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Show 2 LETTER FROM SIR V. BROOKE. [Jan. 5, The Secretary read the following extract from a letter addressed to him by Dr. George Bennett, F.Z.S., of Sydney. " Sydney, October 22nd, 1874. "I have sent you a Beetle (Chrysochroa ocellata), enclosed in a small box, by this mail. This insect was presented to m e by Capt. Payne, of the barque «William Manson,' by whom it had been captured at sea at a great distance from land. His account of the capture is as follows : - # " * The Beetle was caught by me in the Bay of Bengal in lat. 17 N., and long. 90° E., being at that time the distance of 273 miles from the nearest land, namely the west coast of Pegu. The insect lived for ten days after being enclosed in a small box after its capture.'" The Secretary exhibited for Mr. Andrew Anderson, F.Z.S., of Futteyghur, an egg and young of the Gavial (Gavialis gangeticus), and read the following remarks on them by Mr. Anderson:- "I send for exhibition by the Secretary an egg of Crocodilus gangeticus (Gavialis gangeticus). I take this opportunity of pointing out that the word ' Gavialis' should properly be spelt with an r, and not with a v, the vernacular for the Long-nosed Crocodile being * Gharial.' " This egg is one of forty which I dug out of the sand; they were laid in two tiers, twenty below, and twenty above, with a stratum of sand about 1 foot deep between the two layers. Apparently the first batch had been laid and covered over with sand a day or two before the second instalment. " Also a young Gharial about two months old, to which I acted as accoucheur. This is one of several which were kept alive in a tub ; they ran with amazing rapidity the moment they were hatched. Some of them actually bit m y fingers before I had time to remove the shell from their bodies. "Length (on exclusion from shell) 15*8 inches; snout, from eye, 1*6 ; between fore and hind leg 2*8 ; from hind leg to end of tail 9 ; girth 4. Colour greyish brown, with five irregular transverse bands between fore and hind legs; nine more similar marks across the tail." A letter was read from the Marquess of Normanby, F.Z.S., dated Government House, Brisbane, Queensland, Oct. 10th, 1874, stating that he had forwarded to the Society in the ship ' Ramsay,' under the care of Capt. Cater, a fine living specimen of the Australian Cassowary (Casuarius austrcdis) *. A letter was read from Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., F.Z.S. pointino-out that in his paper on Cervulus (P. Z. S. 1874), at pao-'e 41 the ninth line from the bottom, the paragraph " Females hornless " down * See below, p. 82. |