6 



(2) That in the fully formed principal cotyledons of both Cow 



and Sheep there is complete continuity of the intra- with 

 the extra- cotyledonary uterine epithelivim. 



(3) That the greenish-brown pigment so abundantly present 



in the trophoblast-cells is a derivative of the haemoglobin 

 of the maternal corpuscles which those cells have ingested. 



The pigment — which contains no iron — is of two kinds, one of 

 which has a definite absorption-spectrum i-esembling closely that 

 of oxyhsemoglobin. In acid solution the spectrum approaches 

 that of acid hfematoporphyrin. 



Sir Edmuxd Loder, Bt., F.Z.S., exhibited a living specimen of 

 a dwarf species of Cavy, probably the Salt-Marsh Cavy {^Dolichotis 

 salinicola), and remarked that, owing to Burmeister (the original 

 describer of the animal) being under the erroneous impression 

 that he had founded the species on young specimens and the fact 

 that two distinct species occurred in the same district, some 

 considerable confusion had been caused as to the status of the 

 different forms of Dolichotis. He pointed out that the common 

 Patagonian Cavy (Z>. patagonicus) differed from the dwarf 

 D. salinicola and the larger D. magellanicus centricola (the two 

 species found together) in having a broad dark band above the 

 white rump-patch. 



A communication from Mr. E. S. Russell contained a descrip- 

 tion of Trichorhiza, a new Hydroid genus, of which the diagnosis 

 was as follows : — " Hydranth solitary, attached loosely by the 

 hydrorhiza, which was filiform and branched. Invested by 

 perisarc, which formed a protective cup into which the hydranth 

 was partly retractile." The genus had been founded for a single 

 species, T. brunnea, the type specimen of which was discovered 

 clinging to the tentacles of a Corymorplia dredged in the Clyde. 

 Reproduction in T. brunnea was by medusae. Trichorhiza 

 belonged to the family Pennaridce. 



Miss Gertrude Ricardo communicated a description of the 

 new genus Melissomorpha, formed for the reception of a Hoi'se-fly 

 of the Pangonince division of the family Tabanidce, discovered 

 by Col. C. T. Bingham in Sikkim. The insect closely mimicked 

 the Indian bee Apis dorsata L., having the flattened wide tibise 

 characteristic of the hive-bee, the general resemblance between 

 the bee and the fly being very striking. 



Mr. Harold Schwann, F.Z.S., read a paper on the Mammals 

 collected at Kuruman and Molopo in Bechuanaland by Messrs. R. 

 B. Woosnam and R. E. Dent. The specimens, numbering about 

 120 and belonging to 26 species, were of great interest as being 

 topotypes of several species described by Sir Andrew Smith in his 

 expedition to Kuruman and the interior of South Africa. 



