140 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



portant additions to the ever-growing collection in the Regent's Park, 

 were announced, including a young female Chimpanzee, just received 

 from West Africa ; and it was stated that the head-keeper had returned 

 safely from Calcutta, in July, with a valuable collection of animals, 

 amongst which were a pair of Rhinoceroses, and several species of 

 birds new to the collection. 



Mr. Gould announced two new members of our Avi-fauna, the 

 Emberiza pus"illa of Pallas, and the continental Anthus campestris, 

 both recently taken at Brighton. Prof. Huxley read a memoir upon 

 the Structure of the Skull of Man, the Gorilla, the Chimpanzee, and 

 the Orang-Outang, during the period of the first dentition, and based 

 upon materials contained in the British Museum, the Royal College of 

 Surgeons, and particularly upon the original specimens of Tyson's 

 " Pigmy," in the Leeds Museum. A communication also upon the 

 Crania and Dentition of Qnadrumanous Animals, viz. the Leinuridaa, 

 was made by M. St. George Mivart, also from similar sources ; and 

 from which examination he is induced to divide the Lemuridaa into 

 four natural sub-families — the Indrisidae, Lemurinas, Nycticebinaa, 

 and Galagininas. 



Dr. Gray and Dr. Sclater have also been active with communica- 

 tions — the latter upon new birds from India, Brazil, and Madagascar ; 

 and the former with a revision of the specimens of viverrine animals 

 in the British Museum (which possess upwards of 80 out of the 102 

 species of the family known to the Zoologist), and other similar papers ; 

 also a description of the atlas and cervical vertebras of a Right Whale, 

 in the Sydney Museum, which appears to indicate the existence of a 

 new form of this group, distinguished by the complete separation of 

 the atlas from the other vertebras, and called by Dr. Gray, Macleayius 

 Australiensis. 



SCIENCE IN BRITISH NORTH AMERICA. 



The progress which Science is making in this part of the Colonial 

 possessions of Britain is very satisfactory, and is due in a great de- 

 gree to the exertions of the provincial learned societies, amongst 

 which may be mentioned the Canadian Institute, meeting at Toronto, 

 and publishing the ' Canadian Journal of Industry, Science, and Art ; ' 

 the Natural History Society of Montreal, represented by the ' Canadian 

 Naturalist and Geologist ; ' and the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural 

 Science, which publishes its ' Transactions.' The subjects, which 

 have received attention recently, may be arranged under the various 

 ^ranches of Science. 



1. Botany. — Dr. George Lawson, of Dalhousie College, has laid 

 before the IS ova Scotian Institute a Synopsis of the Canadian Flora, 

 embracing a list of all the flowering plants and ferns that have been 

 observed in Canada, with their habitats and distribution, preceded 

 by general remarks on the principal features of the Flora. In 



