I 



Zoological Society. \^Z 



largely, and the remaining three extensively tipped with white, the 

 extent of the white increasing as the feathers recede from the centre ; 

 under tail-coverts white ; upper tail-coverts and thighs striated with 

 white. 



Total length, 14^ inches ; bill, 1 J ; wing, 8| ; tail, 7 ; tarsi. If. 



This species exceeds in size both the N. caryocatactes and N. he- 

 mispila, but at the same time has a smaller and more slender bill than 

 either of those birds ; it also differs from both of them in its length- 

 ened and cuneiform tail ; it has a greater quantity of white on the 

 apical portion of the tail-feathers than the European species, but less 

 than is found in the N. hemispila ; the white markings of the back 

 and the entire under surface are also much larger and more numerous 

 than in either of the other species, and are most remarkably developed 

 on the scapularies. 



The only specimen I have seen of this fine species is in the Museum 

 of the Philosophical Society at York ; its precise habitat is unknown, 

 but as other species which were certainly from Simla in India accom- 

 panied it, we may reasonably conclude it was from that country. 



3. Notes on the dissection of the Paradoxurus Typus, 

 AND OF Dipus JEgyptius. By H. N. Turner, Jun. 



Having received, through the liberality of the Society, a few of 

 the animals that have died in the menagerie in the course of tlie pre- 

 sent winter, I feel bound to lay before them, as well as I may be able, 

 whatever details of structure I observe which may be new, or may 

 give rise to ideas calculated to assist in the advancement of the science. 

 Since the Society have done me the honour to insert in their Pro- 

 ceedings* the somewhat lengthened communication which I was last 

 permitted to lay before them, I hope that the remarks T have now to 

 offer, some of which have a bearing on the same subject, may also 

 prove acceptable. 



It formed part of my object in that paper to demonstrate that the 

 Viverrine group, (of which the Paradoxuri are now universally ad- 

 mitted to form a part,) are so closely allied to the Cats as to safely 

 warrant their being united with them in one family, instead of being 

 looked upon as a section intermediate to the canine and feline groups, 

 or, on account of their number of tuberculous molars, more closely 

 allied to the former, in which light they have very frequently been 

 considered : and I think it will be apparent, from the observations I 

 have now to bring forward, that the genus Paradoxurus, one of the 

 least exclusively carnivorous of the order, and formerly associated 

 with the Bears in the plantigrade division, has a much closer relation- 

 ship with the group, which, from its being pre-eminently carnivorous, 

 is usually considered as " typical " of the order, than naturalists have 

 been wont to anticipate. It is not unfrequently the case, that when 

 an affinity between two species or genera is established upon essen- 

 tial peculiarities of structure, certain minor details, or even habits and 

 actions of the animal, remind one so forcibly of the relationship we 



* See also vol. iii. p. 397 of this Journal. 



