Transactions of the Leeds Philosophical Society. 273 



tages at its disposal, the Leeds collection ought to possess one of the 

 finest series of carboniferous remains in the kingdom. Such a series 

 could only be formed by the united labour of several individuals inte- 

 rested in the science, who would visit the localities, of which, however, 

 in most provincial institutions, there are unfortunately but few, — the 

 majority contributing to the funds, but prevented by mercantile affairs 

 or other pursuits from giving their time to the fagging department. 

 Amongst the specimens are two unique heads of Megalicthys Hibberti, 

 andaportion of its body; manyfine Calamites, Astei-ophyllites, Lepido- 

 dendra, Sigillariae^ Lepidostrobi, Pecopteri and Equiseti, from the coal 

 measures ; a Sigilaria nine feet in height, from the sandstone near 

 Wakefield ; remains of Ichthysosauri from Whitby ; fine mass of 

 Ophiura Milleri from Scarbro' ; bones of the Mammoth of the banks 

 of the Ohio ; splendid lily encrinite from the Dutchy of Brunswick ; a 

 tolerably good series of shells from the calcaire grossiei'e of the 

 Paris basin, besides illustrations of the organic remains of the moun- 

 tain limestone, Kelloway rock, coralline oolite, chalk crag, &c. 

 The second room 43 feet by , and 20 in height, surrounded by 

 a gallery, is devoted to zoology, the first nucleus for which was 

 a collection of 135 species of British birds, by the liberality of its first 

 and lamented curator, John Atkinson, F. L. S. Surgeon. To the orni- 

 thological department, considerable accessions have since been made* 

 both foreign and British. Amongst the most attractive are, per- 

 haps, a case of South American birds from Charles Waterton, Esq. the 

 well known author of the Wanderings, a specimen of the rare Trogon 

 Pavoninus, Trinidad goatsucker, king of the vultures, ostrich, 

 Argus pheasant, and several of the Rhamphastidse. The collection of 

 Mammalia, like that in most provincial museums, is but small. It 

 contains, however, a very fine skull of the Asiatic elephant, a wild 

 boar, lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar. Polar and brown bear, wolf, kan- 

 garoo, seals, head of the walrus, porcupine, several simise, examples 

 of the genera Galeopithecus, Dasypus, Ornithorynchus, Nasuta, Di- 

 delphis, Procyon, Bradypus, &c. The fish are nearly all in spirits, 

 and principally from the Mediterranean. The greatest rarity is a 

 specimen of the spiny shark, in a bad state of preservation, caught 

 near Scarbro', and which is^ I believe, the only British example in the 

 kingdom. There is also a fine sturgeon, 9 feet in length, caught 

 near Selby, and a specimen of Malthe vespertilio. The department 

 of comparative anatomy is very limited, consisting of about thirty 

 skeletons of animals, birds, and fishes, and a highly interesting series of 

 forty-two wet and dry preparations, exhibiting the anatomy and phy- 

 siology of the genus Limax. Among the invertebrate tribes, the 



