Amiversaty Meeting of the Zoological Club, 215 



productions. These results, we have reason to hope, will not 

 long be withheld from us ; and my knowledge of the progress 

 already made authorises me to add, that the accuracy and 

 elaborate finish with which they are worked out will amply 

 compensate for the present delay. From a few other quarters, 

 some valuable additions to our knowledge of the Reptilia 

 have appeared. I shall particularise Mr. Guthrie's Observa- 

 tions on the Structure of the Heart in Testudo indica, which 

 he founded on the examination of a specimen in the collection 

 of the Zoological Society ; and Mr. Holberton's Notes taken 

 during the Examination of a Specimen of Testudo tabuldta, which 

 had lately died in the menagerie of the same society. Both 

 these anatomical treatises are replete with new and interesting 

 information on a subject hitherto little understood. To Dr. 

 Smith, also, whom I have already quoted as elucidating the 

 Fauna of South Africa, we are indebted for the characters of 

 two new forms of Ophidian reptiles, peculiar to that country, 

 which he names Bucephalus and A'nodon. Of the former 

 group he describes four species, new to science ; of the latter, 

 one. 



A strong impulse has been latterly given to the study of 

 Ichthyology, both in this country and on the Continent; and 

 the spirit has extended itself even to our colonies. Dr. Ban- 

 croft has taken advantage of the opportunities afforded him of 

 examining the fishes of the West India seas, and has sent us some 

 valuable observations on the subject, together with specimens 

 of several of the species. His remarks have been published at 

 large in the 1 6th and 1 7th numbers of the Zoological Journal, 

 where the lovers of this department of nature will find ample 

 gratification in his copious and accurate details. I have here 

 again to refer to our African correspondent. Dr. Smith, as 

 having contributed to this branch of science, by the descrip- 

 tion of a new form among the family of Sharks, which he 

 found on the south coast of Africa, and which he characterised 

 under the name of Rhincodon. Our zealous friend, also. Gen. 

 Hardwicke, has enriched our Zoological Journal by some va- 

 luable remarks on the Goramy of China (Osphromenus olfax 

 Commerson), founded on his personal observation of the spe- 

 cies, while he was some months resident in the Isle of France. 

 His remarks are at this moment of peculiar interest, as this 

 fish, which had been imported into that island from China, 

 and more recently into some of the French West Indian 

 Islands, and naturalised in both places with such success as 

 to afford the inhabitants a copious supply of wholesome and 

 palatable food, is one of the species which it is in contempla- 

 tion to introduce into this country, under the auspices of the 



