10 



Mr. L. DoKCASTER, M.A., F.Z.S., and the Rev. G. H. Eayxoe, 

 M.A., communicated a paper on Breeding ExjDeriments they had 

 made with Lepidoptera. 



The specie.s used were Angerona jJrttnaria and its \iiT.sordiata, 

 and Abraxas grosstdariata and its var. lacticolor. 



In A. prunaria the banding of the var. sordiaia was dominant 

 over its absence in the type, but the speckling characteristic of the 

 type appeared in the heterozygote, so that the latter was both 

 banded and speckled. The characters appeared to segregate in 

 the typical Mendelian manner, but in several families there was 

 an excess of prunaria over sordiata. In A. grossidariata the 

 var. lacticolor was a Mendelian recessive, but was normally found 

 only in the female. By pairing a heterozygous male with a 

 lacticolor female, lacticolor males and females were obtained. 

 Lacticolor male X female gave only lacticolor ; lacticolor males 

 by heterozygote females had given all males of the type, all females 

 lacticolor. 



Several tyj)ical families of each species were exhibited. 



Mr. W. P. Pyceaft, r.Z.S.,read a paper on the " Tracheophone 

 Passeres," which he described as a group difiering fiom all the 

 remaining Passei^es in the formation of the syrinx, which was 

 tracheal — instead of tracheo-bronchial — and peculiar among 

 f-yringes of the tracheal type in the development of a cartila- 

 ginous pillar for the insertion of the intrinsic muscles. The 

 group was divisible into thiee sections : (a) having holorhinal 

 nai-es and a single-notched sternum, (b) with schizorhinal nares 

 and a single-notched sternum, and (c) with holorhinal nares and a 

 doubly-notched sternum. 



He proposed to make the Tiacheophone Passeres one of four 

 great divisions of the Passerine stem. The most primitive of the 

 divisions would contain the Euiylfemidfe, Cotingidee, and Phile- 

 pitta. The second would be repiesented by the Tracheophonse, 

 the third by the Tyrannidfe and Pittidse, and the fourth by the 

 rest of the Passeres. 



A paper by Messrs. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., and Haroli> 

 Schwann, F.Z.S., was read, giving an account of a collection of 

 Mammals made by Mr. C. H. B. Gi'ant at Knysna, and presented 

 to the National Museum by Mr. C. D. Rudd. The collection 

 consisted of about 150 specimens, belonging to 31 species or 

 subspecies, of which the most noticeable was Mrs. Riidd's Golden 

 Mole {Amblysomus corrice), the description of which had already 

 been laid before the Society. 



A new generic name, JVototragus, was applied to the Grysbok, 

 which differed from the other members of Raphicerits by its 

 possession of supplementaiy hoofs. 



A communication from Prof. Base ford Dean contained an 

 account of the habits of the Australian Lung-fish [CeratodAis 

 for uteri) as observed by him in the Society's Menagerie. 



