128 



Nov. 9, 1847. 

 W. Yarrell, Esq., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



A coramunication was read from M. Dolmatoff, Master of the 

 Imperial Forests in the Government of Grodno, which gavę an ac- 

 count of the capture and partial domestication of the young Aurochs 

 recently presented to the Society by His Majesty the Emperor of 

 Russia. 



The Secretary informed the meeting that this paper had been 

 tiansmitted through Sir Roderick I. Murchison, to \vhose iufluence 

 and exertions the Society were chiefly indebted in the acąuisition 

 of this most important addition to the collection. The first letter 

 addressed to the Council by Sir Roderick, announcing the intention 

 of His Majesty, bore date Feb. 10, 1846, and from that period to 

 the present he had been in communication \vith His Excellency Count 

 Kisselef on this subject. The Secretary regretted, in common \vith 

 his coUeagues, and he believed the whole of the Society, that the 

 absence of Sir Roderick on the Continent had hitherto prevented 

 him from witnessing the successful result of his good offices, or even 

 of receiving an official communication of the thanks of the President 

 and Council, which, it was almost needless to say, awaited his return 

 in the most cordial and expressive form. 



The other papers read were : 



1. Additional Note on a fapek on Porcupines (svpra, p. 102). 

 By j. e. Gray, Esq., F.R.S. etc. etc. 

 In my former paper I was unable to gi ve the country of Acanthion 

 Cuvieri. Mr. Frazer has since brought a skuU and two living spe- 

 cimens of this species from Algiers ; the latter are now in the Gar- 

 dens of the Society, and Mr. Whitfield has brought others from the 

 Gambia. In the number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Calcutta for August 1847 just arrived (p. 772. t. 32), I observe that 

 Mr. Hod-^son has described a new species of Indian Porcupine under 

 the name of Ht/stru- alopeeus, called AnckoUa by the natives, which 

 is certainly an Acanthion, and most probably my A. Hodgsonii ; if so, 

 the latter name will have the priority, aa having been published in 

 July. 



