336 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



Dr. Gray lias also brought forward important revisions of two families 

 of Carnivora — the Ursidee and Mustelid© — from specimens in the 

 British Museum. Of the Ursidse there are ten genera and twenty-two 

 species, nine inhabitants of the old and twelve of the new world, while 

 one is common to both. Of the Mustelidas there are twenty-three 

 genera and forty-seven species, of which ten are peculiar to the new 

 world. 



Dr. Kirk, the companion of Livingstone, enumerates the mammals, 

 sixty-seven in number, met with in the Zambezi region of Eastern 

 Tropical Africa, amongst them a bat and an antelope new to science. 



With regard to birds, Professor Owen has contributed a ninth 

 memoir upon Dinornis, chiefly descriptive of the skull, and founded 

 upon the skull discovered, with an almost entire skeleton of the bird, 

 in the Valley of Manuherika, Otago, and now in the museum of the 

 Yorkshire Philosophical Society. Professor Bianconi, of Bologna, 

 communicated a letter relating to the systematic position of the 

 extinct Madagascan bird, the JEpyornis maximus, which he was of 

 opinion should be referred to the Vulturidas. New species of birds 

 have been added from Bodriguez, by Mr. Newton ; from Benguela, by 

 Mr. J. J. Monteiro ; and from Australia, by Mr. Gould, discovered 

 during the recent exploration of the interior of that country. The 

 discovery of some bones of a large species of Dodo in a cave at Bod- 

 riguez, by Mr. Newton, is also worthy of notice ; and the occurrence 

 in this country, for the first time (near Newbury), of the Carolina 

 Crake (Porzana Carolina). A remarkable Australian lizard (Moloch 

 horridus) is stated to have been recently captured alive in Jersey, to the 

 no small excitement of the islanders, and a photograph of the intruder 

 was exhibited by Mr. Sclater. The fishes of Cochin, on the Malabar 

 Coast of India, have been described by Mr. Francis Day, in a memoir 

 devoted to the Acanthopterygii, of which 120 species are enumerated, 

 including several new to science ; and Dr. Giinther has presented an 

 account of his researches into the British species of Salmonoid fishes. 

 He states that the genus Salmo is essentially an Arctic group, inhabit- 

 ing the northern portions of both hemispheres, the species becoming 

 more abundant upon receding from sub-tropical to temperate latitudes. 

 He is disposed to believe that the species to be found within British 

 waters are more numerous than hitherto suspected, and he has made 

 out four new species of the non-migrating group of true Salmo, besides 

 identifying several others heretofore imperfectly distinguished. He 

 distinguishes five of the sub-genus Salvelinus (charrs) inhabiting 

 Windermere (the original habitat) ; Llanberis, Scotland ; and Loughs 

 Melvin and Eske in Ireland, respectively. Of the sub-genus Salmo, 

 three are migratory species, viz. the true Salmon, the " Sewen " of 

 South Wales, and the Sea-trout of Scotland ; while eight are non- 

 migratory species — viz. S. fario of England, S. Gaimardi of Scotland, 

 S. Levensis of Loch Leven, and S. ferox or Great Lake Trout ; with 

 the four new species above mentioned, caUed respectively S. nigri- 

 pennis, inhabiting mountain lochs of Wales, S. orcadensis (Orkney 



