42 



observed them during the voyage in the months of January, February, 

 May, June, July, August, September and December." 



It appears that the sperm Whale is not like the Balcena mystketus, 

 constantly found with Barnacles and other parasites adhering to its 

 skin, a circumstance accounted for by Mr. Bennett from the former 

 species inhabiting deep water, while the latter frequents soundings, 

 and is also much more sluggish in its movements. One species of 

 Barnacle, the Otion Cuvieri, is sometimes found attached in a single 

 cluster to the lips or lower jaw of the 'Cachalot, and a few small 

 Onisci occasionally adhere to the skin ; in its blubber also numerous 

 cysts of a species of Cysticercus are met with. 



Mr. Bennett, in the latter part of his memoir, notices the obsti- 

 nacy and determination which these Whales often display when at- 

 tacked or wounded, and also enumerates some of the different spe- 

 cies of animals which are thought to indicate their approach, and he 

 concludes with a reference to their occurrence in the British seas, 

 and some observations upon their geographical distribution. 



Mr. Gould then called the attention of the meeting to a new and 

 beautiful species of Ortyx, a native of California, from the collection 

 of the late David Douglas, and characterized it under the name of 

 0. plum If era. 



Ortyx Plumifera. 



Ort. capite, nucha., pectoreque intense cinereis; plumis duabus gra- 

 cilibus et subpendentibus e vertice nigris ; guld intense casfaned 

 ad latera lined cdbd, infra oculos notd nigra ; loro sordide albo ; 

 corpore superiors olivaceo-fusco ; rectricibus caudce fuscis nigro 

 irroratis ; alee j)rimariis brunneis, pogoniis externis, pallidiori- 

 bus ; abdominis lateribus intense castaneis ; supra lined alba 

 marginatis ; infra fasciis nigris atque albis ornatis ; abdomine 

 medio crissoque casta7ieis ; rostro nigro ; pedibus pallide-brun- 

 nescentibus. 



Long. tot. 9| une. ; rostH, | ; alcB, 5\ ; caudce, 3^; tarsi, 1|. 



Hub. California. 

 Fcem. vel mas junior a mare adulto differt, corpore minore, coloribus 

 obscurioribus, plumisque capitis brevioribus. 



He remarked that this genus was first brought before the Society 

 eight or nine years ago by Mr. Vigors, at which time only five spe- 

 cies were known, but since that period the number had been doubled ; 

 and from the remarkable development of the feathers forming the 

 crest in the species then exhibited Mr. Gould anticipates the dis- 

 covery of others, which shall connect Ortyx plumifera with those 

 species in which this character is less prominently shown. In sup- 

 port of this opinion Mr. Gould directed attention to the genera 

 Larus, Trogoti and Caprimulgus, which possess certain characters 

 largely developed ; but the degree of development increases gradually 

 from the species in which it is least apparent to those in which it 

 attains its greatest extent. 



