836 MR. F. K. BEDDARD ON THE - [NoV. 17, 



opportunity of exhibiting a specimen of Saxicola deserti, the second 

 recorded British-killed example, which had been shot between the 

 Tillage of Easington and the hamlet of Kilusca near to Spurn Head, 

 on the ] 7th of October this year. It was at cnce sent to Mr. Clarke, 

 but it was tailless and so much shot that it was impossible to deter- 

 mine the sex by dissection. Mr. Clarke mentioned, in order to show 

 that at the time the bird was shot there was a considerable immi- 

 gration to our shores, that a few Woodcocks, numbers of Goldcresfs, 

 Robins, Wrens, and Thrushes, and a few Owls had arrived at Spurn 

 ■ Head on the previous night or in the early morning of the same day. 

 Mr. Dresser had no hesitation in referring this specimen to Saxi- 

 cola deserti in spite of the lack of the tail, which was a distinguishing 

 character, and it was evidently a female, as would be seen by com- 

 parison with carefully sexed specimens of the Desert Chat also on 

 the table. 



Prof. Bell exhibited a specimen of Balanogloasus collected by 

 Mr. Spencer at Herm. This was stated to be the first recorded 

 example of this Hemichordate from any part of the British seas. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Notes on the Visceral Anatomy of Birds. No. 1. — On the 

 so-called Omentum. By Frank E. Beddard. M.A., 

 F.R.S.E., Prosector to the Society. 



[Eeceived October 1, 1885.] 



All naturalists are by this time pretty well agreed upon the close 

 affinities which birds present in their organization to reptiles ; and 

 while it is the general view that of all existing reptiles, Crocodiles 

 are those which most nearly approach birds, it is almost equally an 

 accepted view that of all existing birds the Strulhiones present by 

 far the greatest number of analogies to reptiles in their anatomical 

 structure. There are undoubtedly facts in the anatomy of the 

 Struthionidse which appear to favour such a view ; but an increased 

 knowledge of the structure of other orders of birds has tended to 

 show, firstly that many of the peculiarities of the Ostrich-tribe in 

 which they are supposed to approach reptiles, are in reality correlated 

 with the loss of flight and the consequent change in the" relation of 

 the different parts of the shoulder-girdle and so forth, or are not 

 peculiarities at all, but crop up in other orders of birds. Secondly, 

 reptilian characters not found in the Struthiones are found in other 

 orders of birds, as in the palate of the Woodpeckers (Saurognath^), 

 which Prof. Parker considers to present some close points of resem- 

 blance to that of reptiles. 



Before contributing some few additions to our information on the 

 visceral anatomy of birds, which appear to me to still further break 



