49 



May 10, 1836. 

 The Rev. J. Barlow in the Chair. 



The following Note by the Rev. H. Dugmore was read. 



"Lieut. Col. Mason, of Neeton Hall (four miles from SwafFham), 

 has had a Sea Eagle, Haliaetus albicilla, Sav., in confinement for the 

 last sixteen years. About a month since, it dropped an egg, which 

 is now in my collection. The egg is perfectly white, and not quite 

 so large as that of a Goose : the shell is rather harder." 



A letter was read from Capt. Green of Buckden, Huntingdonshire, 

 descriptive of a very fine specimen of the barn-door Hen in his pos- 

 session, which has assumed the Cock plumage : the change took place 

 about three years ago. The bird has since been presented to the 

 Society by the writer. 



Mr. Owen read the following Notes on the Anatomy of the Wom- 

 bat, Phascolomys Wombat, Per. 



" The anatomy of the Wombat having already engaged the atten- 

 tion of Cuvier ('Lecons d'Anat. Comparee.^assm) and Home (Phil. 

 Trans, vol. xcviii. 1808, p. 304,) but little remains to be added on 

 that subject. 



" The individual lately dissected at the Museum of the Zoological 

 Society had lived at the Gardens upwards of five years. Tlie one 

 which was dissected by Sir Everard Home in 1 808 was brought from 

 one of the islands in Bass's Straits, and lived as a domestic pet in 

 the house of Mr. Clift for two years. This animal measured two feet 

 two inches in length, and weighed about 201bs : it was a male. The 

 Society's specimen was a female, and weighed, when in full health 

 in October 1833, 594-lbs. 



" On removing the integuments of the abdomen, much subcuta- 

 neous fat, of the lard kind, was observed. 



" The muscles of the abdomen presented the same arrangement as 

 in other Marsupiata ; the internal pillars of the external abdominal 

 rings being formed by the marsupial bones, round which a broad cre- 

 master, emerging from each ring, wound inwards and upwards to ter- 

 minate by spreading over the mammary gland. 



" The digestive organs in the abdominal cavity presented a de- 

 velopment corresponding generally to that which characterizes the 

 same parts in the phytiphagous Rodents. 



" The stomach precisely corresponded with the description and 

 figure given by Home; but the occurrence of cardiac glands in the 

 Dormouse and Beaver renders a similar structure in this Marsupial, 

 in which the Rodent type of dentition exists, less extraordinary than 



No. XLI. — Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



