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Show 82 PROF. A. H. GARROD ON THE [Feb. 16, Dr. Gray (who miswrites the specific name of this animal "caama"*) has given a figure of its skull. 2. A Banded Cotinga (Cotinga cincta) from Bahia, purchased January 18, being, so far as I know, the first example of any species of this magnificent group of birds that has reached Europe alive. 3. A n Australian Cassowary (Casuarius australis) from northern Queensland, presented by the Marquess of Normanby, F.Z.S., Governor of New Zealand, 23rd January, being the specimen previously announced as having been sent off by Lord Normanby before quitting his former government of Queensland (see above, p. 2). Mr. Sclater exhibited a drawing of a supposed new Rhinoceros from the Terai of Bhootan, which had been forwarded to him from Calcutta by Mr. William Jamrach, and read extracts from a letter addressed to him by Mr. Jamrach on the subject. Mr. Jamrach, at the date of his letter (Jan. 16th), was leaving for England with the animal alive. Mr. Sclater exhibited a living specimen of the Peguan Tree- Shrew (Tupaia peguana), which had been presented to the Society by the Hon. Ashley Eden, Chief Commissioner at Rangoon, British Burmah, and had reached the Gardens on the 8th hist., being, as it was believed, the first specimen of a living Tupaia of any species that had reached Europe. In the same cage was a small Squirrel (Sciurus blanfordi) of nearly the same size and colour. The general external resemblance between these two animals, structurally so widely diverse, was very remarkable, and almost amounted to mimicry. The following papers were read :- 1. On a point in the Mechanism of the Bird's Wing. By A. H. G A R R O D , B.A., F.Z.S., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, Prosector to the Society. [Eeceived January 25, 1875.] The beautiful investigations of Borelli, together with those of M. Marey, make it certain that in any organ which is employed as a flapping wing there must be a stiff or rigid anterior margin. In the insect the stout anterior nervure performs this function; in the bird the bones of the arm, forearm, and manus do the same. How, in the latter, this necessary rigidity is developed, considering the presence of the elbow- and wrist-joints, must be, at first sight, a matter of surpise. It depends on a mechanical arrangement by which, when, in the wing, the arm is bent on the forearm, the manus is always similarly bent on the forearm; and when extension of the forearm is made, extension of the manus equally certainly follows. This occurs when all the muscles and tendons are removed, and the ligaments binding the bones together are alone left. * " Fenntcus caama," P. Z. S. 1868, p. 520, et Cat. Carn. Mamm. p. 207. |
