SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 157 



A communication was read from M. A. Milne-Edwards, respecting 

 Lemur nigerrimus, Sclater, a species originally described from an example 

 living in the Society's Gardens. It was pointed out that Prosimia rufipes 

 of Gray had been based on a female of this species. 



Mr. Howard Saunders exhibited and made remarks on a specimen 

 of the American Stint, Tringa minutilla, shot at Northam Burrows, 

 North Devon, by Mr. W. Broughton Hawley in August, 1892 (Zool. 

 1892, p. 411). 



Mr. Sclater (on behalf of Mr. R. M. Barrington) exhibited a 

 specimen of the Antarctic Sheathbill, Chionis alba, killed at the Car- 

 lingford Lighthouse, Co. Down, Ireland, in December last (Zool. 1893, 

 p. 28). 



Dr. C. J. Forsyth-Major read a memoir on some of the Miocene 

 Squirrels, and added remarks on the dentition and classification of the 

 Sciuridae in general. The author proposed a new division of this family 

 into three subfamilies — Sciurinae, Pteromyinae, and Nannosciurinae. The 

 genera Spermophilus and Arctomys and the allied forms were united to the 

 Sciurinae. The last part of the paper dealt with the primitive type of the 

 Sciurine molar. 



Mr. Henry 0. Forbes read a paper entitled "Observations on the 

 Development of the Rostrum in the Cetacean Genus Mesoplodon, with 

 remarks on some of the Species." Mr. Forbes showed that in this 

 genus the vomerine canal in the young animal is filled with cartilage, 

 and in the adult with a dense petrosal mesorostral bone. From the 

 examination of thirteen specimens of Mesoplodon grayi and four of 

 M. layardi, of which he had made a large number of sections in various 

 stages of growth, the author concluded that the mesorostral bone was not, 

 as had been generally believed, an ossification of the cartilage, but an 

 actual growth of the vomer and of the premaxillaries, with perhaps, in 

 some cases, additions from the ossification of the cartilage of the vomerine 

 spout. The cause of the growth in the vomer might be accounted for by 

 the pressure communicated to it by the growth of the premaxillaries, 

 induced perhaps by the movement, which appears to take place, of the 

 maxillaries over the premaxillaries. 



March 14.— Sir W. H. Flower, K.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., President, in 

 the chair. 



The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made to 

 the Society's Menagerie during the month of February, 1893, and called 

 attention to two Terrapins procured in Okinawa Shima or Great Loochoo 

 Island by Mr. P. A. Hoist, and kindly presented by that gentleman. 

 Mr. Boulenger had determined these Tortoises to be Spengler's Terrapin, 

 Nicoria spengleri. 



