68 REPORT — 1841. 



South Walef3. Major Gierke explained the origin and character of these plates, which 

 he designated as a noble specimen of military topography. 



Mr. H. E. Strickland communicated to the Section a map of Santorin, about to be 

 published by Prof. Ritter of Berlin. It is engraved from a survey of the island made 

 by Capt, Gineste, officer of the French expedition in Northern Greece. 



ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 



On the Zoology of the County of Cormoall, By Jonathan Covcii,F.L.S., 8fc. 



Of the fourteen or fifteen species of Cheiroptera enumerated as British by Mr. 

 Bell, six are included in the Cornish fauna, and one more ( V. discolor) has been 

 found at no greater distance than Plymouth. Of the remainder, eight are too limited, 

 in numbers and distribution, to enter into a calculation of comparison with other 

 parts of the kingdom. The commonest of the Cornish Bats are, the Pipistrelle, Lesser 

 Horse-shoe, and Long-eared, in the order in which they are enumerated ; but their 

 local occurrence depends more on the accident of their meeting with congenial haunts, 

 than on the mere influence of climate. The latter circumstance, however, produces 

 its effect on the habits of these animals ; so that in Cornwall, where what may be de- 

 nominated severely cold winters do not occuf moz-e frequently than in cycles of six or 

 eight years, the appearance of the bat may be witnessed in every week in an ordinary 

 year. A fall below the 40th degree of the thermometer is the signal for their retreat ; 

 but a slight change to a milder temperature restores them to activit)^ when not un- 

 commonly they may be seen at midday in search of prey, which might not be obtained 

 at the more usual hours of the evening. 



It may be regarded as another proof of the mildness of the climate, that the Long- 

 tailed Field Mouse {Mus sylvaticus) breeds at Christmas, or the very beginning of 

 January, forming its nest at this time in ricks of hay. The frog also is rarely later 

 than this period in depositing its spawn. 



Of the genus Sorex, Cornwall possesses three species, sufficiently distinguished. 

 These are, Sorex araneus, Jenyns, in the Mag. of Zoology, vol. ii. : the front teeth 

 of a deep brown through most of their length. Bell's Br. Q., p. 109. Another 

 species, S. araneus of Duvernoy and Jenyns, Mag. Zool. vol. ii. f. 1. : the snout not so 

 long as in the S. araneus of English authors ; the teeth brown only at the tips of 

 the lower front teeth and of the molars. A third is referred to S. Fodiens of Bell, 

 S. bicolor of Jenyns, Mag. Zool, vol. ii. p. 37, but differing in some particulars ; more 

 especially in having the under front teeth purely white, the upper slightly coloured. 

 Of birds, there are known in Cornwall 243 species; of fishes, 1/3; of stalk-eyed 

 Crustaceans, 67. 



The additions to the zoology of the West of England which this enumeration im- 

 plies, with those belonging to the radiate animals, will be given in a second part ef 

 the Cornish fauna, now proceeding through the press. 



0)1 the Distribution, Sfc. of the 3Iammals of Devonshire. By J. C. Bellamy. 



The author exhibited a drawing of the palate of an individual of Balxnoptera minor 

 (Knox), taken off Plymouth, and showed a portion of the baleine, and a part of the 

 ear of that animal. He showed a new species of Vole, taken at Yealmpton. He also dis- 

 played a tooth of an extinct species of elephant, from the Yealm Bridge cavern; a 

 species of Asterias unknown to him ; a species of Helix new to the British isles ; some 

 Helices from the Yealm Bridge cave (proving their modern date) ; the skull of Ar- 

 vicola ayrestis, having teeth with fangs, instead of the common fluted condition ; and 

 several curious relics of ArvicolcB, birds, fish, &c. from the cavern of Yealm Bridge, 

 which he discovered. 



On the Geographical Distribution of the Animals of New Holland. By John 



Edward Gray, F.M.S. 



" If in our collection and catalogues we were to mark all the species found in Europe 

 as coming from England, we should be nearly as correct as we are at present in the 



