43 



cold, little hopes of any success with that were entertained, and it was 

 in fact never hutched, but probably died in consequence of the re- 

 moval by the goose at an important moment. On the morning of the 

 14th it was ascertained that she or the male, who always now sat 

 close beside her in the box, had killed one of the two she had at first 

 hatched, for it was found dead and perfectly flat. The fourth egg, 

 which was put under the hen, was assisted out of the shell, and ap- 

 peared weakly from the first, and as its mother had lost one, we put 

 it to her, in hopes it would do better than with its nurse. She took 

 to it at first very well ; but subsequently, both the parents beating it, 

 it was returned to, and well cared for, apparently, by its nurse, but 

 died on the 20th, having received some injury in one eye, either from 

 the old ones, or perhaps from the hen scratching, and thereby hitting 

 it. The remaining gosling is doing very well, and appears strong 

 and lively, and the parents are extremely attentive to it ; and I have 

 little doubt but these birds may easily be established, (with a little 

 care and attention,) and form an interesting addition to the stock of 

 British domesticated fowls. 



" In its general appearance, and its Quaker-like simplicity of plum- 

 age, it seems to approximate most to the family of the Bernacles j but 

 it appears to have almost as little (if as much) partiality for the water 

 as the Cereopsis." 



The bird in question was named by Mr. Vigors at the Meeting of 

 the Society on June 1 1 , 1833. It may be characterized as follows : 



Bernicla Sanijvicensis. Bern, brunneo-nigrescens, subtiis mar- 

 ginibusque plumarum pallidioribus ; collo albescenti ; guld, facie, 

 capite superne, linedque longitudinali nuchali nigris ; crisso albo. 



Long. tot. 24 unc. ; rostri, rictus, I4- ; alee, 134 j caudee, 5; tarsi, 



Hub. in insulis Sandvicensibus, et in Owhyhee. 



Mr. Owen read a Paper " On the young of the Ornithorhynchus 

 paradoxus, Blum." It was illustrated by drawings of the young ani- 

 mal and of various details of its structure, both external and internal, 

 derived chiefly from the examination of the individual recently pre- 

 sented to the Society by Dr. Weatherhead : this individual was ex- 

 hibited, as was also a smaller specimen, forming part of Dr. Weather- 

 head's collection. 



The circumstances which first attract attention in these singular 

 objects are the total absence of hair ; the soft and flexible condition 

 of the mandibles ; and the shortness of these parts in proportion to 

 their breadth as compared with the adult. The tongue, which in 

 the adult is lodged far back in the mouth, advances in the young ani- 

 mal close to the end of the lower mandible, and its breadth is only 

 one line less in an individual four inches in length than it is in fully 

 grown animals : a disproportionate development which is plainly in- 

 dicative of the importance of the organ to the young Ornithorhynchus 

 both in receiving and swallowing its food. 



On the middle line of the upper mandible, and a little anterior to 

 the nostrils, there is a minute fleshy eminence lodged in a slight de- 



