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Show 306 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON THE [Mar. 3, not, as supposed by Messrs. Chapman and Buck, one of the Dormouse tribe. Dr. H. Gadow gave an account of the caves which be had explored in the summer of 1886. They were situated in the province of Estremadura, in the low sierra between the villages of Athouguia and Otta, the nearest town being Santarem. The geological formation was hard white-blue limestone of the Ehaetic system. The caves lay only two or three hundred feet above the sea-level, and the particular one which yielded the bones was choked near the entrance with loose dry dust. About a foot below the surface of the dust was found an unpolished flint arrow-head. The cave was absolutely dry, and its horizontal bottom, extending for about 60 feet into the mountain, was covered with about two or three feet of the dust, which contained bones of small Euminants and of Bear, besides those of the Lemmings. The Lemming-bones were found at the far end of the cave, almost on the top of the dust. Mr. Sclater opened a discussion on the Eules of Zoological Nomenclature by reading the following paper:- Remarks on the Divergencies between the " Rules for naming Animals " of the G e r m a n Zoological Society and the Stricklandian Code of Nomenclature. Before proceeding to the immediate subject of the discussion which w e propose to hold this evening, I wish to call the attention of the meeting to the new work, to be called ' Das Tierreich,' which has been planned by the German Zoological Society. The object of it is to give an account of all the known species of recent animals described up to the present period. The proposed work will embrace, as we are informed, the most important synonyms, references to the best figures, and an account of the geographical range added to a short description of every species. This, it must be allowed, is a gigantic undertaking well worthy of a great scientific nation, and we must all heartily wish it success. The described species of recent animals, as will be seen by the table (which has been kindly compiled for m e by Dr. David Sharp, F.E.S., with the assistance of his corps of Recorders), numbers some 386,000 species1. Supposing that we admit that on the average five 1 Census Specierum Animalium Viventium hucusque descriptarum: a rough estimate of the number of described species of animals in the sections adopted in the ' Zoological Record':- Number. 1. Mammalia 2,500 2. Aves 12,500 3. Rcptilia and Batrachia 4,400 4. Pisces 12,000 5. Tunicata 900 6. Mollusca '.'..'. 50,000 7. Brachiopoda 150 8. Bryozoa 1,800 Carried forward 84J250 |