306 Mil. p. L. SOLATEK 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 whicli he had ex- 

 plored in the summer of 1886. They were situated in the province 

 of Eslremadura, 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 Ehastic system. 

 The caves lay only two or three hundred feet above the sea-level, 

 and the particular oue 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 avrow-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 boues 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 it 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, P.E.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 Becord ' : — 



Number. 



1. Mammalia 2,500 



2. Aves 12,500 



3. Beptilia smA Batrachia 4,400 



4. Pisces 12,000 



5. Tunicata 900 



6. Mollusoa 50.000 



7. Brachiopoda 150 



8. Bryoioa 1,800 



Carried forward 84,250 



