Zoological Society. 2711 



Bombay by Alexander Elphinston, Esq., and A. Shaw, Esq., H.E.I.C. 



Civil Service. 



Whydah by J. Duncan. Esq., H. B.M. Vice-Consul. 



St. Lucia by Lieut. Tyler, R.E. 



South Carolina. ..by J. Davis, Esq., M.D. 

 In addition to which the Council have had the gratification of learning from the 

 Hon. C. A. Murray, that His Highness the Viceroy of Egypt has presented to the 

 Society a young living hippopotamus, which arrived safely in Cairo on the 14th of 

 November, and was thriving there up to the date of the last despatches. This most 

 valuable and interesting gift was accompanied by a beautiful lioness and cheetah ; 

 and Mr. Murray was further informed by the Viceroy, that a party of his troops re- 

 mained out on the White Nile expressly charged with the duty of securing a young 

 female hippopotamus, which was also destined for the Society. That expedition was 

 commanded by His Highness, in consequence of Mr. Murray's representation of the 

 great interest with which the acquisition of this extraordinary animal in a living state 

 would be regarded by the naturalists of Europe, and the credit which it would secure 

 to this Society as promoters of the science of Zoology. 



" The able manner in which Mr. Murray preserved the animals presented to the 

 Society by his late Highness Ibrahim Pasha, and others collected by himself in the 

 winter of 1848-9, until their embarkation in June last, induces the Council to look 

 forward with confidence to the probability of his surmounting the difficulties attendant 

 on the maintenance and transport of the hippopotamus ; which without doubt will 

 prove to be the most singular and attractive inmate ever introduced into the mena- 

 gerie. 



" It is proposed, if no unforeseen obstacles intervene, that the hippopotamus 

 shall be shipped in the beginning of May, with the view of its being displayed to 

 the Society at the earliest period of the summer at which its removal can be attempted 

 with safety." 



Evening Meeting, January 8, 1850. — W. Yabrell, Esq., V.P., in the chair. 



Professor Owen read a paper in continuation of his " Account of the Anatomy of 

 the Rhinoceros," which contained a description of the digestive organs and abdomi- 

 nal viscera. 



Mr. Gray read and commented on a list of shells collected in Ceylon, by Mr. 

 Layard. He also communicated an extract from a letter addressed to him by M. 

 Schlegel, the celebrated curator of the Royal Museum at Leyden, containing the cha- 

 racters of a new genus of Batrachians (Myobatrachus, Schl), the type of which, 

 M. paradoxus, from Swan River, Mr. Gray was inclined to consider identical with 

 the toad described by himself under the name of Breviceps Gouldii, in the Appendix 

 to Capt. Grey's ' Travels in Australia.' But even admitting this to be the case, Mr. 

 Gray assented to the value of the generic distinction proposed by M. Schlegel. 



Professor Owen read a paper by Professor Van der Hoeven, of Leyden, on the 

 " Anatomy of Nautilus Pompilius," which was illustrated by a series of carefully ex- 

 ecuted drawings, made by the author in the course of his dissections. 



The meeting adjourned to Tuesday, January 22nd. 



