Zoology. 1127 
were no appendages on the first segment of the abdomen; in others 
spoon shaped; in a few like those of the male. Only the useless 
and normally rudimentary first pair of appendages show this modi- 
fication, the second pair which are functional are never modified in 
this way. 
Tuniara.—Prof. Herdman, in the Proceedings of the Bivlogi- 
cal Society of Liverpool (1887, p. 24), thinks that recent investiga- 
tions tend to establish that the pineal gland and the pituitary body 
of the Vertebrata, are both of them the remains of organs which 
reached the surface of the head in the ancestral Chordata, the 
pineal in the form of a median dorsal organ of sight; the pituitary 
possibly also as a sense organ placed on the front of ‘the head close 
to the mouth opening. 
Brrpos.—Dr. R. W. Shufeldt contributes to the Auk (Vol. V 
Oct., 1888) figures of the skulls of Habia melan Si gt and Pipilo 
megalonyc, from which he shows that the grosbea possessed 
-of skeletal characters not shared by any other fringilline birds, and 
are possibly entitled to family rank. 
Mr. N. 8. Goss, of Topeka, Kansas, wishes information concern- 
ing the western range of Anas obscura, the black duck. He is 
inclined to doubt its occurrence west of the Mississippi, all the 
specimens which he has examined proving to be the Florida duck. 
Mammats.— At the meeting of the Linnean Society of New 
South Wales, Aug. 29th, 1888, Professor Tate exhibited a salted 
sc sun-dried mammal from Alice Springs, Central Australia. In 
appearance the Gea resembled a Cape Mole (Chrysochlo- 
a Its teeth and limbs indicated an insect diet and a burrowing 
life. Though no marsupial bones were seen on cursory examina- 
tion, the marsupial character was shown by marginal folds border- 
-ing the lal iaia area, which also, together with some other points, 
indicated affinity to the Monotremes as well. The dentition is 
said to resemble that of the purassic ponen A According to the 
natives it was the second specimen seen for sixteen years. A full 
aie oa will be given later by Mr. Zietz, ‘of the South Austral- 
lan Museum. 
