+64 'X^ological Society. 



At the request of the Chairmun Mr. Spooner read his notes of the 

 post-mortem examination of the Dromedary, Camelus Dromedarius, 

 Linn., which lately died at the Society's Gardens, The liver, 

 kidneys, lungs, and heart, were greatly diseased. 



July 12. — At the request of the Chairman, Mr. Arthur Strickland, 

 of Boynton near Burlington, Yorkshire, exhibited a specimen, from 

 his collection, of a Puffin, shot in the middle of .\ugust 1828, in a 

 very stormy day, at the mouth of the Tees, which was apparently 

 referable to the Puffinus foliginosus (Procellaria^Nectris^Juliginosus, 

 Kuhlj. The Proc.fuliginosa of Solander's MS., though similar in 

 size and colour, is entirely different, and at once distinguishable by 

 having the bill short and powerful, and the nostrils in a raised tube, 

 like the true Prucellarice. Tiie ProcJiiUginosa, Lath., is also alto- 

 gether distinct, being the Thalassidroma Leachii, Vigors: and the 

 only description in the 'General History of Birds' which at all re- 

 sembles the present species, is that of the Proc. grisea, a species 

 distinct from that described under the sane name by Linnxus. In 

 its distinct and very little raised nostrils, the bird in question agrees 

 with the Shearwater Petrel, Piiffinus Aiiglorum, Ray : it has no back 

 toe, but in lieu thereof a strong claw ; and its tail is rounded. After 

 characterizing this bird as 'Puffinus fuligiiwsus, Mr. Strickland 

 concluded, by remarking, that although a single and perhaps purely 

 accidental instance of a species appearing in this country may not 

 fully entitle it to be ranked as a British bird, yet that the circum- 

 stance is worthy of being noticed, as it is only by carefully recording 

 such instances as do occur, that we can decide what is entitled to that 

 appellation, and be thereby enabled to perfect our local catalogues. 



At the request of the Chairman, Mr. Gould e.xhibited numerous 

 specimens of two Birds hitherto confounded under the name ofMota- 

 cillajlava. In a communication which accompanied his exhibition, 

 Mr. Gould explained the differences between the species, and entered 

 at some length into their history. One of them, iheye'dovo Wagtail 

 of England, was described by Ray under the name of Mot.Jtava : 

 its head is of a fine olive colour, and the stripe above and below the 

 eye is of a bright yellow. The other, the Mot.flava of Linnaeus, has 

 the head of a lead colour approaching to blue, and the stripe above 

 and below the eye of a clear white. The latter bird does not appear 

 to have been ever met with in England: it is the one described by con- 

 tinental authors under the Linnsean name ; while British writers have 

 as constantly described under that name the bird to which it was 

 originally given by Ray, and which regularly visits their own country. 

 For Ray's bird, Mr. Gould suggested that the name of Mot.Jlava, 

 under which it was described by our illustrious countryman, ought, 

 according to the established rules of nomenclature, to be retained; 

 To that of Linnaeus, M. Temminck, and other continental authors, 

 he proposed to apply the name of Mot. neglecta. 



Mr. Owen referred to his Notes (published in the First Part of the 

 'Proceedings,' pp. 141 and 151, Phil. Mag. and Annals, N.S. vol. 

 xi. p. 65 and 137) on the anatomy of individuals of two subgenera of 

 the Linn£Ean genus Z)«sy;)!j.s ; one of which, theZ)fl5. 6-cinctus,'Lmn., 



