On some Objects of Natural History from the Collection of M. Du Chaillu. By Professor OWEN, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S.

The author's first knowledge of this zoological collection was derived from a letter sent by M. Du Chaillu, dated Gaboon, June 13, 1859, and received in the British Museum in August 1859, in which M. Du Chaillu specified the skins and skeletons of the gorilla or n'gena, kooloo-kamba, nschiego, and nschiego-mbovie which he had collected, offering them for sale, with other varieties, to the British Museum. Professor Owen replied, recommending the transmission of the collection to London for inspection, with which recommendation M. Du Chaillu complied, bringing with him, in 1861, all the varieties he had named, with other objects of natural history, from which he permitted selections to be made. The skins of the adult male and female of the young of the Troglodytes gorilla afforded ample evidence of the true coloration of the species. In the male, the rufo-griseous hair extends over the scalp and nape, terminating in a point upon the back. The prevalent grey colour, produced by alternate fuscous and light-grey tracts of each hair, extends over the back, the hair becoming longer upon the nates and upon the thighs. The dark fuscous colour gradually prevails as the hair extends down the leg to the ankle. The long hair of the arm and forearm presents the dark fuscous colour; the same tint extends from below the axilla downwards and forwards upon the abdomen, where the darker tint contrasts with the lighter grey upon the back. The scanty hair of the cheeks and chin is dark; the pigment of the naked skin of the face is black. The breast is almost naked; and the hair is worn short or partially rubbed off across the back, over the upper border of the iliac bones, in consequence, as it appears, of the habit ascribed by M. Du Chaillu to the great male gorilla of sleeping at the foot of a tree, resting its back against the trunk. Professor Owen proceeded to describe the colour of the female gorilla, which, it appears, was generally darker and of a more rufous tint than the male. In one female the rufous colour so prevailed as to induce M. Du Chaillu to note it as a 'red-rumped variety.' In the young male gorilla, 2 ft. 6 in. in height, 1 ft. 7 in. in the length of the head and trunk, and 11 inches across the shoulder, the calvarium is covered with a well-defined "skull-cap" of reddish-coloured hair. The back part of the head, behind the cars, the temples, and chin are clothed with that mixture of fuscous brown and grey hair which covers with a varying depth of tint the trunk, arms, and thighs. The naked part of the skin of the face appears to have been black, or of a very dark leaden-colour; a few scattered straight hairs, mostly black, represent the eyebrows. A narrow moustache borders the upper lip; the whole of the lower lip and sides of the head are covered with hair of the prevailing grey fuscous colour. The rich series of skulls and skeletons brought home by M. Du Chaillu illustrate some important phases of dentition. These phases were specified by Professor Owen at length. The deciduous or milk dentition, it was remarked, was, in the youngest specimen of the gorilla, something similar to that of the human child, but an interspace equal to half the breadth of the outer incisor divides that tooth from the canine, and the crown of the canine descends nearly two lines below that of the contiguous milk molar. The deciduous molars differed from those of the human child in the more pointed shape of the first, and much larger size of the second. The dentition of the young gorilla corresponds best with that exemplified in the human child between the eighth and tenth years; the difference, however, is shown in the complete placing of the true molar, whilst the premolar series is incomplete. It was worthy of remark, also, that in both specimens examined the premolars of the upper jaw had preceded those of the lower jaw, and that the hind premolar had come into place before the front one. In the later development of the canines and the earlier development of the second molars of the second dentition the gorilla differs, like the chimpanzee and the orangs, from the human order of dental development and succession. An opportunity of observing this order in the lower races of mankind is rare. Professor Owen availed himself of the opportunity in the case of the male and female so-called dwarf Earthmen from South Africa, exhibited in London in 1855. He found their dentition respectively at the phase indicative of the age of from seven to nine in the English child; other indications agreed with this evidence of immaturity. The children were of the dwarf Boschisman race, and were dressed and exhibited as adults.

Both showed the same precedency in development of canines and premolars which obtains in the higher races of man. Referring next to the variety of the chimpanzee brought by M. Du Chaillu from the Camma Country and from near Cape Lopez, Professor Owen remarked that this species accords specifically in its osteological and hirsute development with the Troglodytes niger. It is stated by M. Du Chaillu to be distinguished by the natives of Čamma as the nschiego-mbovie, from the common chimpanzee (Troglodytes niger), called by them the nschiego. From the character of the skins of the male and female specimens of this species brought by M. Du Chaillu to London, Professor Owen would have deduced evidence of a distinct and well-defined variety of Troglodytes.

Statistics of the Herring Fishing. Communicated by C. W. PEACH. [Compiled by Mr. Peter Reid, and published in his paper the "John o'Groat Journal"] Quantity Branded in Wick District during the past Six Years, to 30th September

in each year.

Number of Boats, Yearly Average, and Total Quantity caught annually at Wick

since 1836.

Number of Boats Fishing at each Station during the past Five Years.

Average in each District from Orkney to Northumberland for the past Five Years.

79

92

621

Forse.

100

60

88

Latheronwheel.

68

.....

57

...

69

20

40

591

24

56

Hopeman.

110

85

Lossiemouth.

Fraserburgh.

128

Peterhead.

235

Dunbar.

613

176

84

80

95

120

81

54

100

150

112

106

491

431

634

100

68

561

74

230

1601

107

841

40

30

36

35

34

50

45

17

391

77

Total Catch at each Station from Orkney to Northumberland for the past

Total Catch of Herrings for the past Eight Years, from Northumberland to the Lewis, excluding Zetland and the Ayrshire and Argyleshire Coasts.

Remarks on the late Increase of our Knowledge of the Struthious Birds.

By P. L. SCLATER, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S.

After pointing out the general characters of the birds of the order Struthiones, and the peculiarities displayed in the structure of the two families, the Struthionide and Apterygidæ, of which alone recent representatives were known, Dr. Sclater called the attention of the Meeting to the large increase in our knowledge of the species of this group of birds which had recently taken place. Until lately, each of the types, Struthio, Rhea, Casuarius, Dromæus, and Apteryx, had been supposed to be represented by a single species. There now appeared to be indications, more or less precise, of the existence of twelve species of Struthionida, and (as the author has already shown in his joint Report with Dr. Hochstetter on the genus Apteryx*) four species of the family Apterygida.

The following Table was exhibited, giving the names of these species and their localities, as far as they were known.

Dr. Sclater illustrated his remarks by exhibiting a series of drawings taken from examples in the Gardens of the Zoological Society of London, which, he stated, contained living specimens of no less than ten out of these sixteen species.

On a New Mining Larva, recently discovered. By H. T. STAINTON, F.L.S. The author remarked that it had long been notorious that larvæ of several orders of insects lived between the two surfaces of leaves of plants, forming tracks in the fleshy substance of the leaf, and hence termed leaf-miners; that from the time of Reaumur, nearly 130 years ago, observers had often paid considerable attention to this class of insects, and that latterly a continued attempt had been made, both here and in Germany, to discover all the species of leaf-mining larvæ which belonged to the order Lepidoptera.

Amongst the leaf-mining larvæ were representatives of the four orders, Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, and Diptera; but at present few entomologists attempt to study more than one order, and hence a collector of Coleoptera would naturally neglect all Lepidopterous larvæ and those he suspected to be Lepidopterous; in like manner a collector of Lepidoptera would reject all Coleopterous farvæ and those he suspected to belong to that order. Hence the same larva might be suspected by both parties and neglected accordingly. A larva which had lately attracted considerable attention had in this way been noticed long ago, both here and abroad, by Lepidopterists, but, being reputed by them a Coleopterous larva, had been neglected accordingly.

Herr Kaltenbach of Aix-la-Chapelle, who had been devoting his attention to mining-larvæ of all orders, had met with this larva, and reared from it a Micropteryx; and last spring Dr. Hofmann, of Ratisbon, had also reared a larva of the same genus. The genus Micropteryx is a genus of small moths of the group Tineina; but the structure of the palpi is so singular, the neuration of the wings so peculiar, and the wings so slightly clothed with scales, that some authors were disposed to question their right to be considered Lepidoptera. Westwood, in 1840, had expressed his regret that the transformations of so anomalous a genus had not been detected.

The larvae of Micropteryx had now been found very plentifully, and had clearly established that the genus was truly Lepidopterous, as the only group of insects to which they could otherwise have been referred, the Trichoptera, have larvæ of a very different structure.

The most striking peculiarity of these Micropteryx-larvæ is a slight lateral protuberance on the fifth segment, which has been noticed in several species. These larvæ are totally devoid of legs, and the hinder segments are much attenuated.

On Varieties of Blechnum Spicant collected in 1860 and 1861.
By A. STANSFIELD.

The Blechnum Spicant of Linnæus, Lomaria Spicant of Hooker, is one of the commonest of all known ferns. Its range of elevation extends from the sea-level to the summits of the highest mountains, though it flourishes most in the subalpine regions. It is found in greater or less abundance in most of the geological formations, most frequently of all in the siliceous formations of the Silurian, Old Red Sandstone, and the Coal-measures, and is least plentiful on the mountain limestone and the chalk. From its extensive diffusion we might be led to expect that varieties would be numerous, but till within a very late period these seem not to have been recognized by the British botanists.

Bentham, in his recent work on British plants, says it is one of the most constant of all known ferns. Sir W. J. Hooker, in his 'Species Filicum,' notices but one variety, found near Warrington, Lancashire, by Mr. Hobson of Manchester, about