30 CAPT. J. M. DOW ON ANABLEPS. [Jan. 22, 



January 22ncl, 1861. 

 Dr. J. E. Gray, V.P., in the Chair. 



Dr. P. L. Sclatcr called the attention of the meeting to an important 

 addition lately made to the Society's Menagerie. On the 18th instant 

 Her Majesty the Queen had transferred to the Society's care a female 

 of the iElian's Wart-Hog {Phucochoerus celiani, Riipp. Atlas, i. 

 pi. 2.5), which had been lately received from Bathurst in Western 

 Africa by the steamer ' Armenian,' as a present to Her Majesty from 

 the King of Ashantee, through the (governor of the Gold-coast. This 

 species was stated to he distinguishable from the Wart-Hog of 

 Southern Africa (P. cethiopicus), of which the Society already pos- 

 sessed a specimen, by the presence of two upper incisor teeth (which 

 are wanting in P. cethiopicus when adult), as well as by other very 

 noticeable external characters. 



Dr. Sclater also exhibited a specimen of the American Meadow- 

 Starling {Sturnella ludoviciana), shot in Suffolk a short time since, 

 and lent to him by the Rev. Henry Temple Frere, of Burston Rectory, 

 for examination. This was the first instance of the occurrence of 

 this bird in Europe. 



A letter was read, addressed to Dr. Sclater by Dr. G. Bennett, 

 F.Z.S,, relative to a singular Grallatorial bird living in an aviary in 

 Sydney in November 1860, which had been brought from New 

 Caledonia by M. Des Planches. A drawing of the bird was also 

 exhibited, which was stated by Dr. Sclater to represent the same 

 species as that lately described in France as Jthinochetus jxihatus, 

 and referred by its describers (MM. DesMurs and J. Verreaux) to 

 the family Ardeidcs, 



The Secretary read the following extract from a letter addressed 

 to him by Captain John M. Dow, Corr. Memb., dated " U.S. Mail- 

 steamer 'Guatemala,' Panama Bay, December 7th, I860:" — 



" Some time since, while in the Bay of La Union, State of San Salva- 

 dor, I caught, or rather should say shot with my gun, having no other 

 means at hand, a couple of what 1 supposed was Anablepis tetroph- 

 thabnus ; but upon sending them to my friend Professor Baird of 

 the Smithsonian Institution at Washington, was somewhat surprised 

 and gratified to hear they were of an entirely new species, — gi-atified 

 because honoured with having my name given to this singular fish, 

 which has been called A. dowii. 



" On our voyage just ended, at the request of Professor Baird, 

 who desires to distribute them to different Museums, I captured a 

 half-dozen or so more of these fishes, one of which I left out for dis- 

 section ; fortunately this proved to be a female. With the assistance 

 of Dr. J, Taylor Crook, the Surgeon of the steamer, a sufficient 

 satisfactory dissection was made to justify me in announcing a most 

 remarkable peculiarity, which I have never before seen noticed in any 

 work, in the reproduction of this species. It is well known that this 



