Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/205

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PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.
183

Zoological Society of London.

April 2, 1878.—Prof. Newton, F.E.S., Vice-President, in the chair.

The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of March, 1878, and called special attention to an Isabelline Bear (Ursus isabellinus, Horsf.), received in exchange from the Zoological Gardens, Calcutta; to a Le Vaillant's Darter (Plotus Levaillanti), new to the collection; and to two examples of the very singular Water Tortoise, of the Amazons, generally known as the Matamata (Chelys matamata), remarkable for the long pendent filaments on its neck.

A communication was read from the Marquis of Tweeddale, containing the seventh of his contributions to the ornithology of the Philippines. The present paper gave an account of the collection made by Mr. A.H. Everett in the Island of Panaon.

Mr. A.G. Butler read descriptions of new Lepidoptera of the group Bombycites in the collection of the British Museum.

A communication was read from M.E. Oustelet, containing the description of a new species of Cassowary, from New Guinea, proposed to be called Casuarius Edwardsi.

A communication was read from Mr. F. Nicholson, containing the description of an apparently new species of American Pipit from Peru, which he proposed to call Anthus peruvianus.

Professor A. H. Garrod read some notes on the placentation of Hyomoschus aqaaticus as observed in the pregnant uterus of a fresh specimen of this animal recently examined.

April 16, 1878.— E.W.H. Holdsworth, Esq., F.Z.S., in the chair.

Mr. Sclater exhibited and made remarks on a typical specimen of the new Fox lately described by Mr. Blanford as Vulpes canus, from Baluchistan.

The Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Mr. A. Anderson, a bamboo stick with leather thong attached to it, such as is used in India for driving plough-cattle with, which had been taken out of a nest of the common Fish Eagle (Haliaëtus leucoryphus), in December, 1876.

Prof. Westwood communicated a memoir on the Uraniidæ, a family of Lepidopterous insects, with a synopsis of the family, and a monograph of one of the genera, Coronidia. These insects were remarkable for their extreme beauty and the difficulty which had attended their systematic classification. Their relations with other groups of Lepidopterous insects were discussed at considerable length, and their nearest affinities were shown to be with certain other moths belonging to the great division of the Bombyces, whilst their connection with the Hesperian butterflies, the Pseudo-sphinges, Erebideous Noctuæ, and Ourapterygeous Geometræ was