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SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 89 
modified syndesmoses in certain Anura and the apparatus of the knee- 
joint in Mammals, and urged that the facts were such as to necessitate a 
reconsideration of the morphological value of the latter. 
A communication was read from Mr. J. J. Lister, giving a general 
account of the Natural History of Christmas Island, in the Indian Ocean, 
which he had visited in 1887 as naturalist to H.M. surveying-vessel ‘ Eigeria.’ 
Mr. Lister gave a detailed account of the birds obtained in Christmas Island. 
Of these seven were land-birds, all of which belonged to species peculiar to 
the island, though some of them approached their allies in the Indian 
Archipelago very closely. 
Mr. Oldfield Thomas read a paper on the Mammals of Christmas 
Island, obtained by Mr. Lister during the same expedition. This was 
followed by reports on the Reptiles, by Mr. G. Boulenger; on the 
Terrestrial Mollusks, by Mr. Edgar A. Smith; on the Coleoptera, by Mr. 
C. J. Gahan; on the Lepidoptera, by Mr. A. G. Butler; on the other 
Insects, by Mr. Kirby; and on the Annelida, Myriapoda, and Land- 
Crustacea, by Mr. R. I. Pocock.—P. L. Sctarun, Secretary. 
Exromo.ocicaL Society or Lonpon. 
December 5, 1888.—Dr. D. Suarp, F.L.S., President, in the chair. 
Mr. B. A. Hower of Eltham, Kent, was elected a Fellow of the Society. 
Mr. W. F. Kirby exhibited, for the Rev. Dr. Walker, a variety of the 
female of Ornithoptera Brookiana; he also exhibited, for Major Partridge, 
~ an undetermined species of the genus Hadena, captured last summer in the 
isle of Portland. 
Mr. R. South exhibited a series of specimens of Tortrix piceana, L., 
from a pine wood in Surrey ; also melanic forms of Tortria podana, S., from 
St. John’s Wood. 
Prof. Meldola exhibited, for Dr. Laver, a melanic specimen of Catocala 
nupta, taken last September at Colchester. 
Mr. E. B. Poulton exhibited preserved larve of Sphina convolvuli, 
showing the extreme dark and light forms of the species. 
Mr. M‘Lachlan called attention to a plate, representing species of the 
genus Agrotis, executed by photography, illustrating a memoir by Dr. Max 
Standfuss, in the Correspondenz-Blatt, Verein ‘ Iris,’in Dresden, 1888. He 
considered it was the best example of photography as adapted for ento- 
mological purposes he had ever seen, especially as regarded its stereoscopic 
effect. 
The Rev. Canon Fowler exhibited a specimen of Mycterus curculionoides, 
L., sent to him by Mr. Olliff, and taken by Mr. Gunning near Oxford 
about 1832. 
