506 



Zoological Society. 



to become perfect sponges when ejected from the parent mass, can 

 be readily understood by comparing their present form with the 

 recently formed portions of the sponge. Supposing the gemmule (?) 

 to have arrived at that state which commences its individual life, its 

 increase would not be by an extension of the tubuli in a straight 

 line ; but from the edges of the terminal aperture of each spine other 

 and similar tubuli would or might be sent off, and thus the end of 

 every spine become a fresh centre and anastomosing point, and in 

 this way a very slight addition would give the newly formed mass 

 the reticulate and vesicular character of the parent sponge. 



" Being anxious to identify the peculiar and entire siliceous cha- 

 racter of this sponge with its generic appellation, 1 have adopted the 

 name of Dactylocalyx ; the principal characters of which may be thus 

 expressed : — 



" Sponge fixed, rigid, siliceous ; incurrent canals, uniform in size; 

 excurrent canals large, forming deep sinuosities on the outer surface, 

 radiating from the root to the outer circumference. 



" For the species the name Dactylocalyx pumiceus is proposed." 



November 9. — William Horton Lloyd, Esq., in the Chair. 



Mr. Gould exhibited and pointed out the characters of a new 

 species of Goose nearly allied to Nettapus Coromandelianus {Anas 

 Coromandeliana, Auct.), from N. Australia, which he characterized 

 as 



Nettapus pulchellus. Nett. collo, dorso, alisque intense resplen- 

 denti-viridibus ; lateribus, fasciis latis lineisque alternafim albis 

 et viridescenti-nigris, conspicue ornatis ; remigibus secondariis cum 

 pogoniis externis albis, unde fascia obliqua alam transcurrens. 



Male : head brownish green, indistinctly barred with light brown ; 

 beneath the eye an oval spot of white ; neck, back and wings deep 

 glossy green ; primaries black ; outer webs of the secondaries snow- 

 white ; feathers of the chest and back of the neck white, with a 

 number of greenish black circles, one within the other, so numerous 

 that the white is nearly lost ; the flanks similarly marked, but in 

 them the bars and circles are broader and more apparent ; tail black, 

 glossed with green ; abdomen white ; under tail-feathers black ; irides 

 dark brown ; bill dark greenish grey, with a yellowish white nail ; 

 under mandible greenish grey, irregularly blotched with a lighter 

 colour ; legs and feet blackish brown. 



Total length, 12^ inches; bill, 1^; wing, 6 J ; tail, 3; tarsi, 1. 



The female resembles the male, but differs in having the crown, 

 occiput, and a stripe down the back of the neck deep brown ; in 

 being destitute of the white spot beneath the eye ; in having the 

 chin and upper part of the throat white, mottled with small mark- 

 ings of brown ; bill French grey, becoming yellowish at the base ; 

 lower mandible bluish grey ; tarsi fleshy white on the sides ; back 

 and front blackish brown ; feet dark brown. 



Mr. Waterhouse called the attention of the members to a new 

 species of Rodent from Chile, which had been placed in his hands 

 for description by H. Cuming, Esq. This animal, Mr. Waterhouse 

 stated, evidently belonged to a little family of the Rodentia (the Oc- 



