Linnaan Society. 309 



every portion of the litter, Sec, in the hope of rinding it, but with- 

 out success. 1 concluded, therefore, that the foetus had died, and 

 that the mother had probably eaten it. 



" From what I observed of the mother after the separation of the 

 fcetus, I should conclude that parturition takes place in the erect 

 and not in the recumbent posture; and on perceiving the ease with 

 which she can reach with her mouth the orifices of the vagina and 

 pouch, a means adequate to the removal of the young from the one 

 to the other became obvious. I should suppose the fore paws not 

 to be used for the transmission of the fcetus, but to keep open the 

 pouch ready for its reception, while the mouth would be the means 

 by which it would be deposited therein, and perhaps held over a 

 nipple till the mother felt the sensitive extremity grasped by the 

 young one. 



" This mode of removal is consistent with analogy. Cats, Dogs 

 and Mice transport their young by the mouth. 



" I ought, perhaps, to have forborne this hypothesis when an op- 

 portunity of actually observing the process may so soon be afforded ; 

 but it was suggested by observing the actions of the mother after 

 an artificial separation of the fcetus from the nipple, and accords 

 with the phaenomena better, I think, than any that have previously 

 been proposed. There is no internal passage ; there is no power of 

 bringing the mouth of the vagina in contact with that of the pouch, 

 either in the living or dead Kangaroo, without lesion of the parts; 

 the fore paws could not so effectually protect the tender embryo 

 from the external air as the lips, nor so safely ensure its passage ; 

 and the young one itself did not by any of its actions give the idea 

 of its having the power of creeping up along the fur to the pouch 

 or nipple. 



" Where, however, the structure of the pouch, as in Perameles' 

 and some South American Opossums, is different, the mother's aid 

 may be less necessary; but the period of gestation being now as- 

 certained, every endeavour will be made to clear up this part of the 

 problem ex visu." 



LINNiEAN SOCIETY. 



March 4, 1834. — The fallowing communications were read : 



A description of a new species of Parrakeet from Western Australia 

 belonging to Mr. Vigors's genus Nanodes: by Mr. William Tucker. 

 This bird comes very near to Nanodes vndulatus (Psittacus undulatus 

 of Latham), but differs from it by the presence of a number of cir- 

 cular spots of an intense purple on the throat. Mr. Tucker has 

 named this new species Nan. formosissimus. 



A letter, addressed to the Secretary, giving an account of a new 

 species of Fungus of the genus Geastrum, discovered in the Island 

 of Tortola in the West Indies, by Robert II. Schomburgk. 



A paper by John 0. Westwood, Esq., F.L.S. on Embia, a genus 

 of insects allied to the White Ants, with the descriptions of three 

 species, one of them, hither to unnoticed by entomologists, from In- 



