6042 



Zoological Society, 



new genus of calcareous Spongiadae, brought from Hong Kong by Dr. Harland: the 

 type specimen was named Apbrocerus alcicornis. 



Tvesdaij, March 9, 1858.--Dr. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the chair. 



The Secretary read a monograph of the genus Miniopteris, by R. F. Tomes, Esq., 

 in which a new species was characterized under the name of M. Australis. It was 

 not until after he had arranged and named the specimens in the British Museum and 

 other collections that Mr. Tomes found this species to be an inhabitant of Timor 

 (and probably other of the islands of the Indian Archipelago) as well as of Australia, 

 and that therefore the name of Australis was not strictly appropriate ; but, to avoid 

 the confusion which might possibly arise from a change of name, he thought it 

 desirable that it should remain unaltered. 



Mr. Sclater, at the request of Mr. J. H. Gurney, exhibited some interesting speci- 

 mens from the fine collection of rapacious birds belonging to the Norwich Museum, 

 and characterized two of them as new, under the names Buteo zonocercus and Scops 

 usta, the former being from Guatemala, the latter from Ega, on the Upper Amazon, 

 where it was collected by Mr. Bates. 



The Secretary also read papers by Mr. H. Dohrn, Mr. Morch and Mr. Han- 

 ley, describing various new species of shells, principally in the Cumingian 

 collection. 



The Secretary 1 likewise read a paper by A. Leith Adams, M.B., Surgeon 22nd 

 Eegiment, " On the Habits, Haunts, &c., of some of the Birds of India." Through- 

 out this very interesting paper Dr. Adams gave only the result of careful examination 

 and experience, no species being named whose identity he had not confirmed; such 

 as are doubtful he had left unnamed and had given a description shortly after 

 death. 



Dr. Gray read a paper " On the power of dissolving Shells possessed by the 

 Bernhard Crab." In a note to his paper " On the Formation and Structure of 

 Shells," in the 'Philosophical Transactions' for 1833, he stated it as probable that 

 some Bernhard crabs had the faculty of dissolving shells, it not being unusual 

 to find the long fusiform shells which are inhabited by these animals with the inner 

 lip and a great part of the pillar on the inside of the mouth destroyed, so as to 

 render the aperture much larger than usual. Dr. Gray, having continued his 

 observations on these shells, was quite convinced that certain species of Bernhard 

 crab {Pagurus) have this power, some possessing it to a much greater degree than 

 others. 



Dr. Gray read a second paper, intituled " Proposal to separate the Family 

 of Salamandridae, Gray, into two Fiimilies, accoiding to the form of the skull." 

 — D. W. M. 



