PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 29 
Prof. P. M. Duncan made a communication “On a Synthetic Type 
of Ophiurid from the North Atlantic.” The specimen in question was 
dredged by Dr. Wallich in the voyage of H.M.S. ‘Bulldog’ in 1860. 
On casual inspection it might be regarded as an Amphiuran, but the 
spinulose disk and hooked side-arms oppose this notion. Again, resemblances 
to species of Ophiothria suggest themselves, but the large scaling of the 
disk, the absence of tooth papilla, and the presence of accessory pieces 
around the aboral edge of the upper arm-plates are distinctive characters, 
and which to a certain extent are indicative of Ophiolepian affinities, 
but the dental apparatus does not conform. In shape and dental cha- 
racters it approaches Amphiura; spinules and arm-hooks are those of 
Ophiothrix; and accessory plates resemble those of Ophiolepis. This 
remarkable Ophiuran was obtained at a depth of 228 fathoms, fifty miles 
north of Cape Valloe, East Greenland. With the difficulty of positively 
asserting its nearest allies, Prof. Duncan places it (Polyophilis echinata) 
provisionally among the family Amphiuride, and remarks that such forms, 
though rare, shake confidence in some of the recent methods of classification 
of the Ophiuride.—J. Morte. 
ZooLocicaL Society or Lonpon. 
November 18, 1879.—Prof. FLowrzr, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the 
chair. 
The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made to 
the Society's Menagerie during the months of June, July, August, and 
September, 1879. 
An extract was read from a letter addressed to the Secretary by 
Mr. H. O. Forbes, on the subject of the distribution of the Badger-headed 
Mydaus in Java. 
The Secretary read an extract from a letter received from Dr. A. B. 
Meyer, in which the habitat of Cervus Alfredi was stated to be Samao and 
Leyte Islands, of the Philippine group. 
Mr. E. R. Alston exhibited some mammals collected by Mr. Wardlaw 
Ramsay, 67th Regiment, including examples of some species new to the 
faunas of Burma and Afghanistan. 
Mr. Alston also exhibited one of the typical skulls of Tapirus Dowi 
(Gill), which had been entrusted to him by the authorities of the U. §. 
National Museum. He remarked that the young Tapir from Corinto, 
Nicaragua, which was formerly alive in the Society’s Gardens, was really an 
example of 7’. Dowi, and not, as had been hitherto supposed, of 7’. Bairdi. 
Prof. Flower exhibited and made remarks upon the skull of a White 
Whale, Delphinapterus leucas, recently obtained in Sutherlandshire. 
