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Show 266 MR. G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON ON [Feb. 1 6, February 16, 1897. Prof. GEORGE B. HOWES, F.Z.S., in the Chair. Dr. E. C. Stirling, F.B.S., C.M.Z.S., exhibited some bones, casts, and photographs of the large extinct struthious bird from the Dlprotodon-beds at Lake Callabonna, South Australia, which had been recently discovered and named by him Genyornls newtonl, and gave a history of the principal facts connected with its discoveryl. Mr. G. E. H . Barrett-Hamilton, F.Z.S., exhibited a pair of tusks of the Pacific Walrus (Tricheclius obesus), which he had purchased at Pet ropaulowsk, in Kamschatka. H e regretted that he was unable to exhibit the skull, which he had also purchased, but which had not yet reached England. The present tusks were the largest of a good many which he had seen at Petropaulowsk; and it was a peculiarity of that place that the hunters there seemed to bring in the complete skulls of those which they kill, whereas the tusks for sale on the Alaskan side of the Pacific were, usually, removed from the skulls. This, however, was not a matter of surprise, considering the weight of the heads when complete. The Pacific Walrus was not well known to English naturalists ; and Mr. Barrett-Hamilton stated that he could find no tusks of this species either in the British Museum or in the Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons. H e considered that the Pacific Walrus was a good species or at least subspecies, and that the characters pointed out by M r . J. A. Allen, in his Monograph of North American Pinnipeds, to distinguish it from the Atlantic form were correct. He regretted, however, that he himself had not had the good fortune to see the Walrus of the Pacific in life, as they were now exterminated in the parts of the North Pacific in which he had travelled. The tusks of the Pacific Walrus were very much larger than those of the Atlantic species, and Mr. Barrett-Hamilton stated that he had seen nothing in London which at all approached the size of the tusks now exhibited. In the Pacific, however, he had heard of the occurrence of larger specimens. The animal itself was also larger than the Atlantic form, and, according to M r . Allen, had a Aery different facial outline. Besides some differences in the skulls by wdiich. the two species might be distinguished, the tusks in the Pacific form were usually more or less convergent, and Mr. Barrett-Hamilton had seen tusks which actually overlapped. " In the Atlantic species the tusks were, as a rule, divergent; while 1 On this subject see ' Nature', vol. 1. pp. 184, 206(1694). |