1866. | Zoology and Animal Physiology. 307 
perhaps, be unconsciously infested by them ourselves, since they do 
not produce any apparent symptoms in the animals in which they 
occur. 
Zoological Society of London.—This Society has lately obtained 
one of the curious eared seals (Otaria) for its menagerie, probably 
an individual of the Arctocephalus Hookeri of Dr. Gray. It was 
brought from Cape Horn. Mr. T. Davidson, F.RS., has com- 
municated some notes to the Society on recent Brachiopoda dredged 
by the late Lucas Barrett off Jamaica. ive species were described 
in this paper, three of which were considered to be new to 
science. 
Mr. Flower has read the first part of his memoir upon the 
osteology of the sperm whale (Physeter). Mr. Flower’s obsery- 
ations were based principally upon a nearly perfect skeleton of 
this animal lately received by the Royal College of Surgeons from 
the coast of Tasmania, and upon a skeleton recently obtained by 
the British Museum from the north coast of Scotland. Other 
Specimens in various European collections had also been consulted 
when available. In the present communication, Mr. Flower con- 
fined his remarks to the vertebral column of this huge animal, 
which was described in detail. 
A communication has been made by Professor Baird, of the 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, containing some notes on the 
habits of the American Prong-Buck (Antilocapra Americana) by 
Dr. C. A. Caufield, which had been addressed in a letter to Professor 
Baird, from Monterey County, California, in September, 1858. Dr. 
Caufield’s notes tended to show that this animal sheds its horns 
periodically, and thus confirmed Mr. Bartlett’s observations, made 
upon this animal from the example living in the Society’s Gardens, 
which had been reported to the Society at one of their previous 
meetings. 
Mr. P. L. Sclater has read a paper upon the genera and species 
of Caprimulgidz belonging to the New World, commencing his com- 
munication by some preliminary remarks on the general arrange- 
ment of the whole family and its geographical distribution. Mr. 
Sclater proposed to divide the family Cae ob into three 
sub-families,—1. Caprimulgine ; 2. Steatornithine ; 3. Podargine, 
—and showed that each of these groups possessed very distinct 
characters, which might almost entitle them to rank as three 
different families. As regards the American Caprimulgide, Mr. 
Sclater was acquainted with about forty well-distinguished species 
of this group belonging to the New World, amongst which was one 
from New Grenada, considered to be new to science and proposed 
to be called Stenopsis ruficervix. 
