184 Miscellanea. 
Taytactnus CynocEPHatvs. 
[Zoological Society, May 14, 1850.] 
TuE Secretary stated, through the liberality of Ronald Gunn, 
Esq., and Dr. Grant, of Launceston, the Menagerie had been 
enriched by the safe arrival of two living specimens of Thylacinus 
cynocephalus. The author states in the letter which accompanied. 
this most valuable and interesting gift, that— 
« An observation of mine, contained in a letter to Sir W. Hooker, 
and which was not meant for publication, has been misunderstood, 
and has led to the propagation of error— for which I am very sorry. 
In it I said the Thylacine’s tail was not compressed—in reference to 
an observation of Mr. Swainson’s in the ‘ Encyclopedia of Geo- 
graphy’ (then recently published), that the tail of the Thylacine 
was compressed, which suggested the supposition that tt was used in 
swimming, &c. It was to the latter part of this observation that my 
remarks were particularly applied (vide Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. i. 
p- 101-2), and I meant that the tail was not compressed to such an 
extent as to have Justified the inference that it was useful in swim- 
ming; and thus that the animal obtained its food principally from 
the sea, which the paragraph in the ‘ Encyclopedia of Geography’ 
implied. The tail is obviously slightly compressed, but not, I think, 
more so than the tails of the Dasyures, to which aquatic habits are 
not attributed. In writing hurriedly—and not for publication—I 
did not express myself with the precision I ought to have done. I 
mainly wished to point out that the tail would not justify the infer- 
ence of Mr. Swainson (which I thought very far strained), that the 
animal was aquatic in its habits and piscivorous.” 
On somE Bones AND Ecas FouND At MADAGASCAR, IN RECENT 
ALLUYVIA, BELONGING ro A @I@ANric Birp. By M. Isipore 
Guorrroy-Satnt-HInaire.* 
[Annals and Magazine of Natural History, March 1851.] 
_ WE received the day before yesterday from M. Malavois, a 
planter in the Island of Réunion,t some objects of such great 
interest, that we deem it a duty to submit them immediately to the 
attention ofthe Academy. ‘They prove the existence at Madagascar, 
geologically recent, of a bird of gigantic size, new to science, but 
with regard to which there existed, as will presently be seen, some 
indications. 
The discovery of these objects was made, in 1850, by M, Abadie, 
* Translated from the Comptes Rendus for January 27, 1851. 
+ Commonly called Bourbon.—H. E, S. 
