56 Zoological Society. 



for the last three weeks Dr. Busch of Berlin, who is making a 

 scientific tour of Great Britain, with a view of pursuing anato - 

 mical researches among our marine animals. He left for Dublin 

 last night. His microscope was a magnificent machine. I 

 availed myself of its powers, and placed the bivalves under its 

 magic influence. The sight was delightful. I could see the 

 ingress of water into the anterior siphon of K. suborbicularis 

 and K. i-ubra, the ejectment of faeces from both distinctly. The 

 alternate spasmodic action and forcing of water through the 

 anterior tube of K. suborbicularis free of any admixture was 

 distinctly seen. The power employed was very great. The 

 animal, one that had been in confinement for some time. This 

 creature was removed from the field and a K. rubra substituted ; 

 the same power being employed. The anterior siphon was in 

 constant motion; and the water, Crustacea, and minute atoms 

 floating on its surface were distinctly seen to enter it : no regur- 

 gitation took place anteriorly. I kept my eye to the instrument 

 watching the creatoress movement until my retina was nearly 

 paralysed, without detecting the " placid stream. ^^ I have daily 

 during the last six weeks examined a score of K, rubra, both 

 recent specimens and old prisoners, with lenses of difi*erent 

 powers, — employed various contrivances with compound mirrors, 

 lenses, &c., without detecting the current of water passing out of 

 its anterior siphon. 



Believe me, my dear Sir, yours very truly, 

 /. Alder, Esq. W. P. Cocks. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



June 13, 1848. — Harpur Gamble, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 



3. Description of new species of the genus Cypr^a. 

 By J. S. Gaskoin, Esq. 



1. Cyprjea Thersites (High-backed Cowrie). Cyp. testd ovatd, 

 gibhosd, dorso elevato, basi latdplandque, saturate rufescente-fuscd ; 

 antic^ posticeque depressiusculd, aperturd angustatd, postice re- 

 curvd ; dentibus albis, distinctis, labii externi validis, colnmellari 

 minus prominent ibus ; sulco columellari antic^ profunda, lato ; 

 extremitatibus valde productis, canali antico pleno. 

 Shell ovate, very gibbous and high -backed, of a very dark, reddish- 

 brown colour, not uniformly equal in intensity ; a curved whitish 

 mark exists over both the anterior and the posterior extremities, at 

 which places there is a depression, as though the mantle had not 

 deposited any substance there after it had begun to secrete the 

 colouring-matter, particularly that at the last whorl of the spire; 



