Zoological Society, 447 



an accurate and clever observer. The reason why the Hamster is 

 furnished vv^ith these spots appears to me very far from being myste- 

 rious, and had the cause not been mistaken for the effect, I think 

 anybody might have hit upon the idea, that nature had made the 

 short, stiff, and closely adpressed hairs, to grow upon these spots of 

 the Hamster's body, which are most exposed to friction, and at the 

 same time contiguous to bone, that the hair and the skin might be 

 competent to stand the wear and tear to which they necessarily are 

 subjected in the narrow burrow of an animal, which is very brisk 

 in its movements ; and no doubt the skin, which gives rise to a dif- 

 ferent kind of hair, is of a different structure from the rest ; and as 

 this hair is more stiff, the skin which it covers is probably more 

 callous. 



*' Tn the present state of the science of physiology, it may be im- 

 possible to state with sufficient precision the conditions on which the 

 peculiar structure of the skin and hair, in these particular spots, de- 

 pends. The relation in which the latter stand to the hip-bones by 

 peculiar tissues may perhaps help to explain the circumstance, as 

 the neighbourhood of, and connexion with, bony structures, have 

 an evident influence on the nature of the skin and its productions." 



Mr. Waterhouse remarked, that the description which Dr. Weis- 

 senborn had given of the peculiar spots on the hips of the Hamster, 

 caused him to suspect that they were glands, analogous to those ob- 

 servable in the Shrews, and might help the animals to distinguish 

 each other in their dark burrows. 



Mr. Waterhouse exhibited two specimens of a species of Lark 

 from China, which had recently died in the Society's Menagerie, 

 having been presented to the Society by J. R. Reeves, Esq. It was 

 characterized as follows : 



Alauda sinensis. Al. supra rvfo-fusca, subtus alba, fascid latd 

 pectorali nigrd ; lined sordide alba ab oculis, ad occiput extensd ; 

 fronte, nuchd, et humeris castaneis ; remigibus primariis nigris, 

 marginibus externis angitste fuscescenti-albis, remige primo illo 

 externe marginato ; caudd nigrd, rectrice utrinque externd alba, 

 ad basin nigro lavatd, proximd utrinque albo-marginatd ; rectri- 

 cibus intermediis duabus fuscescentibus. 



Long. tot. 8 unc. ; rostri, | ; alee, 5 ; caudce, 3^; tarsi, 10 lin. 



Hab. apud Sinam. 



The Chinese Lark very much resembles, and is nearly dlied to, 

 the Alanda Calandra of authors, but differs in the following parti- 

 culars. The beak is more compressed, and the upper mandible has 

 two longitudinal grooves on each iidvj, the upper one of which gives 

 a keel-like edge to the culmen ; the tail is proportionately longer, 

 the tarsi are shorter ; the feet are smaller, and the hinder claws, in- 



