44 MR. W. K. PARKER ON OPISTHOCOMUS CUISTATUS. [Feb. 4, 



SOLEA SCRIBA. 



Solea scriba, Valenc. in Webb & Berthel. lies Canar., Poiss. 

 p. 84, pi. 18. fig. 3 (bad). 



Solea lascaris, Giinth. Fish. iv. p. 46/ (nee Risso). 

 Madeira, Canary Islands. 



4. On the Identity of Solea lutea and Solea minuta. 



I am indebted to Professor Doderlein of Palermo for fresh speci- 

 mens of Solea lutea (Risso) from the Mediterranean, and to the 

 Officers of the Marine Biological Association for examples of Solea 

 minuta (Parnell) obtained by them in Cowsand Bay ; and am unable 

 to discern any specific dififerences between them. 



February 4, 1890. 

 Prof. Flower, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the 

 Society's Menagerie during the month of January 1890: — 



The total number of registered additions to the Society's Mena- 

 gerie during the month of January was 139, of which 89 were 

 acquired by presentation, 4 hy exchange, 41 by purchase, and 5 

 ■were received on deposit. The total number of departures during 

 the same period, by death and removals, was 84. 



A communication was read from Mr. W. K. Parker, F.R.S., con- 

 taining a memoir on the Morphology of a Reptilian Bird {OpisthoT 

 comus cristatus), of which the following is an abstract : — 



The expression "Reptilian bird" is, I believe, one of my own 

 coining ; it occurs frequently in my early papers. For the bird had 

 long been to me a transformed and, one might even say, 2i glorified 

 Reptile, the quasi-imago of the reptile, which takes the place of an 

 active pupa, the fish doing duty, in the present economy of nature, 

 as the larva. Things might have remained in this state and all 

 this have been called " Parker's poetry," but very opportunely a 

 severely scientific and very powerful mind found time to take up this 

 subject ; for Professor Huxley, in his masterly paper on the Classifi- 

 cation of Birds (P. Z. S. 1867, pp. 416-472), put true Reptiles and 

 Birds into one bundle, and called this bundle of life "Sauropsida." 

 Everyone knows that that is one of the largest strides in the progress 

 of modern science, yet at the time it made men of the old school 

 •' lift their brows " and wonder what would be the next move. These 

 men "entered not in:" the old wilderness of thought was enough for 

 them ; but our brave leader led us into a good land and a large one. 



No man of this generation is startled at the term '' Reptilian bird," 

 although everyone must wonder how the slow, cold-blooded, scaly 



