scientific societies. 79 



Zoological Society of London. 



December 21, 1886.— Prof. W. H. Flower, 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 month of November, 1886. 



Mr. Howard Saunders exhibited and made remarks on a specimen of a 

 hybrid between the Tufted Duck and the Pochard, bred in Lancashire in 1886. 



Mr. J. Bland Sutton read a paper on Atavism, being a critical and 

 systematic position of the Sponges. This was based on the recent researches 

 on the Hexactmellida, TetractinelUda, and Monaxonida of the ' Challenger' 

 Expedition, and on his own investigations on the rich Australian Sponge- 

 fauna, particularly of the groups Calcarea, Chalinidm, and Horny Sponges. 

 A complete system of Sponges was proposed, and worked out down to the 

 families and subfamilies, and all the principal genera were mentioned. An 

 approximately complete list of the literature of Sponges (comprising the 

 titles of 1446 papers), a " key" to the determination of the forty-six families, 

 and a discussion of the systematic position of the Sponges were also 

 contained in the paper. 



Prof. Pi.ay Lankester communicatei a paper by Dr. A. Gibbs Bourne, of 

 the Presidency College, Madras, on Indian Earthworms, containing an 

 account of the Earthworms collected and observed by the author during 

 excursions to the Nilg'ris and Shevaroy HiUs. Upwards of twenty new 

 species were described. 



Jan. 18.— Prof. W. H. Flower, 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 month of December, 1886, and called 

 attention to a young male of the true Zebra, Equus zebra, purchased 

 December 11th ; and to a young male Indian Rhinoceros, presented by 

 H.H. the Maharajah of Cooch Behar, through the kind intervention 

 of Dr. B. Simpson, and received December 25th. 



Mr. F. W. Styan exhibited and made remarks on a series of Chinese 

 Birds' eggs which he had collected at Kiukiang and Shanghai. 



Mr. Howard Saunders exhibited and read some notes on a skin of the 

 Mediterranean Black-headed Gull, Larus melanocephalus, killed on 

 Breydon Water, near Great Yarmouth, and sent for exhibition by Mr. G. 

 Smith, of that town. This was stated to be the first absolutely authentic 

 occurrence of this southern species on the British coasts. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited and made some remarks on an example of a rare 

 Amazon Parrot, Chnjsotis bodini, from British Guina. 



Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier exhibited and made remarks on three heads of 

 the Sumatran Rhinoceros, A. sumutrensis, from Sarawak, Borneo. 



Prof. Rupert Jones read a paper by himself, Messrs. H. B. Brady, and 



