53 



as the middle one, the outer one being the shortest. In the Eagle 

 the inner divisiou is of quite equal length with, or is longer than the 

 middle trochlea ; the proportions of the three trochlese in the Vul- 

 tures corresponding best -vvith those i n the Dodo. Another character 

 by which the Dodo resembles the Vulture more than the Eagle is 

 manifested by the proportions of the proximal phalanx of the second 

 toe (innermost of the three anterior ones) ; this is very short, and 

 is often anchylosed to the second phalanx in the Eagles : it is almost 

 as long in the Vultures as in the Dodo. 



Upon the whole, then, the Raptorial character prevails most in 

 the structure of the foot, as in the general fortn of the beak, of the 

 Dodo, compared with Birds generally ; and the present limited amount 

 of our anatomical knowledge of the extinct terrestrial Bird of the 

 Mauritius -vvould lead to support the conclusion that it is an extremely 

 modified form of the Raptorial Order. 



Devoid of the power of flight, it could have had small chance of 

 obtaining food by preying upon the members of its own class ; and if 

 it did not exclusively subsist on dead and decaying organized matter, 

 it most probably restricted its attacks to the class of Reptiles, and to 

 the littoral fishes, Crustacea, &c. 



The author concluded by recommending search to be made for 

 bones of the Dodo in the superficial deposits, the alluvium of rivers, 

 and the caves in the islands of Mauritius and Rodriguez ; little 

 doubting that an active exploration -vvould be as richly rewarded as 

 similar investigations have been in the islands of New Zealand, by 

 the recovery of the remains of the great extinct species of terrestrial 

 birds which formerly inhabited them, 



Mr. Loveli Reeve then read a paper containing " Descriptions of 

 forty new species of Haliotis, fi-om the coUection of H. Cuming, 

 Esq.":— 



The genus Haliotis afFords an unusual abundance of novelty, from 

 the circumstance of it never having been selected for the subject of 

 an illustrated monograph; the species are, moreover, M'ell-defined, 

 and may be easily determined by a careful examination of the varia- 

 tions of sculpture and arrangement of colours. 



The Haliotides are interesting in form as being the most evolved 

 and depressed of spirai shells, and they have been arranged with the 

 Chitons and Limpets as exhibiting the nearest apparent afiinity -vvith 

 the non-spiral Gastropods. They present also a singularity of struc- 

 ture in great measure analogous to the orifice in the shell of Fissu- 

 rella or to the fissure in Emarginula. On the left side of the shell, 

 in a direct curve parallel to the inflexed edge, is a ro-w of eąuidistant 

 perforations, made by the animal in its progress of growth for con- 

 veying the -vvater to the breathing organs ; the mantle is slit in that 

 direction to a certain extent, and the -vvater passes into the respiratory 

 cavity through a tubular filament protruding from each hole. The 

 number of pallial filaments being alike in the šame individual through- 

 out its Severai stages of growth, the shell mostly presents the šame 

 number of holes at all ages, filling up the hindmost orifice as a new 



