2 MR. T. PRIME ON NEW CYCLADES. (Jan. 14, 
female Python, in the Reptile-house in the Society’s Gardens (Py- 
thon sebe), had on the previous day deposited a large number of 
eggs, and had commenced to sit upon them, guarding them with 
great care. A sketch by Mr. Wolf was exhibited, illustrative of the 
Python as she appeared in this position. 
Dr. Cobbold exhibited a preparation of the remarkable pouched 
Peyerian gland from the intestine of the young Giraffe which had 
recently died in the Society’s Gardens. 
Mr. Alfred Newton exhibited a nest containing seventeen hatched- 
out eggs of Ortyx virginianus, which had been sent to him from New 
York by Mr. George N. Lawrence, C.M.Z.S., and read from a letter 
of that gentleman’s the following extract :— 
“Of course eggs of this species are abundant enough ; but this is 
the only nest that ever came under my own observation. It was ob- 
tained in the garden of a place occupied by me during the summer, 
near the sea-shore at Rockaway, Long Island. 
“The eggs, as you will notice, are chipped round at the largest 
diameter, with almost mathematical exactness, leaving a part of the 
shell adhering to one side. The fact of this being left to act as a 
hinge strikes me as peculiar, but it may not be unusual in birds of 
this family.” 
Mr. Newton stated that the very curious and regular mode in 
which the shells of these specimens had been almost entirely, yet not 
quite, severed was a circumstance he had never before observed in 
the eggs of any other species. In the European wild Galline, espe- 
cially in Perdix cinerea, the fracture of the shell, caused by the 
-escape of the young birds, generally takes place nearer the middle 
of the axis major, and, so far as he knew, was always complete ; 
that is, there was no “ hinge” left joining the two parts. Indeed, 
in partridges’ eggs which have been hatched out, the two portions 
of the shell were most frequently found lying the one encased in the 
other. He forbore offering any suggestions as to the manner in 
which the very curious appearance in the eggs exhibited had been 
produced, but considered it quite worthy the attention of naturalists. 
The following papers were read :— 
1. Descriptions or THREE New SPECIES OF SHELLS BELONG- 
ING TO THE Famity or Cyctapes. By Tempie Prime, oF 
New York. 
1. BaTISsSA SPHHRICULA, Prime. 
Cyrena violacea, Lam., var. Javanica, Mousson, Moll. Java, 88, 
pl. 15. f. 1, 1849. 
B. testa subrotunda, equilaterali, depressiuscula, epidermide 
atro-virescente vestita, antice sulcis transversis remotis ornata, 
intus albo-violacea; latere antico dilatato, postico obtuso; lamina 
cardinali angusta ; dentibus primariis inequalibus, subcanali- 
