Mr Guy Aylmer, F.Z.S., exhibited some skins, of mammals 

 from Sierra Leone, including those of a Serval (Felis capensis) 

 and of a Servaline Cat (F. servalina), and stated that a na/tive 

 had brought him two kittens, almost certainly from the same 

 litter one & being spotted like the Serval and the other obscurely 

 speckled like the Servaline Cat. This he regarded as proof that 

 the differences between the Servals and Servaline Cats are of no 

 systematic importance. 



Mr. H. G. Plimmer, F.R.S., F.Z.S., Pathologist to the Society, 

 read his Report on the Deaths which occurred in the Society's 

 Gardens during 1914, and on the Blood-parasites found during 

 the same period. 



Mr. E. G. Boulestger, Curator of Reptiles, read a paper on an 

 \o-lyphodont Colubrid Snake {Xenodon merremii), with a vertically 

 movable maxillary bone. The vertical mobility of the maxillary 

 bone in Snakes had previously been regarded as essentially 

 characteristic of the Yiperidse. Observations on the Snake in 

 question, which was recently received by the Society from 

 Mr W. A. Smithers, C.M.Z.S., showed that the mobility of its 

 maxillary bones was so great that the fangs could be not merely 

 erected, but were capable of being thrust forward and sideways, 

 the mechanism being as perfect as in any of the Vipers. 



Mr. Boulenger pointed out that the discovery of a solid-toothed 

 Colubrid with vertically movable maxilloe went a long way 

 towards settling the so often discussed problem of the derivation 

 of the viperine maxillary bone. The author traced the probable 

 evolution of the bone, expressing the opinion that the Vipendas 

 were descended from the Opisthoglyph Colubrirls, and that the old 

 view, recently revived, that they were of Proteroglyph ancestry, 

 must be abandoned once and for all. 



Dr. William Nicoll, M.A., M.D., F.Z.S., communicated the 

 description of a new species of Liver-fluke from the Kestrel, the 

 first of its kind found in Great Britain. 



The next Meeting of the Society for Scientific Business will 

 be held on Tuesday, February 23rd, 1915, at half-past Five 

 o'clock p.m., when the following communications will be made : — ■ 



