10 
January 25, 1842. 
William Horton Lloyd, Esq., in the Chair. 
A letter from the Society’s Corresponding Member, Alexander N. 
Shaw, Esq., of the H. C. Civil Service, was read, in which that 
gentleman calls attention to the advantages which would ensue from 
the appointment of agents at different ports, for the transmission 
of animals for the Society, and requests to be informed what animals 
would be most acceptable from the part of India in which he is at 
present stationed, observing that he will endeavour to procure 
them, and should he succeed, will forward them free of expense to 
Bombay. 
Mr. W. D. Cooper communicated to the Meeting some notes, by 
T. S. Thomson, Esgq., relating to the habits of the Bassaris astuta 
of Lichtenstein. These notes are confirmatory of the observations of 
Mr. Charlesworth, made at a former meeting of the Society*. The 
animal, Mr. Thomson has been informed, is found in most parts of 
the republic of Mexico, but is not known beyond the habitations of 
man. Besides fowls, butchers’ meat, &c., it will eat bread, fruit, and 
sugar ; it breeds principally in outhouses, and particularly in neglected 
spots, producing three or four at a birth. Sometimes it is tamed, 
and used like the domestic cat to destroy rats, mice, &c. 
Mr. Gould exhibited several Australian Mammals, from his own 
collection, which he considered to be new to science. The first to 
which he drew attention was a species of the genus Macropus, as 
now restricted, which, from the sooty black colouring of the face, he 
proposed to describe under the name 
Macropus MELANOPS. Macr. vellere molli obscure griseo; dorso, 
collo, plagdque magnd ad basin femoris, fuliginoso-lavatis ; late- 
ribus corporis indistincté fulvo tinctis ; capite fuliginoso ; rhinario 
nigro ; auribus intus pilis albis vestitis, extus pilis albis, nigro ir- 
roratis, ad basin nigris ; guld pectoreque albescentibus ; tibiis tar- 
sisque fusco-albis, digitis nigris ; caudd robusta, supra fuliginoso- 
fused, subtis pallidiore, dimidid apicali nigra. 
une. lin. 
Longitudo ab apice rostri ad caudz basin.... 33 0 
CHUDE B08 i. 08 abe pyoeae el eos etotetete 20 6 
tarsi digitorumque.............. 11 °9 
— ab apice rostri ad basin auris .... 5 9 
MERA 8:2 1h <7 shsbe ha aihhe ee eS he: 
* Proceedings for July 13, 1841, p. 60. 
