422 Proceedings of the 



they are so, at least, before the insect reaches its last and 

 winged state. 



I now know, both from personal observation and from the 

 testimony of other observers, that perfect winged Hemiptera 

 have been found coupling with incomplete apterous indivi- 

 duals ; and not only so, but two incomplete apterous indivi- 

 duals have been found coupling together. 



Such a fact would seem to preclude the necessity of saying 

 more. It looks like probatio probata. Notwithstanding this, 

 further light may still be thrown upon it by careful dissections 

 of the sexual organs in fresh specimens of this order of insects 

 in their different stages ; — an investigation which I would 

 invite such of my readers as are interested in the subject to 

 undertake, as being likely to lead to discoveries and informa- 

 tion of a more extended nature than the mere question now 

 under consideration. 



II. On the Skull of a Seal (Otaria Gillespii, M'Bain) from the Gulf of 

 California ; zoith some preliminary observations on the Amphibious 

 Camivora. By James M'Bain, M.D., R.N. 



After making some remarks on the Amphibious Cami- 

 vora, and narrating a few historical incidents concerning 

 the singularly interesting group of animals to which the 

 skull belonged, Dr M'Bain said, the Amphibious Carnivora 

 — including the walrus and the seals — form a very natural 

 group, which has been designated the "Phocidse." Formerly all 

 the seals were included under one genus. Buffon first adopted 

 the division into the earless and eared seals ; and Peron, a 

 justly celebrated French naturalist and voyager, proposed the 

 term Otaria for those possessed of external ears, whilst the 

 species destitute of an external ear were continued under the 

 old generic title of Phoca, or seals proper. Great discrepancy 

 and difference of opinion still exists among zoological writers 

 as to what characters are sufficient to constitute a class, order, 

 family, or genus ; and, until the whole series of the animal 

 kingdom has been rigidly investigated, it would be prema- 

 ture to consider the present method of classification as any- 

 thing more than an approximation to a natural arrangement. 



