60 Zoological Society. 



when compared with those of the Greenland specimens, induce me 

 to beheve that it is distinct from them. It chiefly differs in the form 

 of the outer upper cutting teeth and canines. In all the specimens, 

 both old and young, from the North Sea, the outer upper cutting 

 teeth and the canines are narrow and compressed. In the West 

 Indian skull, which is that of a very young specimen, the outer upper 

 cutting teeth and the canines are broad, strongly keeled on each side and 

 longitudinally plaited within. In this skull the 4th grinder has only 

 a single root, and the 5th grinder has two ; the crowns of the teeth 

 are plaited and tubercular like those of the North Sea specimens. 

 The face is rather broader than in a skull of the northern kind of 

 nearly the same size. This species may be called Cystophora antil- 

 larum. 



We have received an imperfect skin of a seal from Jamaica, which 

 was brought home by INIr. Gosse. It is unfortunately without any 

 bones. The whiskers are short, thick, white^ cylindrical, regularly 

 tapering, and without any appearance of a wave or twist. In this 

 character it most agrees with Phoca barbata. 



July 10. — Ilarpur Gamble, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 



Mr. E. Doubleday exhibited specimens of the larva, pupa, and per- 

 fect insect of Sirex gigas, an insect mostly very rare in Great Britain. 

 These specimens were sent to Mr. Gray from Bath by Mr. Brunei, 

 and were accompanied by fragments of the wood on which the larvae 

 had fed. 



It appears that about eighteen months since a quantity of larch- 

 trees were cut in the neighbourhood of Bath, and after having been 

 used as scaifolding-poles in the repairing of one of the churches of 

 the city, were applied to a similar purpose at the railway-station. 

 From these poles thousands of individuals, chiefly females, of Sirex 

 gigas, are now coming forth. From the specimens exhibited, it 

 would seem that the larvae prefer the soft sap wood to the more solid 

 internal part of the trees, penetrating this part longitudinally at a 

 little distance from the bark, the perfect insect gnawing its way 

 through when ready to make its appearance. 



Mr. Doubleday remarked that there was here ample evidence to 

 disprove St. Fargeau's idea, that this fine insect is a parasite upon 

 some timber-boring beetles, an opinion already controverted by Mr. 

 Westwood and others. The larva, pupa, and perfect insect are beau- 

 tifully figured by Ratzeburg in his work on insects injurious to forests ; 

 but he gives no details of the habits of the insect, nor any figures in- 

 dicating the mode of life of the larva. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Description of Two New Species with the characters 

 OF A New Genus of Trochilid.e. By John Gould, F.R.S. 



ETC. 



Genus IIeliodoxa, Gould. 

 Bill straight or slightly curved downwards, of moderate length; 



