68 



" It produces one at a time. I had the good fortune to procure a 

 female without knowing her to be with young : one morning I was 

 agreeably surprised to find she had brought forth. The young ap- 

 peared to be rather weak, but a perfect resemblance to its parent : 

 the e^'es were open and covered with hair ; it soon gathered strength, 

 and was constantly sucldng betwixt its parent's legs, and so well 

 covered by its mother, that I seldom could see anything of it but its 

 tail : on the second day it began to creep about the cage with apparent 

 strength, and even climb up to the top by the rods of which the cage 

 was composed. Upon persons wishing to see the young one when 

 covered over by the mother, we had to disturb her, upon which the 

 dam would take the young one in its mouth, in the same manner as a 

 cat, and carry it about for some time ; several times I saw her when not 

 disturbed trying to get out ofthe cage, with the young one in hdr mouth 

 as before. It continued to live and increase in size for three weeks, 

 when unfortunately some person trod upon the tail of the old one, 

 which was protruded through the cage, a circumstance which caused 

 'its death in a few days : the young one died a few hours after, which I 

 put into spirits. The skin, with its tail crushed, is in the box with the 

 other animals. I should recommend its being placed in the attitude of 

 springing, with the body a little bent forward ; ear erect and round ; 

 eyes very full of light ; chestnut colour ; pupil black and small ; the 

 nails or claws two in number, erect, such as they are at all times. 



Jagna, Isle of Bohol, August 1837. " ^- Fuming." 



Among the collection sent by Mr. Cuming to the Society were 

 specimens of two species of Saurian Reptiles, upon which, at the 

 request of the Chairman, Mr. Martin offered some remarks. 



The first species to which he adverted was the Istiiinis Amboi- 

 nensis of Cuvier : two specimens of this rare reptile, both males, were 

 procured by Mr. Cuming in the Island of Negros. The Jsfiurus 

 Amhoinensis, from the circumstance of the male being furnished with 

 an elevated crest or fan, supported by the spinous processes of the 

 base of the tail, in which respect it agrees with the Basilisk, was 

 placed by Daudin in the same genus with this latter reptile, and 

 characterized as the Basiliscus Amhoinensis, and in this arrangement 

 Daudin was followed by most succeeding viriters. So little allied, 

 however, in reality, are these two reptiles (though possibly they 

 may be the representatives of each other in different quarters of the 

 globe), that they belong to two different sections of the Saicria, of 

 which one has the Old World, the other the New World, for 

 its range. The Basilisk (Basiliscus mitratus, Daud.), with all 

 the American genera of the Iguanian group or Eunotes of Dumeril 

 and Bibron, belong to the section of that group termed Pleuro- 

 donta, distinguished by the situation of the teeth, which rise from 

 a furrow along the internal aspect of each jaw ; whereas the 

 Istiurus, with all the Old World genera of the Iguanian group, 

 (the genus Brachylophiis, of which there is only one species, alone 

 excepted,) belong to the section termed Acrodonta, distinguished 



