SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 237 



the name P. caucasicus. Altogether ten species of Batrachians were now 

 known from the Caucasus. 



Mr. F. E. Beddard read the second of his contributions to the Anatomy 

 of the Picarian Birds. The present communication related to the pterylosis 

 of the Capitonida. 



Mr. M.F.Woodward read a paper on the dentition of certain Insectivores, 

 and pointed out that there was strong evidence to show that the milk- 

 dentition was undergoing reduction in this group as a whole, some of the 

 milk-teeth in Erhiaceus and Gymnura being present as small calcified tooth- 

 vestiges only, while in Sorex there were apparently no calcified milk-teeth, 



but only vestigial milk-enamel organs. He concluded that i. 3 and P m ' 



J b pm. 1 



were tending to be suppressed, and that the latter when present was a 

 persistent milk-tooth, that d.pm. 4 was probably a true but precociously 

 developed molar, p.pm. 4 being a retarded milk premolar. From a con- 

 sideration of the ontogeny of the molar-cusps, he concluded that the true 

 primary cone in the upper molars was Osborn's " paracone," its homologue 

 in the lower jaw being the protoconid. From palaeontological evidence, 

 Mr. Woodward pointed out that there was not sufficient proof to justify the 

 tritubercular theory as applied to the upper molars. 



A communication from Mr. A. D. Birtlett contained some notes on the 

 breeding of the Surinam Toad, Pipa americana, as recently observed in the 

 Society's Gardens. 



May 19th, 1896. — Sir W. H. Flower, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., 

 President, in the chair. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited a Daguerreotype portrait of what was believed to 

 be the first Gorilla that was ever brought alive to Europe. It was living 

 in Wombwell's Menagerie in 1855. This portrait had been lent to Mr. C. 

 Bartlett by Mr. Fairgrieve, formerly associated with Mr. Wombwell, who 

 had sent with it an account of the animal and its habits. 



A communication was read from Mr. G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton on a 

 variation in the pattern of the teeth of a specimen of the Common Field 

 Vole, Microtus agrestis, in which the first upper molars on both sides had 

 a small but well-developed extra enamel fold, giving three angles on the 

 outer side and four on the inner side of each tooth and six cement spaces. 

 A second communication from Mr. Barrett-Hamilton contained remarks on 

 the existence in Europe of two geographical races or subspecies of the 

 Common Field Vole. He considered the Field Voles of England, Belgium, 

 and the North of France, and possibly of a large part of the Continent, as 

 distinct from the Scandinavian animals, which would remain the typical 

 Microtus agrestis, while the British and western continental form should be 

 called Microtus agrestis neglectus, Jenyns. This view agreed with that of 

 De Selys-Longchamps in 1847. 



