97 



Argalia ohvacea. 



Olive-green ; beneath pale brown ; sides of neck and body yellow 

 spotted ; tail rather longer than the body and head, thick at the base. 

 Paims of the feet bright yellow. 



Inhab. Venezuela. 



Mr. Dyson found a pair of these lizards on a tree in the moun- 

 tains, 8000 feet above the level of the sea, near the Colonia de Tova, 

 by a tree called Grand Cedro, the largest known in Venezuela, and 

 much larger than that described by Humboldt. 



They now form part of the collection of the British Museum. The 

 sexes are quite alike in form and colour. 



2. Account of a Black and White Mottled Swan, on the water 



IN THE DĖMESNE OF THE EaRL OF ShANNON, CaSTLE MaRTYR, 



CouNTY Cork. By Maurice Glencon, Gamekeeper to the 

 Earl of Shannon. Communicated by the President. 



In the year 1843 a malė hlack swan paired with a white female 

 swan ; she laid six eggs, and hatched four cygnets. Before they got 

 to the age of six months, three of them met vvith untimely deaths. 

 This bird in 1845 paired with its father, and laid four eggs, \vhich 

 came to nothing. It is very likę the father about the head, but about 

 the body it resembles the white swan. It lives on the water with 

 others, black swans and white swans, and agrees with both. 



The above statepiėnt may be relied on as authentic and correct, 

 because I have' tvitnessed it from beginning to ending. 



Upon the šame island where this bird was born 1 have seen more 

 than eighty cormorants' nests, on Scotch fir-trees not under sixty feet ' 

 in height, in which they hatched their young. This vi^as fourteen 

 year s ago. 



Castle Martyr, June 1847. 



3. On the Porcupines of the Older or Eastern Continent, 



with descriptions of some NEvvf SPECIES. By J. E. Gray, 

 EsQ., F.R.S., F.Z.S. ETc. 



This genus, on account of the similarity of the appearance of the 

 species, has been very imperfectly examined. M. F. Cuvier, in the 

 eleventh volume of the ' Mėmoires du Museum,' has given a paper 

 on the crania and teeth of the family, and divided them into genera, 

 forming those of the old world, which alone came within the scope 

 of this communication, into two : the first he calls Hystrix, and 

 figures as the type a skuU which he considers as that of the Porcu- 

 pine of Italy ; and formed a second genus under the name of Acan- 

 thion for a skuU brought by Leschenault from Java, and a skeleton 

 described by Daubenton (BufFon, H. N. xii. t. 53) in the Paris Mu- 

 seum. He gives a general description and some observations on the 

 relative size of the face and brain-cavity, rather than a character for 

 these genera, and no distinctive character by -cvhich the two species 

 of the genus Acanthion can be recognized. 



