1882.] I'ROF. PARKER ON THE SKULL OF THIS CROCODILIA. [)/ 



January 17, 1882. 

 Prof. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The following report on the additions to the Society's Mena- 

 gerie during the month of December 1881 was read by the 

 Secretary : — 



The total number of registered additions to the Society's Mena- 

 gerie during the month of December 1881 was 82, of which 8 

 were by birth, 39 by presentation, 26 by purchase, and 9 were 

 received on deposit. The total number of departures during 

 the same period, by death and removals, was 82. 



The most noticeable additions during the month were : — 



1. A young male Guemul Deer (i^jtrci/e/* chilensis), from Pata- 

 gonia, purchased December 22nd of the Jardin d'Acclimatatioa 

 of Paris. 



This animal has lately shed its horns, and is now growing a 

 new pair. 



2. A Germain's Peacock-Pheasant {PoUjplectron gennaini), pur- 

 chased December 24th. 



Both these accessions are of species new to the Society's series. 



Prof. Newton exhibited, by favour of Messrs. Hallett & Co., the 

 skin and bones of the trunk of a specimen oi Notornis mavtelli, re- 

 cently received by them from New Zealand, and stated to have been 

 obtained in the province of Otago about eighteen months ago. 

 Prof. Newton pointed out that the sternum figured in the Society's 

 ' Transactions' (vol. iv. pi. 4. figs. 5-8) as of this species must 

 belong to a totally different form. 



Prof. W. K. Parker, F.R.S., read a memoir on the skull of the 

 Crocodilia, of which the following is an abstract : — 



" The Crocodilia have seen the rise and fall of several Reptilian 

 dynasties, and even now they are in no danger of extinction. Their 

 development is precisely like that of the Sauropsida generally (the 

 other Reptiles, and Birds) ; but in some very important respects they 

 anticipate cranial modifications that only come to perfection in the 

 Mammalia. 



" It is difficult, at first, to see in what their embryo differs from 

 that of a bird ; but the long tail is diagnostic ; this, however, would 

 not alvrays have served that purpose, as the avian contemporaries 

 of the Crocodiles of the Oolite had tails relatively as long as those 

 of the Crocodiles. 



" The near approach to that modification of the skull which is 

 seen in the Bird is very remarkable in the early stages of the 

 Crocodile ; but whilst the one becomes as light as a quill, the other 

 becomes as heavy as the armour of a Tortoise ; yet in the adult 

 Crocodile the whole hind skull is a labyrinth of air-cavities, which 



pRoc. ZooL. See— 1882, No. VII. / 



