512 Zoologicctl Society. 



their winter dress ; the Golden Oriole ; and ether species : all of 

 which were severally brought under the notice of the Meeting by Mr. 

 Gould, at the request of the Chairman. 



Mr. Gould subsequently exhibited specimens of various Birds 

 which he had recently received from M. Temminck : including a 

 new species of Ptarmigan from Siberia ; and a Troe/on from the In- 

 dian Islands, nearly allied in almost every particular to the Trog. 

 crythrocepluita of the Himalaya, but having the wing fully an inch 

 shorter, with a tail bearing a relative proportion. 



The Secretary announced the arrival in the Menagerie, since the 

 last Meeting of the Society, of the four Giraffes, the capture of 

 which was described by M. Thibaut in a letter read at the Meeting 

 on February 9, 1 836, and translated in the present volume, at p. 144. 



He also directed the attention of the Members to a specimen of 

 Temminclc' s Horned Pticasant,Tragopon Temminetiii, Gray, which had 

 recently been added to the Menagerie by the liberality of J. R. 

 Reeves, Esq., of Canton : to a pair of the Serin Finch, Fringilla 

 Serinns, Linn., brought from Italj^ for the Society, and presented to 

 it by Mr. Willimott ; and to a monstrous variety of the Indian Tor- 

 toise, Tcstudo Indica, Linn., which had also been latelj' added to the 

 Menagerie, and \\hich is remarkable for the great irregularity of the 

 surface of its shell, each of the plates being raised into high conical 

 eminences. 



A paper was read by Mr. Maitin " On the Osteology of the Sea 

 Otter, Enhydra marina, Flem." It is founded on a jierfect skeleton 

 of the animal contained in the collection made by that energetic 

 traveller the late David Douglas, and acquired, subsequently to his 

 decease, by the Society. This skeleton was exhibited. 



Mr. Martin refers in the first instance to the dentary characters 

 of this remarkable animal, which were correctly described and 

 figured by Home in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1796 ; and 

 then adverts to some erroneous statements which have since been 

 made respecting its molar teeth by various authors, including 

 Cuvier, who appear to have possessed no opportunities of examining 

 specimens. In the course of his communication he describes in 

 detail the number and form of the teeth, which consist of six in- 

 cisors in the upper jaw and of four in the lower, the outer one 

 on each side in either series being larger than the others and as- 

 suming, in the upper jaw, someM'hat of the form of the canines ; 

 of a strong canine on each side of the incisors in either jaw ; and of 

 four molars on either side in the upper, and five in the lower jaw, of 

 which two in the upper and three in the lower are false and suc- 

 cessively increase in size towards the true molars, the latter being 

 large, broad teeth, with flattened crowns somewhat depressed in the 

 middle : in the upper jaw the hindermost of the true molars is much 

 larger than the other, while in the lower it is comparativel)^ small. 



The total length of the skeleton is 3 feet 2 inches ; of which the 

 skull measures 5 inches, and the tail, 10. 



The general form of the skull nearly resembles that of the Common 

 Otter, Lutra vulgaris, Storr ; but it is proportionally broader, and is 



