author of our 

 oniy text-book in comparative anatomy \vas probably averse to give 

 his sanction to, without having confirmed them by personai observa- 

 tion. On this account I feel that even a simple confirmation of the 

 observations of Palias \vould be acccptable to every zoologist ; but 

 in the following communication somearlditional facts, as wellas more 

 particular descriptions of the most remarkable anomalies, have been 

 given, the amount of vvhich will be readily appreciated by whoever 

 will compare this account with the original description of Cavia Ca- 

 pensis, in the ' Spicilegia,' and ' Miscellanea Zoologica,' of Palias. 



" The specimen here described was a full-gro\vn malė, placed tem- 

 porarilv in the Society's Menagerie by Thomas Bell, Esq. It lived in 

 the Gardens through the greater part of lašt summer, and died at the 

 vvinter repository for the smaller animals a few days ago. 



" As it w'as alreadv skinned \vhen I first savv it, its dimensions will 

 be more safely given from the skeleton; 1 shall only therefore here 

 observe that its length from the anterior surface of the upper incisors 

 to the vent was I foot oĄ inches. 



" On laying open the a6f/oH)e«, \vhich was of considerable capacity, 

 the viscera \vere found disposed in the follovving manner : — the liver 

 occupied the epigastric region and the atlantal part of both hypo' 



