PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



COMMITTEE of SCIENCE and CORRESPONDENCE 



OF THE 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 10, 1832. 



Joshua Brookes, Esq., in the Chair. 



Specimens were exhibited of several Birds, Land-Shells, and 

 Corak, together with the cranium of a Balccnoptera, LaC^p., all 

 collected at the Cape of Good Hope by Dr. Andrew Smith, Corr. 

 Memb. Z. S., and presented by him to the Society. In illustration 

 of the subjects exhibited, extracts were read from a letter from Dr. 

 Smith which accompanied his present. The Balcenoptera was there 

 referred to as Bui. Capensis : it is apparently the Borqual du Cap 

 of M. Cuvier in his * Ossemens Fossiles,' which has since been 

 named by M. Desmoulins Bui. Poeskop, and by M. Fischer Bui. 

 Lalandii. 



Specimens were also exhibited of several Mammalia, Birds, and 

 Fishes, collected by Mr. H. Cuming chiefly in Chili. 



Among the Mammalia, Mr. Bennett pointed out as apparently 

 new to science an Otter and a Mouse, which may be characterized 

 as follows : 



LuTRA Chilensis. Lut. supra saturate vinaceo-hriinnea, infra. 



pallidior ; caudd brunneo-nigricante, corporis dimidio parum 



breviore. 

 Hab. in aquis Chiliae. 



The fur is composed of hairs of two kinds : the inner woolly and 

 thickly furnished ; the outer silky, also thickly set, and completely 

 concealing the inner. The colour of the fur of the upper surface 

 is glossy brown on the head, (where the hairs are comparatively 

 short,) and increasing in depth as it proceeds backwards becomes 

 blackish on the rump, and still more decidedly so on the tail. The 

 lower surface of this member, for the extreme three-fourths of its 

 length, is of the same colour with the upper ; near the vent it be- 

 comes paler and assumes a reddish hue; and this colour is conti- 

 nued, with a slight canescent tint, along the whole of the under 



[No. XV.] ZooL. Soc. Proceedings of the Comm. of Scienxe. 



