358 PROF. W, H. FLOWER ON THE EDENTATA. [Apr. 18, 



in tint on the chest, breast, and under tail-coverts ; bill brown, 

 whitish on the lower margin and on the under mandible ; no ring 

 round the eye ; ear-coverts and sides of the face like the head. 



Length of skin 37 inches, wing 2-5, tail 1-9, tarsus O'Z; bill 

 from forehead 0-5, from anterior margin of nasal groove 0-3, from 

 gape 0-6. 



The flank-plumes are rather elongated and somewhat decomposed. 



Ilab. Aru Islands ? 



April 18, 1882. 

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



The following report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie 

 during the month of March 1882 was read by the Secretary :— ° 



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

 gerie during the month of March 1882 was .54, of which 20 were 

 by presentation, 16 by purchase, 3 by birth, and 9 were received on 

 deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, 

 by death and removals, was 81. 



The most noticeable addition during the month was : — 



A Radiated Fruit-Cuckoo {Carpococcyx radiatus) from Sumatra, 

 purchased March 31st. 



The gait and actions of this remarkable Ground-Cuckoo remind 

 one more of a Gallinaceous bird or a Gallinule than of any of its 

 arboreal relatives of the same family. The form is quite new to the 

 Society's Collection, 



The following papers were read : — 



1. On the Mutual Affinities of the Animals composing the 

 Order Edentata, By William Henry Flower, LL.D., 

 F.R.S., Pres. Zool. Soc., &c. 



[Eeceived April 4, 1882.] 



The name assigned to this order by Cuvier is often objected to 

 as inappropriate, as, though some of its members are edentulous, 

 others have very numerous teeth ; and the Linnean name Bruta is 

 occasionally revived by modern authors. But that term is quite as 

 objectionable, especially as the group to which Linneus applied it 

 is by no means equivalent to the order as now understood, but con- 

 tained all the animals then known which are comprised in the 

 modern orders Proboscidea, Sirenia, and Edentata, together with 

 the Walrus, one of the Carnivora. If retained at all, it should 

 rather belong to the Proboscidea, as Elepha-s stands first in the list 

 of genera of Bruta in the ' Systema Naturae,' and was probably in 

 the mind of Linnaeus when he assigned the name to the group. 



