410 Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London ; [April 



whereas the gland of this sinus, in most Deer and Antelopes> is a tiny 

 thing, and a dubious one. As to any Cervine or Antilopine animal breath- 

 ing through the suborbital sinus, it cannot be, unless they can breathe 

 through bone and skin I If you pass a fine probe down the lrcrymal 

 duct, you see the probe through the bottom of the osseous depression 

 holding the cuticular fold called the suborbital sinus. But, however 

 thin the plate of bone at the bottom of the former, it is there, without 

 breach of continuity ; and the cuticular portion of the apparatus has a 

 continuous course throughout, leaving no access to the inside of the 

 head. I am watching closely a live specimen of Cervus Aristotelis, to 

 discover, if I can, the use of this organ. In a recently killed male of 

 this species, I passed a pipe into the nose, up to the site of the suborbi- 

 tal sinus, and tried, in vain, for half an hour, with the aid of a dozen 

 men's lungs, to inflate the sinus. Not a particle of air would pass ; nor 

 could I cause the sinus to unfold itself, as the live animal unfolds it, by 

 means of a set of muscles disposed crosswise round the rim of it. In 

 dissecting the sinus, I found only a feeble trace of a gland ; so, also, in 

 the Muntjac. 



" But in the Thar, the gland ir conspicuous, being a huge lump of 

 flesh, bigger than, and like in shape to, the yolk of an egg. The live 

 Thar, too, in the spring especially, pours out a continuous stream of 

 thin viscid matter from the sinus; not so in any Deer. The Thar 1 s 

 gland seems to me connected with the generative organs : and I take 

 its profuse secretion to be a means of relieving^the animal (when it has 

 no mate particularly) from the extraordinary excitement to which it is 

 liable in the courting-season. 1 have witnessed that excitement, and 

 have been amazed at its fearful extent, topical and general, for six 

 weeks and more. 



"The Chiru's labial sacs, or intermaxillary pouches, are, most 

 clearly, accessory nostrils, designed to assist breathing at speed. They 

 spread with the dilatation of the true nostril, and contract with its con- 

 traction. This species has but five molar teeth on each side of either 

 jaw." B. H. H. — Philosophical Magazine, No. 54, October 1836. 



A paper by B. H. Hodgson, Esq., Corr. Memb. Z. S., on some of the 

 Scolopacidce of Nipal, was read ; the copy transmitted by that gentle 

 man to the Society containing various corrections of his memoir which 

 was published at Calcutta in the ' Gleanings of Science' for August, 

 1831 . 



Mr. Hodgson's object in the present paper is to bring under the notice 

 of zoologists the various species of the family referred to which occur 

 J n Nipal, on the natural history of which country he has, during a re- 

 sidence of several years, been engaged in making most extensive rc~ 



