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Show 334 DR. J. MURIE ON T H E [May 26, ceeding from a great distance, however near, is only heard early on still damp mornings. " As I have little leisure at present, I will defer speaking of the white Teenioptera? till m y next letter. " Very truly yours, "W. H. HUDSON." Prof. Owen read a paper on Dinornis, containing notices of some of the internal organs of certain species of this genus, together with a description of the brain and of some nerves and muscles of the head of Apteryx australis. This paper, which forms the 16th part of Prof. Owen's series of Memoirs on the extinct birds of the genus Dinornis and their allies, will be published in the Society's ** Transactions.' Mr. R. B. Sharpe exhibited, on behalf of Lord Lilford, F.Z.S., a specimen of the rare Podoces panderi of Fischer. This bird had been first described by Fischer de Waldheim, and was one of the chief zoological results of the journey from Orenburg to Bokhara, details of which were given by Eversmann (Reise von Orenburg nach Buch-ara) in 1823, and afterwards by Meyendorff (Voyage d'Orenbourg a Boukhara) in 1826. In these works the only specimen procured by the travellers on this expedition was stated to have been obtained in the desert of Kisilkoom. Mr. Sharpe stated his belief that the bird, on further examination, would prove to be a Desert Starling, allied probably to the genus Pastor, or, perhaps more strictly, to the South-African genus Dilophus, but it appeared to exhibit characters also pointing towards the genus Certhilauda. The following papers were read :- 1. Notes on the Anatomy of the Prongbuck, Antilocapra americana. By J A M E S M U R I E , M.D., F.L.S., F.G.S., & c , Prosector to the Society. 1. PRELIMINARY NOTE. It might with some justice be affirmed that, among others, two features specially characterize the present epoch of zoological science. 1. One is an unceasing search for the so-called aberrant, intermediate or passage forms, either between genera, families, or orders, nay even between the supposed firmly established classes* of animals. * Proc. Roy. Instit. of Gt. Brit. 7th Feb. 1868, " On the Animals which are most nearly intermediate between Birds and Reptiles," by Prof. Huxley-a lecture as remarkable for its scope of generalization as for its terseness of language. Since this note was written other papers tending in the same direction, published by that naturalist, as well as the celebrated American, Prof. Cope, have come under m y notice. Vide Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Nov. and Dec. 1867 ; the Proc. Boston Nat. Hist. Soc. June 1869; and, lastly, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond. Nov. 10, 1869. |