66 Zoological Society. 



are not rare: the name given to them by the natives is Phar-Axtff", 

 the Palmetto Mouse. 



Mr, Drummond Hay also referred to four Ostriches sent in the 

 same transport as a present to His Majesty from the Sultan of Ma- 

 rocco, which have since been graciously presented bj^ His Majesty 

 to the Society. They were obtained in a region of the Desert 

 called Hamadah, situated about eight or ten days journey from Tafi- 

 leht in the direction to which the Moosselmin address their prayers. 

 Though yet so young as not to have assumed their adult plu- 

 mage, (no external distinction being at present observable in them,) 

 two of them were seen in the act of treading while they remained 

 at Tangier. — The same precocity, it may be remarked, has been 

 previously noticed in other birds. 



The letter concludes by promising a continuance of Mr. Drum- 

 mond Hay's exertions on behalf of the Society, and by referring 

 particularly to his endeavours and those of Mr. Willshire, H. M.'s 

 Consul at Mogadore, to procure skins and living specimens of seve- 

 ral interesting Mammalia and Birds, and especially the quadruped 

 known to the Arabs as the Mhorr. 



A collection of Fishes was exhibited, consisting of nearly thirty 

 species. It was presented to the Society by Captain Belcher, R.N., 

 by whom it was formed during his recent survey of part of the At- 

 lantic coast of Northern Africa. The following apparently new spe- 

 cies contained in it were pointed out by Mr. Bennett. 



PoLYNEMUS Artedii. Pol. digitis quinque corpora longioribus ; 

 pinna anali elongatd : pinnis dorsalibus, caudali, pectoralique 

 nigrO'irroratis. 

 D.7,^. P. 15. A. A. 



Pol. quinquarius? Linn. — Seba, Thes. torn. iii. pi. xxvii.y] 2. 



Longitudo corporis, 64-; pinnae caudalis, 2i ; digitorum 3tii 

 itique, 16 ; latitudo corporis, I4 unc. 



Except in the elevation and triangular form of the first dorsal fin, 

 in which it agrees with the other Polynemi, this species differs in no 

 respect from the fish figured by Seba, and described by Artedi in the 

 text of the ' Thesaurus ' under the name of Pentanemus. On this 

 Linnaeus established his Pol. quinquarius. MM. Cuvier and Va- 

 lenciennes have recently united the latter with Pol. paradisceus, 

 Linn., to form their Pol. longijilis : a union to which they were 

 induced by a belief that Pol. quinquarius was founded on a mutilated 

 specimen, in which two of the free rays on each side had been re- 

 moved, — their extensive inquiries having failed in procuring for 

 them any Polynemus possessing free rays exceeding the body in 

 length and only five in number. There is, however, another marked 

 distinction in Seba's figure in the length of the anal fin, which is 

 nearly twice that usual in the genus, containing almost double the 

 usual number of rays. In this respect and in the number and length 

 of the free rays beneath the pectoral fin, Pol. Artedii agrees with 

 the figure and description oi Pol. quinquarius, with which, but for 

 the difference in the form of the first dorsal fin, it must have been 

 regarded as specifically identical. Its distinction from the other 



known 



