Miscellaneous. 295 



January 13, 1886.— Prof. T. G. Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.E.S., 



President, in the Chair. 



The following communication was read : — 



" On some Fish-remains from the Tertiary Strata of New 

 Zealand." By James W. Davis, Esq., P.G.S. 



A number of fossil fish-remains from Tertiary beds in New Zea- 

 land have been forwarded to the author by Captain P. W. Hutton, 

 and were described in the present paper, The forms of which 

 descriptions were given are two new species of Lamna, Carcharodon 

 angustidens, Agassiz, and a new Carcharodon, one new species of 

 Notidanus, one of Myliohatis, and one referred to Sparnodus. All 

 the above are founded on teeth. A vertebra of Lamna and a 

 fish-spine were also described, and the collection contained a 

 specimen regarded by the author as a fragment of a Reptilian 

 tooth. 



3-'^ 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



On the Question of the Origin of the European Races of Dogs. 

 By Prof. J. N. Woldrich. 



I STAND now in the same position as formerly* with regard to 

 this question. It is, I think, just as impossible to derive our races 

 of dogs from one or all of our wild European Canidae (wolf, jackal, 

 and fox) as it is to derive the Erropean races of men from one or 

 more of the still extant savage peoples, or to obtain a European 

 civilized race by continued culture from a Bosjesman. Only a very 

 careful detailed study of the fossil remains of Canidae can lead us in 

 this respect into the right road. I have therefore already, in my 

 writings on Diluvial Canidae, sharply separated t\iQ forms which occur, 

 without any reference to the apparently scarcely solvable question 

 whether they were species, races, or varieties. A fusion of allied 

 fossil forms may be left to further study ; this can only be effected 

 when the detailed knowledge of fossil forms has become much 

 more extensive. 



According to my investigations, the following forms of domestic 

 dogs have been made known from alluvial, prehistoric, and early 

 historic times by the discovery of their remains : — Canis familiaris 

 Spalletti, Strobel ; C. familiaris palustris, Riitim. ; C familiaris 

 palustris ladogensis, /Lnucin; C. familiaris intermedins, Wold. ; 

 G. familiaris Mostranzeivi, Anucin ; G. familiaris ojptima; matris, 

 Jcittcles (two forms) ; and G. familiaris decumanus, Nehring. Of 



* See the author's memoir ^'Ueber Cauideu des Diluviums," in 

 Denkschr. k.-k. Akad. Wiss. in Wien, Band xxsix., and other papers. 



