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Show 182 THE SECRETARY ON ADDITION TO THE MENAGERIE. [Mar. 17, evidence of similar monsters encountered in the vicinity of Newfoundland, has appeared in the pages of ' Appleton's Journal' for January 31, 1874. A m o n g the latter the Rev. M . Gabriel has stated that in the winter of 1870-71 two entire Cuttlefish were stranded on the beach near Lamalien, which measured respectively forty and forty-seven feet; while more recently an example became entangled in a herring-net near Logie Bay, whose body is said to have measured nine feet, the shorter arms six feet, and the two longer tentacula twenty-two feet. Steps are reported to have been taken to preserve this last-named specimen. In connexion with the St.- John's tentacle, a rough woodcut has been published in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' for January last; and in the more minute description given by M r . Harvey in a letter to Principal Dawson, there reprinted, the form and arrangement of the suckers at its clubbed extremity are described. These consist, in the first place, of a double row of very large suckers, measuring each 11 inch in diameter, with twelve suckers to each row, occupying the centre of the club-shaped expansion ; supplementing each extremity of this double row is a cluster of smaller suckers, the group at the proximal end containing fifty, and that at the distal one as many as seventy of these. The smaller suckers are further distinguished from the larger ones by their denticulated edges, those of the latter being smooth. The additional characters furnished by this more complete account will be of high importance for further identification, and serve to distinguish this animal from its nearest allies Loligo or Ommatostre-phus, in which the tentacular club is armed with four rows of suckers. W e await, however, still fuller details before attaching a positive diagnosis. March 17, 1874. Professor Newton, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. The Secretary called the attention of the Meeting to an important addition that had been made to the Society's Menagerie since the last Meeting. On the 7th inst. the Council had purchased of Messrs. Cross and Jamrach, for the sum of £800, a young male Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus)* imported from Batavia. This was believed to be the first example of this Rhinoceros that had ever been brought alive to Europe, although M r . Blyth (J. A . S. B. xxxi. p. 152) had put forward a theory that one of the Indian Rhinoceroses exhibited in England some time since had belonged to this species. This addition raised the representatives of the genus Rhinoceros in the Society's Gardens to four in number, viz. Rh. unicornis, Rh. * The specific term sondaicus of Desmarest ( M a m m . p. 399, 1820) appears to be the earliest for this species. In 1824 javanicus was published by Geoffroy St.-Hilaire and Frederick Cuvier in the Hist. Nat. des M a m m . pi. 309, and was subsequently adopted by Cuvier in his ' Regne Animal,' by Schreber, and by other authors. |
