2 MR. T. PRIME ON NEW CYCLADES. [Jan. 14, 



female Python, in the Reptile-house in the Society's Gardens (Py- 

 thon sebcB), had on the previous day deposited a large number of 

 eggs, and had commenced to sit upon them, guarding them with 

 great care. A sketch by Mr. Wolf was exhibited, illustrative of the 

 Python as she appeared in this position. 



Dr. Cobbold exhibited a preparation of the remarkable pouched 

 Peyerian gland from the intestine of the young GirafPe which had 

 recently died in the Society's Gardens. 



Mr. Alfred Newton exhibited a nest containing seventeen hatched- 

 out eggs of Ortyx virginianus, which had been sent to him from New 

 York by Mr. George N. Lawrence, CM.Z.S., and read from a letter 

 of that gentleman's the following extract : — 



" Of course eggs of this species are abundant enough ; but this is 

 the only nest that ever came under my own observation. It was ob- 

 tained in the garden of a place occupied by me during the summer, 

 near the sea-shore at Rockaway, Long Island. 



" The eggs, as you will notice, are chipped round at the largest 

 diameter, with almost mathematical exactness, leaving a part of the 

 shell adhering to one side. The fact of this being left to act as a 

 hinge strikes me as pecuUar, but it may not be unusual in birds of 

 this family." 



Mr. Newton stated that the very curious and regular mode in 

 which the shells of these specimens had been almost entirely, yet not 

 quite, severed was a circumstance he had never before observed in 

 the eggs of any other species. In the European wild GalUnce, espe- 

 cially in Perdioc cinerea, the fracture of the shell, caused by the 

 escape of the young birds, generally takes place nearer the middle 

 of the axis major, and, so far as he knew, was always complete ; 

 that is, there was no " hinge " left joining the two parts. Indeed, 

 in partridges' eggs which have been hatched out, the two portions 

 of the shell were most frequently found lying the one encased in the 

 other. He forbore offering any suggestions as to the manner in 

 which the very curious appearance in the eggs exhibited had been 

 produced, but considered it quite worthy the attention of naturalists. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Descriptions of Three New Species of Shells belong- 

 ing TO the Family of Cyclades. By Temple Prime, of 

 New York. 



1. Batissa sph^ricula. Prime. 



Cyrena violacea. Lam., var. Javanica, Mousson, Moll. Java, 88, 

 pi. 15. f. 1, 1849. 



£. testa subrotunda, cequilaterali, depressiuscula, epidermide 

 atro-virescente vestita, antice sulcis transversis remotis ornata, 

 intus albo-violacea ; latere antico dilatato, postico obtuso; lamina 

 cardinali angusta ; dentibus primariis incequalibus, subcanali- 



