The Zoologist — April, 1874. 3959 



new form of the family Icteridse, wliicli he proposed to call Ceutropsar 

 mirus. 



A communication was read from Dr. J. E. Gray containing some remarks 

 on Crocodilus Jobnsonii, Krefft, from Northern Australia, of which he 

 proposed to form a new genus Phylas. 



Mr. W. Saville Kent read a paper ou a huge cephalopod or cuttle-fish, 

 announced by the Rev. M. Harvey as lately encountered in Conception 

 Bay, Newfoundland, and of which a tentacle sixteen feet long has been 

 secured for the St. John's Museum. Mr. Saville Kent contributed the 

 additional evidence of an arm nine feet long preserved in the British 

 Museum, in proof of the gigantic dimensions occasionally attained by certain 

 members of this order of the Mollusca, and proposed to institute the new 

 generic title of Megaloteuthis for their especial reception ; he further sug- 

 gested distinguishing the Newfoundland example as Megaloteuthis Harveyi, 

 in i-ecognition of the services to Science rendered by Mr. Harvey, in his 

 record of and steps taken to preserve so valuable a trophy. 



March 17, 1874. — Prof. Newton, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. 



The Secretary called the attention of the meeting to an important addition 

 that had been made to the Society's collection on the 7th inst., by the 

 acquisition of a young male Javan rhinoceros [Rhinoceros sondaicus) from 

 Batavia, believed to be the first example of this rhinoceros that had ever 

 been brought ahve to Europe. 



A letter was read from the Rev. S. J. Whitmee, resident at Samoa, stating 

 that he had forwarded, through Dr. G. Bennett, of Sydney, a Didunculus 

 and two curlews for the Society's collection, and giving interesting particulars 

 concerning the habits of this bird, and another pecuhar Samoan species — 

 Pareudiastes pacificus. 



An extract was read from a letter addressed to the Secretary by Dr. George 

 Bennett respecting a Didunculus, and other birds, he had received from the 

 Rev. Mr. Whitmee, of Samoa, intended for the Society's collection. 



Dr. Giinther gave some details concerning the recent introduction into 

 this country, by Lord Arthur Russell, of the ide [Leuciscus melanotus, 

 var. or/us). 



Prof. Huxley read a memoir upon the structure of the skull and of the 

 heart of Menobranchus lateralis, describing the structure of the bony skull 

 in the osteo-cranium, and giving a full account of the primordial skull or 

 chondro-crauium, which has not hitherto been noticed. The chondro- 

 cranium was compared with that of Proteus, and that of larval frogs and 

 tritons, and its essentially embryonic character was indicated. The chondro- 

 cranium was further shown to be formed by the coalescence of three distinct 

 classes of elements, which were termed "parachordal," "pleural" and 

 "paraneural." The heart was described, and the septum of the auricles was 



