3402 Zoological Society. 



point. This smooth surface is due to an extremely delicate capsule, which when torn 

 open exposes the down-tuft, consisting of a central stem, with slender smooth barbs, 

 from three to five lines in length, diverging loosely from each side of the stem. 



in. lines. 



Length of the body from the base of the beak to the tail 4 



Length of the beak 1 7 



Length of the leg from the knee-joint 4 3 



Length of the freely projecting part of the fore-limb from the) Q g 



elbow-joint ) 



From these dimensions it would be seen that, with the characteristic large size of 

 the unhatched young in the genus Apteryx, the chief peculiarities of the remarkable 

 external form of the bird had been acquired. The feet were very completely formed 

 with well-developed claws, the small back claw presenting its characteristic propor- 

 tions, and the integument of the naked part of the foot its well-marked scutation. The 

 little wing-rudiments had their terminal hook. The tail presented the form of a short 

 bifid prominence. The beak, being comparatively soft, had become distorted and bent 

 in the bottle of spirits in which the specimen was transmitted to the Professor, but it 

 showed its characteristic shape, the terminal nostrils, and the slight terminal expan- 

 sion, which forms the end of the crutch in the mature bird. The eyelids, with their 

 cilia, and the orifice of the ear, opening obliquely upwards, were rather larger in pro- 

 portion than in the adult, according to the usual law of the precocious development 

 of those organs of sense; and the same remark applies to the entire cranium. The 

 neck is relatively shorter and thicker. The young bird must be excluded unusually 

 well developed, with a complete clothing very like that of the parent, and capable of 

 using its limbs and beak for its own safety and support. 



Monthly General Meeting, February 5, 1852. 



Miss Burdett Coutts, Messrs. J. H. Gurney, T. Naghten, T. Lacy, G. Gillett,and 

 R. O'Brien Jameson, were elected Fellows. 



Lord Garvagh, the Hon. G. W. Milles, Messrs. W. M. Bigg, W. Ward, R. Sayer, 

 W. Taunton, and F. C, C. Rash, were proposed as candidates for the Fellowship. 



February 10, 1852.— W. Yaerell, Esq., V. P., in the chair. 



The chairman exhibited a specimen of Echiodon Drummondii, a very rare species 

 of fish, first described by Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, and of which only one example 

 has been previously known. Dr. Drummond obtained the first specimen on the beach 

 at Carnclough, near Glenarm, in the county of Antrim, in June, 1836, cast ashore 

 probably by the tide of the preceding night, after a strong easterly wind. The species 

 was considered new to Ichthyology, and was described and figured in the 'Transac- 

 tions' of this Society by Mr. Thompson, vol. ii. p. 207, plate 38. Nothing that has 

 transpired since the publication of Mr. Thompson's paper has induced a belief that 

 this species had been previously known. The specimen now exhibited was most 

 liberally sent to Mr. Yarrell, by Mrs. Blackburn, of Valencia, in the county of Kerry, 

 who was perfectly aware of the character and the rarity of the fish. It was found by 

 her daughter Helen, on the shore of the harbour of Valencia, after a violent storm 



