10 



Cats exhibiting tlie " blotched " pattern appeared to be unknown. 

 It was to the Oat of the latter kind that Linnaeus gave the name 

 catus^ which was therefore no longer available for the European 

 "Wild Cat ; this Cat, therefore, must take the name sylvestris. 



Dr. C. G. Seligmann, the Society's Pathologist, in presenting 

 his report on the deaths that had occurred among the Mammals 

 and Birds in the Menagerie during 1906 stated that 356 Mammals 

 and 283 Birds Avere submitted to post-mortem examination, and 

 the results showed — 



(i) That tuberculosis occurring in birds in the Gardens was 



usually due to infection by the gut. 

 (ii) The heai'ts of Rheas, Cassowaries, Ostriches, and some 

 of the larger Storks kept in the Gardens were often 

 extremely flabby, and death in these birds was in a 

 large number of cases due to cardiac failure. 

 (iii) New growths were rare both in mammals and in birds, 

 but one case of carcinoma arising in the kidney and 

 occurring in a Chilian Pintail {Dafila spinicauda) had 

 been observed, as well as two instances of benign new 

 growths occurring in birds not inmates of the Gardens. 



Mr. J. T. CuNNmoHAM, M.A., F.Z.S., described a peculiarly 

 abnormal specimen of the Turbot. The specimen was captured 

 by Miss Olivia Fox, of Falmouth, near Padstow, on the north 

 coast of Cornwall. It was a young fish, measuring only 4*4 cm. 

 in length, and a normal specimen of slightly smaller size, taken at 

 the same time, w^as completely metamorphosed to the asymmetrical 

 condition of the adult. In the abnormal specimen the right side 

 was almost entirely destitute of colour as in the normal condition, 

 but both eyes were on this white side, instead of being on the left 

 side as in normal Turbot. On the left side pigment was present 

 over the whole surface except the head and the anterior part of 

 the base of the dorsal fin, which were white. The fish was kept 

 alive in captivity for two months, and was observed to lie always 

 with its eyes uppermost, so that the upper side was white and the 

 lower side coloured. The fish showed also another abnormality, 

 namely, that the base of the dorsal fin projected anteriorly as a 

 free process above the dorsal eye, a peculiarity which is usually 

 present in ambicolorate Tui-bot. As there was some pigment on 

 the head on the left side, Mr. Cunningham pointed out that the 

 specimen might be regarded as a Turbot in which a normal body 

 was united with a head which was reversed, so that the left side 

 of Che head, bearing the eyes and pigment, was joined to the right 

 side of the body bearing no pigment, and vice versa. 



Dr. Baron Francis Nopcsa read a communication entitled 

 " Ideas on the Origin of Flight," and illustrated his argument 

 with lantern-slides showing the hind limbs of various genera of 

 Bats, Pterosaurs, Birds, and Dinosaurs, as well as a reconstruc- 

 tion of a hypothetical, cui'sorial priuliti^-e bird. The author 



