Zoological Society. 3037 



and is now in the possession of Mr. H. Comal, of this town. On the 17th of August 

 last, when going up to the moors, I observed six crossbills, two old and four young 

 birds, evidently a brood of this season, near to Hopyland Castle, about a mile and a 

 half west of where I saw them last year. A watcher informed me he had found two 

 crossbill-nests this year, near the grove, belonging to R. Surtees, Esq., but I could 

 gather no particulars from him about the nest or eggs worthy of note ; but his de- 

 scription of the bird proved to me that he knew them, for he described them accu- 

 rately, and he has promised me a nest with eggs if possible next year : at present, 

 in the grove, and also in the shull plantations, belonging to Jonathan Backhouse, 

 Esq., may be seen, almost every day, flocks of from thirty to forty. — /. Duff ; Bishop 

 Auckland, December 16, 1850. 



Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



Evening Meeting, December 10. — Professor Owen, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the 

 chair. 



Mr. Westwood read a paper on the Dipterous insects of Africa, known under the 

 names of the Tsetse and Zimb. After noticing the different modes of attack of in- 

 sects upon horses and oxen, together with the effects thereby produced, a new species 

 from the neighbourhood of the new lake was described, under the name of Glossina 

 morsitans, which had been observed by Capt. F. Vardon to attack horses, occasionally- 

 causing their death. Mr. Westwood also referred to the description of the Zimb given 

 by Bruce, and considered that that writer had united in one account, the attacks of 

 the Tsetse and those of the species of (Estrus, which infest the camel, rhinoceros, Sec. 

 Descriptions were added of two additional species of Glossina from Western Africa, as 

 well as a new and remarkable allied genus from Sierra Leone. 



Mr. Gould exhibited and described a new form in birds, obtained from the interior 

 of Africa, by Masfield Parkyns, Esq. Balamiceps rex is a stork with a perfectly 

 anomalous beak of immense power, somewhat resembling that of Cancroma ; but of a 

 stature which nearly equals that of the marabou and adjutant. 



The Secretary read a note by Capt. Hardy, communicated by Lieut.-Col. Sykes, 

 on a curious native superstition relating to Buceros ginginianus. 



Professor E. Forbes, F.R.S., read a paper on the 'Marine Mollusca collected by 

 Capt. Kellett, R.N. and Lieut. Wood, R.N., during the Surveying Voyage of M.H.SS. 

 Herald and Pandora.' The collection consists of 317 species of marine gasteropoda, 

 one cephalopod, and fifty-eight marine bivalves. They were procured chiefly on the 

 coast of Southern California, from San Diego to Magdalena, from the shores of Ma- 

 zatlan and from the Sandwich Islands. Some very interesting and remarkable shells 

 were found/, the genera of which species are most numerous in the collection are 

 Murex, Purpura, Trochus, Terebra, S trombus, Conus, Collumbella, Littorina, Oliva, 

 Cypraea, Natica, Patella and Chiton ; Venus and Area. Among the more local genera 

 are Monoceros, Pseudoliva, Cyrtulus, Saxidomus and Crassatella. In this paper the 

 new Gasteropods were described : they are three species of Purpura, one of them re- 

 presenting remarkably the P. capillus of the Atlantic ; one Fusus (F. Kelletti, a very 



