Linruean Society. 37 



Esq., of the British Museum, as occurring to him in August 1849 on 

 Salisbury Plain ; a second, also a female, shot at Lydd in Romney 

 Marsh in January 1850, and now in the possession of Dr. Plomley, 

 F.L.S. ; and the third shot on the 31st of December, 1851, in Devon- 

 shire, and now in the possession of J. G. Newton, Esq., of Millaton 

 Bridestow. 



Mr. Yarrell proceeds to state that he had long wished to have an 

 opportunity of examining the body of a male busteird for the purpose 

 of inspecting the gular pouch described by Daines Barrington in his 

 • Miscellanies,' 1781, and by Edwards in his ' Gleanings of N'atural 

 History,' 1811, and thence copied both by Bewick and himself; but 

 no opportunity for so doing occurred until recently. About four 

 years ago the Zoological Society obtained from Germany six or 

 seven young bustards, and one of these (a male) died within a year. 

 ITie body was examined by Mr. Mitchell and himself, and no gular 

 pouch was found, but this was then attributed to the youth of the 

 bird. In December last another male of this flock, believed to be 

 four years old, died at the Zoological Gardens, and was also exa- 

 mined by Mr. Yarrell. The neck was carefully dissected ; but there 

 was no opening under the tongue, and he entirely failed in various 

 attempts to distend any part of the membranes either by fluid or by 

 air. Thus disappointed in his expectation of finding what had been 

 so minutely described, Mr. Yarrell turned to the translation of the 

 anatomical descriptions of the animals dissected by the Royal Aca- 

 demy of Sciences at Paris at the end of the seventeenth century, and 

 found the results of the dissection of six male bustards there given 

 to correspond entirely with his own observations. He found also 

 that Cuvier in his ' Lemons d'Anatomie Comparee,' refers to no pe- 

 culiarity in the neck of the male bustard. Professor Owen also en- 

 tirely confirmed the fact of the absence of any gular pouch by his 

 own dissection of a full-grown bustard made with the view of ob- 

 taining a preparation of that supposed structure for the Museum of 

 the College of Surgeons. Mr. Yarrell is therefore disposed to con- 

 sider that there must have been some mistake on the part of the 

 writers quoted as to the species of bird in which that pouch was 

 observed. 



February 1, 1853. — R. Brown, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



Read a paper " On Venation as a generic character in Ferns ; 

 with Observations on the genera Hewardia, J. Smith, and Cionidium, 

 Moore." By Thomas Moore, Esq., F.L.S., Curator of the Botanic 

 Garden, Chelsea. 



The object proposed by the author is to inquire — 1st, into the 

 general importance of modifications of the vascular structure of the 

 fronds in distinguishing the genera of Ferns ; and 2ndly, into their 

 relative value in the cases instanced. He begins by referring to the 

 numerous authors by whom the venation has been turned to account 

 in the formation of genera or subgenera, and in particular to the ob- 

 servation of Mr. Brown, that " for subdivision, the most obvious as 

 well as the most advantageous source of character seems to be the 



