3002 Fishes, fyc. 



dullish scarlet. In other respects, it accorded with the account 

 given by the writer now mentioned of this particular species. The 

 second is the Portunus puber, or velvet swimming crab. It exhi- 

 bited, when fresh, a great assemblage of tints, the prevailing one 

 being purplish brown, the others blue and dull red. The velvety 

 appearance which it presents, is very striking. It would appear to be 

 rather common on some parts of the English coast ; but, so far as 

 Mr. Bell has been able to learn, it does not seem to have been hitherto 

 noticed to the north of Berwick. The third is the Galathea strigosa. 

 In an English edition of ' Cuvier's Animal Kingdom ' (1834), I find the 

 following references under the name of this species: — Penn. Brit. 

 Zool. iv. 14. Leach, Malac. Brit. 28, b. The remarks of Cuvier him- 

 self, in regard to this beautiful although diminutive crustacean, are 

 very brief and unsatisfactory ; and, not having access to any of the 

 authorities which he has indicated, I am, in consequence, unable 

 to determine the value of the species as viewed in connexion with 

 the locality from which I obtained it. 



G. Harris. 



Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



Monthly General Meeting, November 7, 1850. — W. Yarrell, Esq., V. P., in the 

 chair. 



His Excellency The Baron Brunow, J. S. Gaskoin, Esq., R. Hartley Kennedy, 

 Esq., and G. Routledge, Esq., were elected Fellows. Thomas Brooksbank, Esq., 

 was proposed as a candidate for the Fellowship. 



The Report of the Council stated, that the number of visitors to the Gardens 

 during the current year has been 344,590, and that there has been an increase in con- 

 sequence, of £5,600 in the receipts as compared with the corresponding period of 

 1849. Upwards of eighty animals have been added to the menagerie since the 

 meeting in September, by purchase and donation. The principal objects of interest 

 are a polar bear, three grisly bears, and a male brush turkey (Talegalla Lathami), of 

 which species the Society had previously only obtained a female. The principal gifts 

 are a lioness from Mosambique, presented by Her Majesty the Queen of Portugal ; a 

 lioness, presented by Gen. Sir Harry Smith, Governor of the Cape ; and a herd of 

 reindeer, presented by W. C. Domvill, Esq. The first portion of a collection, which 

 has been obtained in Ceylon, by Alexander Grace, Esq., reached the Gardens on the 

 1st inst, and will be regarded with interest, as coining from a country of which the 

 Zoology is still very imperfectly known. 



The first evening meeting will take place at the Society's house, on Tuesday, No- 

 vember 12th, when, among other papers, Dr. Mantcll will make a communication on 

 the discovery of a living specimen of Notornis (a bird hitherto only known in a fossil 

 state), in the Middle Island of New Zealand. 



