113 



October 14, 1834. 



William YarreU, Esq., in the Chair. 



A letter was read, addressed to the Secretary by Sir Robert Ker 

 Porter, Corr. Merab. Z.S., dated Caraccas, July 24, 1834. In re- 

 ference to the Tortoises {Testudo Carbonaria, Spix,) presented to the 

 Society by the writer in the spring of the present year (see p. 41), 

 it stated that they are regarded as a great delicacy at Caraccas, and 

 sold as such in the market. It also stated that some eggs of Curas- 

 sows, or Potvies, spoken of in a previous letter, had been placed under 

 a hen, but had not produced young, having, as Sir Robert imagines, 

 been by some accident injured in the shell. He had, however, a few 

 days previously to the date of his letter, placed another, just laid by 

 the bird, and hoped to be more successful, in which case he promises 

 to give some particulars relative to the experiment. 



A letter was read, addressed to the Secretary by the Hon. Byron 

 Gary, dated His Majesty's ship Dublin, Sept. 25, 1834, giving some 

 particulars relative to a large specimen of the Tortoise from the Gal- 

 lapagos Island, presented by the wTiter to the Society. The spe- 

 cimen weighs 187 lbs. and measures in length, over the curve of the 

 dorsal shell 3 feet 84- inches, and along the ventral shell 2 feet 3-j- 

 inches, its girth round the middle being 6 feet 3^ inches. It is 

 consequently much smedler than several specimens of the Indian Tor- 

 toise from the Seychelles Islands which have at diiFerent times been 

 exhibited in the Society's Garden; the weight and measurements of 

 one of which are given in the Proceedings of the Society for 1833, 

 p. 81. The lateral compression of the anterior part of the dorsal 

 shell, and the elevation of its front margin, by which the Gallapagos 

 Tortoise is distinguished from the Indian, are in this specimen strongly 

 marked. 



The following notes by Mr. Martin of the dissection of a specimen 

 of the Mangue (Crossarchus ohscurus, F. Cuv.) were read. 



" The dissection was strongly confirmatory of the justice of the 

 position claimed for the animal, notwithstanding its plantigrade 

 mode of progression, between the Ichneumons and the Suricates. To 

 the latter indeed it bears in its general external aspect and charac- 

 ters a marked affinity ; in both we find the ])upil circular, and the 

 muzzle elongated, pointed, and moveable. Nor is there much less 

 con'espondence in their general anatomy. Fortunately the notes of 

 the dissection of two Suricates, which were living for a considerable 

 period in the possession of the Society, have enabled me to make an 

 accurate comparison. The notes to which I allude are by Mr. Owen, 

 and will be found in the First Part of the ' Proceedings of the Com- 

 mittee of Science and Correspondence' for 1830-1, pp. 39 and 51. 



" The Mangue which I had the opportunity of examining was a 

 No. XXII. Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



