420 Zoological Society : — 



and referred by its describers (MM. DesMurs and J. Verreaux) to 

 tbe family ArdeidcB. 



The Secretary read the following extract from a letter addressed 

 to him by Captain John M. Dow, Corr. Memb., dated " U.S. Mail- 

 steamer * Guatemala,' Panama Bay, December 7th, 1860 : " — 



" Some time since, while in the Bay of La Union, State of San Salva- 

 dor, I caught, or rather should say shot with my gun, having no other 

 means at hand, a couple of what 1 supposed was Anableps tetroph- 

 thalmus ; but upon sending them to my friend Professor Baird of 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, was somewhat surprised 

 and gratified to hear they were of an entirely new species, — gratified 

 because honoured with having my name given to this singular fish, 

 which has been called A. Dowii. 



" On our voyage just ended, at the request of Professor Baird, 

 who desires to distribute them to different Museums, I captured a 

 half-dozen or so more of these fishes, one of which I left out for dis- 

 section ; fortunately this proved to be a female. With the assistance 

 of Dr. J. Taylor Crook, the Surgeon of the steamer, a sufficiently 

 satisfactory dissection was made to justify me in announcing a most 

 remarkable peculiarity, which I have never before seen noticed in any 

 work, in the reproduction of this species. It is well known that this 

 genus of fishes give birth to their young alive. An incision made 

 in the abdomen of the one under consideration established the fact ; 

 for three young ones were found within it, and all of them in different 

 stages of development. The first we removed was fully developed in 

 all its parts, but still had the placenta attached to its belly, but alto- 

 gether detached from the parent, and evidently in condition to be 

 discharged from the parent in a couple of days. The second was 

 intermediate in its development to the one just described and the 

 third. In the latter the abdominal suture was not yet closed, neither 

 was the black transverse band which divides into two parts the cornea 

 and iris of the eyes of this geims (which band was perfect in the first- 

 mentioned young one, and not entirely perfect in the second) at all 

 developed. I think this observation fully establishes the entirely 

 viviparous (not ovo-viviparous as most writers have it) nature of the 

 genus. Does not also the singular fact of the young being found in 

 intermediate stages of development within the parent present a strange 

 anomaly in the history of vivipnrous reproduction — an undeniable 

 argument against the generally accepted opinion of the laws which 

 are supposed to govern the reproduction of species in animal life ? 

 Of the above fact I desire no further evidence. Whether it is of that 

 importance to the scientific world which my imperfect relation above 

 would imply, I leave for others, more deeply versed in such investi- 

 gations, to decide." 



xIdditional Note on the Black-footed Rabbit. 

 By a. D. Bartlett. 



On the 23rd of June 1857, at the evening meeting of this Society, 

 I called the attention of the meeting to some Rabbits, known as the 



