Zoologica I Society . 3751 



P.S.— I omitted to state, in the above account, a curious circum- 

 stance, viz., that throughout the whole operation of watching the hive, 

 and killing all the bees (the aromatic smell of whose bodies was pecu- 

 liarly strong and disagreeable), not a single bee gave any sign of iras- 

 cibility, their whole aim and attention being to get into the hive. 

 Now, under ordinary circumstances, as I have frequently found, to 

 my cost, the slightest meddling with the hive, and sometimes even 

 standing close to it, much less killing the inhabitants, is sufficient to 

 bring numbers of angry bees dashing about you, with that peculiar 

 sharp-sounding flight called by the villagers here " coming at you 

 spitishly."— O. P.-C. 



Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



November 23, 1852. — Dr. Gray, Vice-President, in the chair. 



The Secretary exhibited a series of skulls of the gouwa (Bos frontalis), commonly 

 called " the bison " by the English in India. These skulls had been presented to the 

 Society by Capt. Wycliffe Thompson, 10th Royal Hussars, who had himself collected 

 them in the Western Ghauts, or Sukyadri Mountains, expressly for this purpose. The 

 skulls represented an adult bull, a cow, and a younger animal. They formed the sub- 

 ject of a very interesting communication, addressed by Capt. Thompson to the Secre- 

 tary, in which he narrated the result of his hunting reminiscences while in pursuit of 

 several herds, in the hope of obtaining a pair of living calves, which he had, at the 

 request of Colonel Perrouet Thompson, been desirous of capturing and adding as a 

 gift to the Society's collection. The range of the gouwa appears to be exclusively 

 confined to the Western Ghauts, a narrow belt of wild, broken, and thickly wooded 

 country, dividing the highlands of the Deccan from the lowlands which border the 

 margin of the sea. The gouwa attains an enormous size, old bulls being currently 

 estimated as measuring nineteen hands at the shoulder, with a corresponding weight, 

 notwithstanding which they crash through the jungle when fairly alarmed, at a very 

 rapid pace, making their progress visible by a long track of waving branches tossing 

 above them like the wake of a ship at sea. 



Mr. Cuming communicated the description of a new species of Hyrax, discovered 

 in Fernando Po, by Mr. L. Fraser, H.M. Vice Consul at Whidah, and named by him 

 Hyrax dorsalis. 



M. Deshayes presented to the meeting the description of twenty new species of 

 Cardita, from the collection of Mr. Cuming. 



Among the objects placed on the table for exhibition, was a magnificent head of 

 Ovis Vignei, from Persia, the property of Mr. Burckhart Barker. — D. W. M. 



Proceedings of the Entomological Society. 



December 6, 1852. — J. 0. Westwood, Esq., President, in the chair. 



The following donations were announced, and thanks ordered to be given to the 



