SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 153 



Dr. G. H. Fowler exhibited and made some remarks ou a new Pennatida 

 from the Bahamas, the most interesting feature of which was the presence 

 of immature antozooids at the dorsal end of the leaves, devoid of tentacles, 

 but possessing a well-marked syphouoglyphe on the stomatida3um which' 

 disappears with the increasing age of the polype. The species was proposed 

 to be named Pennatula bellissima. 



March 6, 1888.— Prof. W. H. Flower, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., President, 

 in the chair. 



The Secretary read a Teport on the additions that had been made to 

 the Society's Menagerie during the month of February ; and called special 

 attention to some examples of a Finch from New Caledonia (Erythrura 

 psittacea); and to five specimens of a Pheasant (Phasanius principalis) from 

 Afghan Turkestan. The Pheasants had been brought home and presented 

 by Major Peacock, R.E., of the Afghan Frontier Commission, at the request 

 of Sir Peter Lumsden, G.C.B., C.S.I. 



The Secretary exhibited (on behalf of Lieut.-Col. H. M. Drummond 

 Hay) a specimen of the Desert Wheatear, Saxicola deserti, lately killed in 

 Scotland. 



A paper by Prof. G. B. Howes and Mr. W. Ridewood, on the carpus 

 and tarsus of the Anura, was read. The authors recorded observations 

 made upon thirty-seven genera and sixty species, in all stages of develop- 

 ment, representatives of all but three or four less important families. The 

 authors were at variance with previous writers in points which had 

 necessitated a reconsideration of the morphological value of the leading 

 elements of both carpus and tarsus. They had failed to discover, at any 

 stage, a trace of a third proximal element in either fore or hind foot, while 

 they showed that Born was in error in regarding the naviculare as the 

 prehallux tarsal. In the hind foot they recorded the discovery of a fourth 

 tarsal, and in the fore foot that of a fifth carpal, which latter in Xenophrys 

 was bony. Consequent upon this they regarded the element hitherto held 

 to be the fifth carpal as a postaxial centrale; whence it followed that the 

 Anura are, as a group, unique in the possession throughout of a double 

 centrale carpi. The authors discussed the various changes undergone by 

 the pollex and prehallux, and the several views concerning the morphological 

 value of the latter. A second part was added, in which the peculiarities 

 of the several families of the Anura were given in order, and the bearings 

 of the structures in question upon classification briefly discussed. The 

 Discoglossidm were shown to combine most completely the least modified 

 conditions of both fore and hind feet. 



Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe read descriptions of new species of birds of 

 which specimens had been lately received from the island of Guadalcanar, 

 Solomon Group, collected by Mr. C. M. Woodford. These were named ;— 



ZOOLOGIST. APRIL, 1888. N 



