338 Zoological Society. 



April 9.— Prof. Owen, V.P., F.R.S., in the Chair. 



Description of a new species of Monkey, recently 

 LIVING in the Society's Menagerie. By John Edward 

 Gray, Esq., F.R.S. etc. 



Presbytis albigena. Grey-cheeked Presbytis. 



Black ; throat, sides of the neck and front of the chest greyish ; 

 face black, nearly bald, with a few short, rigid, black hairs on the 

 lips ; a tuft of elongated rigid hairs over each eye ; the cheeks are 

 covered with short, adpressed, greyish hairs. Tlie hairs of the body 

 are uniform black to the base, rather elongated and flaccid, forming 

 a fringe along each side, and a compressed crest on the crown and 

 nape. The hands and feet are short ; the fore-thumb is small, the 

 hinder one rather large and broad. 



Hab. West Africa? 



This species is very like Presbytis obscurus, but it is blacker, and 

 has no pale spot on the nape, and the hair of the body is much 

 longer, more silky, and forms a compressed crest on the nape, which 

 is quite wanting in P> obscurus. 



It is more like P. melalopJais, but differs from it in being black, 

 and can scarcely be a black variety of that species. 



May 14.— William Yarrell, Esq., V.P., in the Chair. 



The Secretary stated that, through the liberality of Ronald Gunn, 

 Esq., and Dr. Grant, of Launceston, the Menagerie had been en- 

 riched by the safe arrival of two living specimens of Thylacinus cyno- 

 cephalus. The author states in the letter which accompanied this 

 most valuable and interesting gift, that — 



" An observation of mine, contained in a letter to Sir W. Hooker, 

 and which was not meant for publication, has been misunderstood, 

 and has led to the propagation of error — for which I am very sorry. 

 In it I said the Thylacine's tail was not compressed — m reference to 

 an observation of Mr. Swainson's in the ' Encyclopaedia of Geography' 

 (then recently published), that the tail of the Thylacine was com- 

 pressed, which suggested the supposition that it was used in swimming, 

 &c. It was to the latter part of tliis observation that my remarks 

 were particularly applied (vide Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. i. p. 101-2), 

 and 1 meant that the tail was not compressed to such an extent as to 

 have justified the inference that it was useful in swimming ; and thus 

 that the animal obtained its food principally from the sea, which the 

 paragraph in the ' Encyclopaedia of Geography' implied. The tail is 

 obviously shghtly compressed, but not, I think, more so than the 

 tails of the DasjTires, to which aquatic habits are not attributed. In 

 writing hurriedly — and not for publication — I did not express myself 

 with the precision I ought to have done. I mainly wished to point 

 out that the tail would not justify the inference of Mr. Swainson 

 (which I thought very far strained), that the animal was aquatic in 

 its habits and piscivorous." 



