nee. 
Mr. Bartlett exhibited a head of a variety of the Common Goose 
in which the feathers at the back of the head were reversed so as to 
form a sort of ruff. It was stated that this variety had been per- 
petuated for several generations at the farm of J.C. Chaytor, Esq., 
at Croft near Darlington, and if properly treated by a judicious 
selection of breeding birds, might doubtless be made the origin of a 
new domestic breed of geese. Mr. Bartlett also exhibited the gizzard 
of a Nicobar Pigeon, from a specimen recently deceased in the So- 
ciety’s Gardens, and called attention to the peculiar stony develop- 
ment of the epithelial lining. 
Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of a large Horned Owl shot by 
Major W. E. Hay, F.Z.S., upon the borders of the Pangkong Lake 
in Thibet. He was disposed to consider the bird as a pale variety 
of Bubo maximus. Mr. Blyth (Journ. As. Soc. Beng. xix. p. 506) 
had noticed the report of the occurrence of this bird in the Hima- 
layas, but Mr. Sclater believed that this was the first recorded speci- 
men which had been obtained and examined. 
Mr. H. W. Bates exhibited a frugivorous Bat from Ega on the 
Upper Amazon, which he believed to belong to an undescribed species 
of Phyllostoma. 
The following papers were read :— 
1. CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ANATOMY OF THE GIRAFFE. By 
T. Spencer Cossoip, M.D., F.L.S. 
(Mammalia, Plates LXXVII., LX XVIII.) 
Notwithstanding the apparent completeness of that elaborate 
Memoir on the Giraffe by Prof. Joly and Mons. A. Lavocat, con- 
tained in the third volume of the ‘Transactions of the Strasburg 
Natural History Society*,’ combined with the more recent ‘ Osteo- 
logische Bemerkungen’ of Dr. George Jager}, there are still many 
points of interest associated with the study of the structure of this 
aberrant ruminant which remain to be elucidated. Some of these 
are matters of dispute, and a few have reference to the existence of 
peculiarities not known to occur in any other living mammal. 
The President and Office-bearers of the Zoological Society having 
liberally afforded me an opportunity of examining the carcass of a 
* Recherches historiques, zoologiques, anatomiques, et paléontologiques, sur la 
Giraffe (Camelopardalis Giraffa, Gmelin), par MM. N. Joly et A. Lavocat, Mém. 
de la Soc. d’Hist. Nat. de Strasbourg, tom. iii. livr. 3°, 1840-1846. This essay 
is illustrated by seventeen plates, many of the figures being borrowed from 
Prof. Owen’s Memoirs, published in the Zoological Society’s Transactions. It is 
satisfactory to notice, however, that the sources whence they have been obtained 
are carefully acknowledged. 
+ Osteologische Bemerkungen, von Dr. George Jaeger, Acta Acad. C. L. C. 
Nat. Cur. vol. xxvi. part i. 1855, Abschnitt 3. Oeffnung auf der Oberflache des 
Stirnbeins einer jungen Giraffe, p. 99. Bemerkungen iiber die Horner und 
Epiphysen, sowie iiber die Sinus des Schidels in Vergleichung mit andern 
Wiederkauern. Vergleichung der Grossenverhaltnisse einiger Knochen der Giraffe 
mit denen des fossilen Sivatherium, p. 102. 
