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Show •312 DR. MACDONALD ON TWO SHARKS. [Mar. 18, captured about six months ago about 30 miles from Cape-Coast Town. Mr. Elliot* has lately proved, from a comparison of typical specimens, that Temminck's name, Felis aurata, belongs to this African species, and not to the Asiatic Golden Tiger cat, to which it has been usually referred, but which, in accordance with this view, has been named, in the Revised List of Vertebrates, Felis moormensis (ibid. p. 39). Felis rutila is the name under which this African species is generally known, being that given to it by Mr. Waterhouse before this Society in 1842. The present specimen belongs to a rather dark variety with beautiful rose-coloured spots, as will be seen from the accompanying sketch by Mr. Keulemans (Plate XXVII.). 3. Three female Scaup Ducks, presented by Mr. R. Swinhoe, F.Z.S., H.B.M. Consul at Ningpo, and received February 22nd. Mr. Swinhoe has sent us an interesting notice of these Ducks, which he is inclined to refer to Fuligula mariloides of Vigors. This paper will be read at a subsequent meeting, when the skins of two of them, which we have lost since their arrival, will also be exhibited. A communication was read from Dr. J. Macdonald, F.R.S., Staff-Surgeon R.N., containing descriptions of two Sharks taken off Flinders Island, Bass's Straits, during the voyage of H.M.S. • Herald ' in the South Seas. During the voyage of this vessel systematic notes of the numerous Sharks and Rays obtained from time to time had been taken by the late Mr. F. M . Rayner, the surgeon of the ship, whilst Dr. Macdonald had made careful drawings of them for future reference. Mr. Rayner had also preserved the jaws, pieces of the skin, and the intestinal valve of every specimen. Indeed it had been fully intended to arrange the whole into a system, making as near an approach to a monograph of the cartilaginous fishes of the South-western Pacific as would be possible, without introducing genera and species which had not actually been seen. Circumstances, however, had interfered with this project; and Mr . Rayner's valuable preparations had been deposited in the Museum of the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar, while the collection of drawings and the notes had been retained. From this source had been derived a short paper on Galeocerdus rayneri, and another on Heptranchus griseus, already published in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society' *j\ The present paper contained descriptions, 1st, of a specimen of Acanthias vulgaris with a double-yelked ovum and two embryos, and of a species of Galeus, both obtained off Flinders Island, Bass's Straits. The following papers were read : - * P. Z. S. 1871, p. 759. t See P. Z. S. 1868, pp. 368 & 371, pis. xxxii. & xxxiii. |