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Show 490 OX AN EARTHWORM WITH BIFID TAIL. [Dec. 12, presented by Sir Harry Johnston, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., on No\. 25th. A Capybara (Hydrochcerus capybara), a A iolet-eared Hummingbird (Petasophora iolata), two Purple Sugar-birds (Ccerebci ccerulea), two Spotted Emerald Tanagers (Calliste guttata), and a Red-billed Toucan (Rhamphastos erythrorhynchus), from Caracas, Venezuela, presented by Capt. Albeit Pam, F.Z.S., on Nov. 25th. The Secretary exhibited a coloured print, published by R. Ackermann in July 1812, of Polito's Royal Menagerie at Exeter 'Change, London. Mr. Polito died in 1814, and the Menagerie was taken over by his chief assistant Mr. Cross, a relative of the well-known Liverpool naturalist. The Exeter 'Change Menagerie became famous in 1827, because of the death of an Elephant which became infuriated and had to be killed. The Secretary was indebted to Mr. Howard Saunders, V.P.Z.S., for calling his attention to a long account of this occurrence published in Hone's ‘ Every-Day Book ' for 1827. Mr. A. H. Cocks, F.Z.S., exhibited twelve enlarged photographs of Whales taken by him at the Finwhaling Factories in East Finmarken in 1883-89. The species represented were Megaptera longimana, Balcenoptera sibbaldii, B. musculus, and B. borealis. Mr. Geo. P. Mudge, F.Z.S., exhibited an abnormal Dogfish (Scy Ilium canicula) in which the proximal limb of the siphonal stomach was everted into the pharynx, where it took the form of a flattened spathulate-shaped sac. Within the sac (which was lined with coelomic epithelium) there were contained the distal loop of the stomach, the spleen and pancreas. That it was a permanent condition, formed in the course of development, he believed to be shown by the great length of the lieno-gastric artery and by the presence of a peculiar triangular-shaped inva-ginated sac, supplied by this artery, and infolded from the dorsal surface of the everted loop of the stomach at its anterior end. Mr. Mudge also exhibited an Earthworm (Allolobophora sp. ?) with a bifid posterior extremity. It was found at Bradfield, Manningtree, in Essex, and was sent to Mr. Cole, the honorary curator of the Essex Field-Club Museum, who was kind enough to lend it to Mr. Mudge for description. The worm was normal to about the 56th segment, or to rather more than one-half its length, when it divided into two nearly symmetrical branches; the right branch at its origin was just a trifle larger than the left, but otherwise the two were equal. A distinct anal aperture was present at the posterior extremity of each branch, and indicated that the intestine was branched in |