198 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Japan and Corea. and gave a short account of his recent journeys to those 

 countries in quest of Lepidoptera. 



The Secretary read a letter addressed to him by the Rev. G. H. R. Fisk, 

 of the Cape Colony, respecting the killing and eating, by a Shrew, of a young 

 venomous Snake, Sepedon hminachates. 



Prof. Flower communicated, on behalf of Messrs. J. H. Scott and T. 

 Jeffery Parker, of the University of Otago, New Zealand, a paper containing 

 notes on a specimen of a young female Ziphius, which was cast ashore alive 

 at Warrington, north of Dunedin, New Zealand, in November, 1884. 



Mr. Richard S. Wray read a paper ou the morphology of tlie wings of 

 birds, in which a description was given of a typical wing, and the main 

 moditications which are found in other forms of wings were pointed out. 

 One of the principal points adverted to was the absence, in nearly half the 

 class of birds, of the fifth cubital remex, its coverts only being developed. 

 The peculiar structure of the wings in the Ratiti/' and the Sphenisci was 

 also commented upon. 



A communication was read from the Rev. H. S. Gorham on the classifi- 

 cation of the Coleoptera of the division Languriides. The author pointed 

 out the characters which, in his opinion, were available for the systematic 

 arrangement of this family of Coleoptera, and for its division into genera. 

 The subject had hitherto not received the attention it deserved, and several 

 errors had gained currency, owing to the hasty and insufficient way in 

 which the structure of these insects had been examined. He added an 

 analytical table of about forty genera, many of tiiose proposed being new. 

 Further notice of the American genera would soon appear in Messrs. 

 Godman and Salvin's ' Biologia Centrali-Americana.' 



April 19, 1887. — Osbert Salvin, Esq., F.R.S., Vice-President, in 

 the chair. 



The Secretary called attention to a set of eleven photographs repre- 

 senting the principal objects of Natural History collected by the celebrated 

 traveller Prejevalski during his four expeditions into Central Asia, and to 

 an accompanying Catalogue of them which had been presented to the 

 Society's Library by Dr. A. Strauch, of the Imperial Museum, St. Peters- 

 burg. 



Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell exhibited and made remarks on some specimens 

 of rare British Slugs taken at I.-leworth, Middlesex. 



The Secretary read some extracts from a letter addressed to him by 

 Mr. A. A. C. Souef, giving an account of a successful attempt to keep the 

 Duck-billed Platypus, or Water-Mole, alive in captivity in the Zoological 

 Gardens at Melbourne. 



Mr. J. Bland Sutton exliibited some bpeciiuens of diseased struclures 

 taken from Mammals that had died in the Society's Gardens, and made 



