306 MR. P. L, SCLATER ON THE [Mar. 3, 
not, as supposed by Messrs. Chapman and Buck, one of the 
Dormouse tribe. 
Dr. H. Gadow gave an account of the caves which he had ex- 
plored in the summer of 1886. They were situated in the province 
of Estremadura, in the low sierra between the villages of Athouguia 
and Otta, the nearest town being Santarem. The geological 
formation was hard white-blue limestone of the Rhetic system. 
The caves lay only two or three bundred feet above the sea-level, 
and the particular one which yielded the bones was choked near 
the entrance with loose dry dust. About a foot below the surface 
of the dust was found an unpolished flint arrow-head. The cave 
was absolutely dry, and its horizontal bottom, extending for about 
60 feet into the mountain, was covered with about two or three 
feet of the dust, which contained bones of small Ruminants and of 
Bear, besides those of the Lemmings. The Lemming-bones were 
found at the far end of the cave, almost on the top of the dust. 
Mr. Sclater opened a discussion on the Rules of Zoological 
Nomenclature by reading the following paper :— 
Remarks on the Divergencies between the “ Rules for 
naming Animals” of the German Zoological Society 
and the Stricklandian Code of Nomenclature. 
Before proceeding to the immediate subject of the discussion 
which we propose to hold this evening, I wish to call the attention 
of the meeting to the new work, to be called ‘ Das Tierreich,’ 
which has been planned by the German Zoological Society. The 
object of 1t is to give an account of all the known species of recent 
animals described up to the present period. The proposed work 
will embrace, as we are informed, the most important synonyms, 
references to the best figures, and an account of the geographical 
range added to a short description of every species. This, it must be 
allowed, is a gigantic undertaking well worthy of a great scientific 
nation, and we must all heartily wish it success. The described 
species of recent animals, as will be seen by the table (which has 
been kindly compiled for me by Dr. David Sharp, F.R.S., with the 
assistance of his corps of Recorders), numbers some 386,000 
species’. Supposing that we admit that on the average five 
' Census Specierum Animalium Viventium hucusque descriptarum: a rough 
estimate of the number of described species of animals in the sections 
adopted in the ‘ Zoological Record’ :— 
Number, 
MV GININAILG einer secs cs ecne Nec oees kc cee etree 2,500 
TOM AWE osiors Salah eee so sass Tae eal bok cheat tees 12,500 
LE pUHIG ANAYBOMACRIA.. ceca ssccuedeessoctescuee ar 4,400 
ASE PESCES  ci5 Sete Pare hak ee ce ee decked ocdeateccwsteeete 12,000 
Dam LRU Gadde deren ieee ctateea cs toca ccedeca-deceazeee 900 
Grp Moliusca srs eesciess- ceca canes cu stae evecacsodehesveee 50,000 
Us BUOCIROVO UM Mendes dec otcts visssctsessestocecveseds ice 150 
CAV DEYOZOG gaan emer ener et ences ntact vssccsinuaevent 1,800 
