Zoological Society. 61 



In the Cats generally, the connexion of the os hi/oides to the cra- 

 nium is not by a long elastic ligament, as in the Lion, but by an 

 uninterrupted series of bones. This latter structure exists in the 

 Cheetah. The Cheetah has also the circular pupil of the Lion, Tiger, 

 Leopard, and Jaguar, and is perhaps the most diurnal of the genus. 

 In the form of the (esophagus, and in the transverse ruga: of its 

 lower half, the Cheetah agrees with the Lion ; and, as in it and in the 

 other Feles, the cesoph-agits is not prolonged into the abdomen, but 

 terminates immediately after passing through the diaphragm in the 

 stomach. This organ in the Cheetah has all the peculiarities which 

 are found in the genus Felis. The intestines also agree in charac- 

 ter with those of that group; and the ccecum, as usual in it, is sim- 

 ple, having none of the convolution which is found in the Dog. The 

 liver, pancreas, and spleen, resemble those of the Cats generally; as 

 do also the kidneys in the arborescent form of their superficial veins: 

 a form, however, equally common to the Viverridce and the Felida:, 

 which also agree in having spiculce on the tongue. 



The viscera of the thorax in the Cheetah agree with those of the 



Cats. Thelytta,or rudiment of thelingual bone,so conspicuous in the 



Do<r, is reduced in it.as in the other feline animals, to a small vestige. 



There is, as in the Feles generally, no bone of the penis; and the 



glans, as usual in them, has retroverted papilla:. 



The elastic ligaments of the ungual phalanges exist in the same 

 number and position as those of the Lion ; they are, however, longer 

 and more slender, their length alone occasioning the incomplete 

 retraction of the claws as compared with the rest of the Felidce. 



Mr. Owen concluded by observing that in the circulating, respi- 

 ratory, digestive, and generative systems, the Cheetah conforms to 

 the typical structure of the genus Felis. 



September 24 .—A collection of skins of Birds, sixty-four in num- 

 ber, formed in the Himalayan Mountains, and presented to the 

 Society by Lady William Eentinck, was exhibited. It included 

 several species apparently new to science, and was particularly rich 

 in the interesting Pheasants of the Himalaya. The collection was 

 remarkable on account of the fine condition of the specimens, which 

 generally surpassed in beauty those previously contained in the 

 Society's Museum. 



A series of eighty skins of Birds, selected from a collection formed 

 in India by H. B. Hillier, Esq., and presented by that gentleman to 

 the Society, was exhibited. It comprised specimens of many spe- 

 cies in fine or interesting plumage. 



Mr. Bennett called the attention of the Meeting to a Monkey which 

 had been for some time living at the Society's Gardens, and which, 

 from a comparison of the figures and descriptions of recent authors, 

 lie had regarded as entirely new, until Mr. Ogilby pointed out to 

 htm its identity with the Malbrovck of Buffon, a very different animal 

 from that figured under the same name by M. Frederic Cuvier. The 

 Simiu Faunus, Linn., to which Buffon referred his Malbrouch, is wholly 

 founded on a figure given by Clusius in his ' Exotica,' which repre- 

 sints, if correctly drawn* a *peeies marly related to the Simia Diana, 

 Linn, (not V. Cuvier); and the Simia Cynosuna, Scop., with which 



