1864. | Zoology and Animal Physiology, 701 
IX. ZOOLOGY AND ANIMAL PHYSIOLOGY. 
Ir is stated that researches have been recently carried on in Borneo, 
on the most extensive scale, with a view to solve the oft-disputed 
question of the plurality of species amongst the orang-outangs of that 
island, and that Dr. KH. P. Houghton is about to submit a very large 
collection of skulls of the different varieties or species to English 
zoologists. 
The Aye-aye (Cheiromys Madagascariensis), an anomalous crea- 
ture, which has lately attracted more attention from the fact of a 
living specimen being successfully brought to the Zoological Gardens, 
has formed the subject of a memo by Dr. Peters, before the Berlin 
Academy. It had been shown by Professor Owen to be allied to the 
Lemurs, while the structure of the incisors shows an important relation 
to the Rodents. Dr. Peters concludes that, if we are not prepared to 
make a separate order for this genus, to be placed intermediate between 
the quadrumana and the rodents, as Brandt has proposed, it would, on 
the whole, be the most natural to regard it as an aberrant division of 
the Lemurs, and to unite it with them to form the representatives of a 
particular family. With the exception of the disposition of the hands 
and the opposable thumb of the hinder extremity, the principal 
character to be considered is the formation of the skull and brain. 
As regards the dentition, it would be of much interest to investigate 
whether at any period of the foetal life of the glires there exist teeth 
corresponding to the milk-teeth of the aye-aye, the formula of which 
exhibits a close relation to that of the insectivora. 
The sudden occurrence of Pallas’ sand grouse (Syrrhaptes para- 
doxus) over the greater part of Europe has attracted the attention of 
ornithologists, and Mr. Alfred Newton has collected information which 
shows that this remarkable bird, hitherto almost unknown to the 
European fauna, has been met with during the year 1863 in no less 
than. 148 localities in Europe and Great Britain, tracing the invading 
host through 33° of longitude from Galicia to Donegal. He regards 
the proximate cause of this wonderful movement to the natural over- 
flow of the population of Syrrhapies, resulting from its ordinary 
increase, being a bird which has comparatively few enemies, while its 
time of incubation is short in comparison with what it is in most 
ground-breeding birds. Mr. Newton inclines, from the remarkable 
form of the primaries of the wing, the filiform tail feathers, and 
syndactylous feet, to believe that the sand grouse is not improbably 
“the conquering hero of a long struggle for existence,” and striving to 
extend its range in all directions; and he predicts that unless some 
physical change occurs in the Tartar steppes which may have the effect 
of relieving the internal pressure, another outpouring may be safely 
predicted. 
Mr. Allis exhibited to the Linnean Society bones and photographs 
of a Dinornis, of which the skeleton is nearly perfect. Out of nine 
left ribs seven are still in situ, and the sternum is perfect and as fresh 
to appearance as though the bird had been alive last year. The inner 
VOL. I. 3B 
