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Show 304 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE [Apr. 17, was now stated to weigh 431b., and to be in excellent health and condition, although it had been twice seriously ill. Mr. Sclater took this opportunity of recording the fact that this was not the first living example of the Gorilla that had been brought to Europe alive, as was shown by the following note from Mr. A. D. Bartlett, the Superintendent of the Society's Gardens :- "In the year 1861, I saw in the collection of the late Mr. Chas. Waterton a mounted specimen of a young Gorilla. It had been prepared from an individual that had been exhibited alive in the No. 1 Collection of Wombwell's travelling menagerie, where it had lived upwards of 7 months1. " Mrs. Wombwell's daughter subsequently lent me a photograph of this animal, which had been taken during its lifetime. This photograph I showed to Prof. Owen, and afterwards lent to Mr. Wolf, who, I believe, used it to assist him in a drawiug of the Gorilla. About two years since I sent the photograph back to the owner (Mrs. Fairgrieve), who was then living at Lauriston in Edinburgh." Mr. Sclater exhibited the very beautiful chalk drawing by Mr. Wolf (see Plate X X X V . ) which had been prepared from the photograph in question, and pointed out that there could be no doubt that Mr. Bartlett's statement of the animal having been a young Gorilla was correct. Mr. Waterton's collection was, he believed, now at Ushaw College, Durham, where, no doubt, the stuffed specimen was still to be seen. The following papers were read :- 1. On the Bursa Fabricii in Birds. By W . A. FORBES, F.Z.S. [Beceiyed March 13, 1877.] Prof. Garrod, in his paper on Plotus anhinga (P. Z. S. 1876, p. 344) says : - " In the urino-genital system of Pictus anhinga, in both sexes, the ducts open in the normal manner into the cloaca, just above its lower orifice. This orifice, however, is not on the surface, but is into a cavity behind the cloaca, which opens externally quite close to the place where the two communicate. Except for the nearly marginal orifice, the second cavity is a caecal sac, oval in shape, and about 1| inch high, covered at its blind end with the crypts of shallow glands, which also run down its sides. That it is a modification of the bursa Fabricii cannot be doubted." The disposition of the parts described above seemed peculiar enough to be worthy of further investigation ; with that end m y kind friend Prof. Garrod requested me to undertake a series of observations on the bursa in other birds, in order to throw further light on the structure of this organ, and to discover what characters, if any, it afforded for classificational purposes. The ample materials of the 1 Cf. Gray, P. Z. S. 1861, p. 278. |