Zoological Society. 3091 



Evening Meeting, February 25, 1851. — 



Mr. Gould called the attention of the meeting to three hybrid birds which had 

 been placed in his hands by Mr. Leadbeater, with a letter addressed to him concern- 

 ing them, from Capt. Spicer, of Cottimore. Two of these hybrids were the produce 

 of a hen golden pheasant and a male of the common species. The third was the pro- 

 duce of a hen pheasant of the common species and a black cock. 



Professor Owen read a paper 'On the Anatomy of the female wart hog (Phacochce- 

 rus CEthiopicus), recently living in the Society's Menagerie.' 



Dr. Baird communicated a paper, by Dr. Nicholson, of Calcutta, ' On a New 

 Species of Crustacean, discovered by him in the wells of that City, in 1846. 



Mr. Cuming communicated a paper by W. Metcalf, Esq., ' On New Species of 

 Shells received by W. J. Hamilton, Esq., from Borneo.' They were characterized 

 under the following names : Helix nasuta, nobis, H. glutinosa, nobis, H. conicoides, 

 nobis, Cyclostoma Borneensis, nobis, C. undatum, nobis, C. tenuilabiatum, nobis, C. 

 biciliatum, Auricula subnodosa, nobis, Auricula polita, nobis, Melania circumstridata, 

 nobis, M. subsuturalis, nobis, Paludina Hamiltoni, nobis, Cerithium unicavinatum, 

 nobis, Novaculina olivacea, nobis, Cyrena triangularis, nobis. 



The meeting adjourned to March 11. 



Monthly General Meeting, March 6. — Right Hon. Sir George Clerk, Bart., 

 M.P., V.P., in the chair. 



Mrs. Remington and E. Robins, Esq., were elected Fellows. W. W. Rawlins, 

 Esq., and G. M. Fast, Esq., were proposed as candidates for the Fellowship. 



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

 the first of January, presented an increase of 7422 over the corresponding period of 

 last year. The additions to the menagerie during the month of February, included a 

 Burchell's zebra, Guanacos, Rusa deer, a sloth, a Stanley crane, and three specimens 

 of the Jerooftee (Perclix pondicerianus) . The latter birds were presented by Mr. 

 Keith Abbot, Corr. Mem. Z. S., who brought them with him from Persia, expressly 

 for the Society. Several extensive buildings are in progress at the Gardens, and will 

 be completed in the early part of April. 



March 11,1851.— J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S., in the chair. 



Mr. Gould exhibited a drawing of a new species of Phytophaga, made from a 

 living specimen which had been for nearly twelve years in the possession of Lady 

 Rosse, at St. Helena, to which island it had been brought from the west coast of 

 Africa. The name proposed for this bird, by Mr. Gould, was P. Rossiae. 



The Secretary resumed and concluded the reading of Dr. Bonyan's paper 'On the 

 Raptorial Birds of British Guiana.' 



Mr. Newman communicated a paper, entitled ' Some Remarks on the Synonymy 

 of Distichocera, a Genus of Australian Longicorn Coleoptera, together with cha- 

 racters of two species supposed to be previously undescribed.' The author, after 

 pointing out the great obligations entomologists are under to the late Mr. Kirby, for 

 his admirable descriptions of exotic Coleoptera, proceeds to recite the characters as 

 given by that lamented naturalist to the genus Distichocera, and the species maculi- 

 collis, and also of those given subsequently by Mr. MacLeay, Boisduval, and himself, 

 to the very different looking insect commonly known as Distichocera fulvipennis. He 

 then describes both these insects at great length, and gives his reasons for supposing 



