PROCEEDINGS OP METROPOLITAN SOCIETIES. 297 



Esq., M.P., followed with some observations to the same effect, re- 

 marking how necessary it is for those who desire to advance scientific 

 zoology to penetrate somewhat deeper than the mere surface. Of 

 course no classification could be relied on which was founded on only 

 one system of organs, whether these were exterior or internal; it was 

 on the totality of characters that the natural system reposed, upon 

 the whole rather than a part ; and an arrangement based on the en- 

 tire conformation of organisms must necessarily be permanent, and 

 constitute a secure foundation for extensive generalizing. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



April 10th. — Professor Owen read a paper on the organs of de- 

 glutition of the Giraffe ; in which an adequate reason was assigned 

 for the privation of voice in this interesting quadruped. The same gen- 

 tleman then proceeded to describe in detail the alimentary organs of 

 that extraordinary bird, the Apteryx of New Zealand, a specimen of 

 which, in spirits, had recently been presented to the Society by the 

 noble President, the Earl of Derby. The oesophagus was found to 

 be narrow, and destitute of any enlargement or craw ; the stomach 

 of small size, and partaking rather of the character of a membranous 

 stomach than of a true gizzard ; the intestine was slender, and fur- 

 nished with large cceca ; and the contents of the stomach proved to 

 be the remains of insects, traces of which were likewise met with in 

 the cceca. In short, the general characters presented an approxima- 

 tion rather to the Ostrich and Rhea type, than to that of the Emeu 

 and Cassowary ; and it should be remembered that the Apteryx also 

 resembles the former genera in the circumstance of its feathers being 

 quite destitute of the accessory plume, which, in the Emeu and Cas- 

 sowary, attains its maximum of developement in the whole class. 

 Mr. Blyth next exhibited a Duck obtained in the London market 

 during the last week in March, which proved to be the American 

 Widgeon, a species new to the fauna of this country and of Europe. 

 It had been purchased for a variety merely of the Common Widgeon, 

 under which supposition a female of the same species that accompa- 

 nied it had unfortunately been passed over, though not without some 

 hesitation on the part of Mr. Bartlett, who secured the male. This 

 species is, to a certain extent, mediate in its characters between the 

 Common Widgeon and Teal, having the narrower and more length- 

 VOL. VIII., no. xxiv. 38 



