94 



June 28, 1831. 



Rev. W. Kirby in the Chair. 



A letter from Sir Robert Ker Porter, Corr. Memb. Z. S., 

 dated City of Caracas, Venezuela, March 25, 1831, was read. It 

 announced his having recently obtained possession of a specimen of 

 the American Tapir, {Tapir Americanus, Gmel.), vv'hich it was his 

 intention to transmit to the Society at the earliest opportunity. It 

 embraced a full description of the animal 3 and entered at consider- 

 able length into an account of its habits. The letter was accompa- 

 nied by two drawings of the Tapir, and by sketches of its proboscis- 

 like upper lip. 



Mr. Gray exhibited the skins and skulls of two Mammalia brought 

 from China by Mr. Reeves, together with the skull of a third, of 

 which a skin was also in his possession. On these he proposed to 

 found three new genera, the characters of which may be given as 



follows : 



Helictis. 



Denies primores |- : laniarii -}- -J- : molares If 5 c guibns 4 ^ antC' 

 rioresjalsi conici compressi ; carnivori -f 4-, in maxiUd superiori 

 3'lobati, cum processu interna subcenirali lato 2-acuminato ; tii- 

 bercnlares -f -1 > superiores mecliocres transversi, inferiores exigni. 

 Caput elongatum. Pedes breves; ^jfow^f^ ad calcaneum Jcre 

 nudcE; digiti 5 — 5; ungues validce, anteriores longa compressce. 

 Cauda cytindrica mediocris. 

 This genus, which inhabits eastern Asia, has the general appear- 

 ance and colouring of Mydatls, combined with a dentition resem- 

 bling that of Gido or Mnstcla, but differing from both the latter 

 genera in the large internal central lobe of the upper carnivorous 

 tooth. The species exhibited may be characterized in the follow- 

 ing terms. 



Helictis moschata. Hel. supra argeniata, pilis singulis basi 



cinereis apice argcnteo-albis, colore argenteo ad latera corjmris ei 



versus apicem caudce dominante, capite pedibusque anticis in 



Juscocinerascentem vergeniibus ; striga inter, aliisque duabusjmne, 



oculos, macula interauricidari nuchalique, labia superiore, mento, 



gida, gusirceo iuedio, Jcmoribusque iiitcrnis, albis. 



The entire length of the animal is 23-j^ inches, of which the tail 



measures 8. It inhabits China, and smells strongly of musk. 



Mr. Gray added that the Gido orientalis of Dr. Horsfield's ' Zoolo- 

 gical Researches in Java' appeared to him to form a second species 

 of the genus, closely resembling the Chinese in its general characters, 

 and in the disposition of its colouring, but differing in its browner 

 colour and in the larger proportion of white upon the head and 



