Zoological Society. 349 



&c. I have also forwarded two specimens, exhibiting the young and 

 adult states, to M. Temminck for the museum at Leyden, and this 

 learned naturalist stated that he would give an account of the spe- 

 cies (under the above-mentioned name) in the fourth volume of his 

 ' Manuel d'Ornithologie.' 



" In the same catalogue I described two new species of Scolopax, 

 one under the name of ^?. La Mottei, and the other under that of 5. 

 pygmcea. M. Temminck does not admit that the first is a good spe- 

 cies, and for the same reason he will not admit the Scolopax Brehmii, 

 which, like my new species, differs only from the Scolopax gallinago 

 in the number of tail-feathers. Sc. Brehmii has sixteen tail-feathers, 

 whilst LaMottei has only twelve ; the last-mentioned species differs 

 moreover in being of a much smaller size than the common snipe. 

 The S. pygmaa M. Temminck regards as a good species, and he in- 

 tends to insert it in his work. Like S. gallinago, it has fourteen tail- 

 feathers, but it is of a much smaller size than that species ; it is even 

 smaller than the S. gallinula. Two specimens of this new species, 

 resembling each other, were killed in the same week, and furnished 

 me with the materials of my description. 



" A new species of Anthus and four new small quadrupeds are also 

 described by me in the catalogue ; two of the quadrupeds belong to 

 the genus Arvicola, and the remaining two belong to the genus Ves^ 

 pertilio." 



A paper, by George Gulliver, Esq., F.R.S., Assistant-Surgeon ta 

 the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards, entitled " Observations on 

 the Muscular Fibres of the CEsophagus and Heart in some of the 

 Mammalia," was read. 



The author mentions the difference of opinion that exists as to the 

 extent to which the muscular fibre of animal life invests the gullet, 

 a discrepancy which has probably arisen from the want of a sufficient 

 number of comparative observations on the lower animals; and states 

 that it has been generally concluded that this fibre is confined to the 

 upper portion of the tube. Professor Miiller, Dr. Schwann, and Mr. 

 Skey informing us that the striated muscular fasciculi are either con- 

 fined to this part of it, or belong only to the muscles of the pharynx, 

 while MM. Ficinus and Valentin have been led to assign a much more 

 extensive range to the fibre in question. He then proceeds to give 

 the details of his investigation of this subject, from which he con- 

 cludes that the muscular fibre of animal life extended much further 

 towards the stomach in certain brutes than in man, but that there 

 was also a remarkable difference in this respect even among differ- 

 ent genera of animals. 



