302 Chronicles of Science. | [ April, 
embryo into the buccal cavity. The aperture of the marsupial 
pouch is then opened by the paws and the embryo dropped into it 
from the mouth, when it soon attaches itself to the mammary 
gland. Both Owen and Bennett had guessed these facts, but M. 
Verreaux was the first to observe them. 
Dr. J. Ei. Gray has received a letter from Dr. Hermann Bur- 
meister, of .Buenos Ayres, communicating the discovery of a new 
Cetacean, intermediate in character between the remarkable genera 
Hyperoodon and Ziphius. 'The new dolphin is to be called Ziphio- 
rhynchus cryptodon. 
An Italian frigate of war sailed shortly after Christmas last on 
an expedition to Siam and other countries, partly for the purpose 
of forming treaties of commerce, but also with the cbject of scientific 
discovery. ‘The naturalists on board are Professor de Filippi of 
Turin and Dr. Henry Giglioli of Pisa, who was lately studying 
science in this country. The vessel has touched at Buenos Ayres 
and Monte Video, where the naturalists made some explorations 
into the interior and obtained several new species of birds and Lepi- 
doptera. The pelagic animals obtained on the voyage were many 
ot them new. The ‘ Magenta’ is now on her way to Singapore. 
Professor Agassiz is apparently meeting with great success in 
his expedition to the borders of the Amazon. He has more than 
tripled the number of species of fishes known in the Amazon and its 
tributaries. He has also discovered many new generic forms, and 
has established various remarkable physiological facts, such as the 
incubation of the eggs of several species of the family of the 
Chromide. In a letter from him, dated Ega(Amazons), 22nd Septem- 
ber, 1865, he says :—“ I have observed a species of Geophagus, which 
I have described under the name of G. Pedroinus, the male of which 
carries on its snout a very prominent knob, which is entirely 
wanting in the female and young. This same fish has a most 
extraordinary mode of reproduction. The eggs pass—I don’t know 
how—into the mouth, the bottom of which they cover, between the 
internal appendages of the branchiz, and especially in a pocket, 
formed by the superior pharyngians, which they completely fill. 
There they are hatched, and the young, free of their shell, continue 
to grow until they are in a fit state to take care of themselves. I 
don’t know how long this takes, but I have already met with 
examples, in which the young were no longer provided with the 
vitelline sac.” 
M. Charles Robin, the distinguished physiologist, has been 
elected a Member of the Academy, in the section of Anatomy and 
Zoology, to supply the vacancy caused by the death of M. Valen- 
ciennes. ‘The other candidate chosen for ballot was Dr. Lacaze 
Duthiers. 
M. Aug, Dumeril lately communicated to the French Academy 
