216 Address delivered at the sixth and last ' 



Zoological Society. Some numbers of the splendid work on 

 the Fishes of Ceylon, by Mr. J. W. Bennett, the commence- 

 ment of which was announced at our last anniversary, have 

 also appeared within the past year. 



At home our ichthyologists have not been idle. Our secre- 

 tary has favoured us with some notes on the West Indian 

 fishes, to which I have already called your attention, as hav- 

 ing been sent to this country, and commented on, by Dr. 

 Bancroft. It is needless to add, that he has contributed much 

 to the determination of the species, and the general interest of 

 the subject. Mr. Bennett is also at this moment busily em- 

 ployed in arranging the ichthyological department of the 

 museum of the Zoological Society ; and has already charac- 

 terised that part of it which includes the Sumatran collec- 

 tion, in a catalogue which will appear in the forthcoming 

 Memoirs of Sir Stamford Raffles. Mr. Yarrell, also, whose 

 exertions in ichthyology have been so frequently brought 

 before you by my predecessors in this chair, besides adding 

 to our knowledge within the past year respecting several 

 species of the British fishes, has enriched our Fauna by two 

 species hitherto unknown to it, the /Solea pegusa of Lacepede, 

 and Cottus .Subalis of Euphrasen. 



I now beg to direct your attention in turn to the Inverte- 

 brated Animals. But on looking to the list of the late works 

 on this subject, which it has been my duty to prepare to lay 

 before you this day, and feeling how long I have already tres- 

 passed upon your time and your patience, I must pass over 

 these subjects more rapidly than I feel to be consistent with 

 the merits of the authors or their works. 



The most important communication which has appeared, 

 during last year, on the Mollusca, is the joint production of 

 our colleagues Mr. Broderip and Mr. Sowerby, on some 

 subjects collected by Captain Belcher, during the late expe- 

 dition under Captain Beechey to the north-west coast of 

 America. Sixty new species have been described by these 

 gentlemen in the fourth volume of the Zoological Joutmal ; and 

 nine species, chiefly from the same collection, have been sub- 

 sequently added in the succeeding volume. Among these, 

 two striking modifications of form have been characterised : 

 one, belonging to the family of Turbinidse, under the name 

 of Trichotropis ; the second in the group of Tunicata, under 

 that of Cheliosoma. 



From the accurate pen of the former of these gentlemen, 

 our native Fauna has received the addition of two new species 

 of iJuccinum, the B. acuminatum and fusiforme ; the former 

 from the coast of Devonshire, the latter from the south coast 



