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Show 44 MR. W. K. PARKER ON OPISTHOCOMUS CUISTATUS. [FEB. 4, SOLEA SCRIBA. Solea scriba, Valenc. in Webb & Berthel. lies Canar., Poiss. p. 84, pi. 18. fig. 3 (bad). Solea lascaris, Giinth. Fish. iv. p. 467 (nee Risso). Madeira, Canary Islands. 4. On the Identity of Solea lutea and Solea minuta. I am indebted to Professor Doderlein of Palermo for fresh specimens of Solea lutea (Risso) from the Mediterranean, and to the Officers of the Marine Biological Association for examples of Solea minuta (Parnell) obtained by them in Cowsand Bay; and am unable to discern any specific differences between them. February 4, 1890. Prof. Flower, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of January 1890 :- The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of January was 139, of which 89 were acquired by presentation, 4 by exchange, 41 by purchase, and 5 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 84. A communication was read from Mr. W . K. Parker, F.R.S., containing a memoir on the Morphology of a Reptilian Bird (Opistho-comus cristatus), of which the following is an abstract:- The expression "Reptilian bird" is, I believe, one of m y own coining; it occurs frequently in m y early papers. For the bird had long been to me a transformed and, one might even say, a glorified Reptile, the quasi-imago of the reptile, which takes the place of an active pupa, the fish doing duty, in the present economy of nature, as the larva. Things might have remained in this state and all this have been called " Parker's poetry," but very opportunely a severely scientific and very powerful mind found time to take up this subject; for Professor Huxley, in his masterly paper on the Classification of Birds (P. Z. S. 1867, pp. 416-472), put true Reptiles and Birds into one bundle, and called this bundle of life " Sauropsida." Everyone knows that that is one of the largest strides in the progress of modern science, yet at the time it made men of the old school " lift their brows " and wonder what would be the next move. These men "entered not in:" the old wilderness of thought was enough for them ; but our brave leader led us into a good land and a large one. No man of this generation is startled at the term " Reptilian bird," although everyone must wonder how the slow, cold-blooded, scaly |
