293 Zoological Society. 



extract, containing an account of the Zoological Proceedings of the 

 Mauritius Natural History Society, was read : an abstract of it is 

 given in the ' Proceedings' of the Society. 



The Secretary called the attention of the Society to several ani- 

 mals which had recently been added to the Menagerie. They in- 

 cluded an ursine Opossum, Dasyurus ursinus, Geoff., an animal 

 known to the colonists of Van Diemen's Land by the appellation of 

 the Native Devil; a Secretary Vulture, Gypogeranus serpentarius, 111., 

 presented to the Society by Lieutenant-General Sir Lowry Colej 

 and two crowned Cranes, presented by the same distinguished officer, 

 on his return from the government of the Cape of Good Hope. 



Referring more particularly to the latter, he brought under the 

 notice of the Meeting specimens from the Society's Museum of 

 crowned Cranes from Northern and from Southern Africa, with the 

 view of illustrating the characters which distinguish as species the 

 birds from these several localities. Their specific distinction, he 

 stated, on the authority of Professor Lichtenstein, had been pointed 

 out, nearly thirty years since, by the Professor's father, who gave 

 to the Cape bird the name of Grus Regulorum : this distinction 

 has, however, not been generally known among ornithologists, al- 

 though to those connected with the Society it has for some time 

 been familiar, from observation both of numerous skins and of living 

 individuals. In the bird of North Africa, for which the specific 

 name of pavoninus will be retained, the wattle is small, and there 

 is much red occupying the lower two thirds of the naked cheeks: in 

 that of South Africa the wattle is large, and the cheeks are white, 

 except in a small space at their upper part ; the neck also is of a 

 much paler slate colour than that of the North African species. 

 He added that the latter characters had been observed to be per- 

 manent in an individual presented to the Society, in April 1 829, from 

 the collection of the late Marchioness of Londonderry, and which 

 is still living at the Gardens: they exist also in both the individuals 

 presented by Sir Lowry Cole. 



The two species may be distinguished as Anthropoides pavoninus 

 and Anthrop. Regulorum. 



Mr. Gray took occasion to remark that the oval form of the 

 nostrils in the crowned Cranes, added to other distinguishing cha- 

 racters which have frequently been pointed out, might be regarded 

 as indicating a generic difference between them and the Demoiselle 

 and Stanley Cranes, in which the nostrils have the lengthened form 

 usual in the genus Grus, a genus from which they scarcely differ 

 except in the comparative shortness of their bill. For the group 

 including the crowned Cranes the name of Balearica might, he 

 thought, be retained ; and that of Anthropoides be appropriated to 

 the one comprehending Anth. Virgo, Vieiil., and Anth. paradisccus, 

 Bechst. 



A collection of crania and skins of Mammalia from Nepal, pre- 

 sented to the Society by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., Corr. Memb. Z. S., 

 was exhibited. It contained skulls of the Buansu, Canis primccvus, 

 Hodgs., remarkable for the absence of a second tubercular molar 



