Miscellaneous. 295 January 13, 1886.— Prof. T. G. Bonney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.E.S., President, in the Chair. The following communication was read : — " On some Fish-remains from the Tertiary Strata of New Zealand." By James W. Davis, Esq., P.G.S. A number of fossil fish-remains from Tertiary beds in New Zea-land have been forwarded to the author by Captain P. W. Hutton, and were described in the present paper, The forms of which descriptions were given are two new species of Lamna, Carcharodon angustidens, Agassiz, and a new Carcharodon, one new species of Notidanus, one of Myliohatis, and one referred to Sparnodus. All the above are founded on teeth. A vertebra of Lamna and a fish-spine were also described, and the collection contained a specimen regarded by the author as a fragment of a Reptilian tooth. 3-'^ MISCELLANEOUS. On the Question of the Origin of the European Races of Dogs. By Prof. J. N. Woldrich. I STAND now in the same position as formerly* with regard to this question. It is, I think, just as impossible to derive our races of dogs from one or all of our wild European Canidae (wolf, jackal, and fox) as it is to derive the Erropean races of men from one or more of the still extant savage peoples, or to obtain a European civilized race by continued culture from a Bosjesman. Only a very careful detailed study of the fossil remains of Canidae can lead us in this respect into the right road. I have therefore already, in my writings on Diluvial Canidae, sharply separated t\iQ forms which occur, without any reference to the apparently scarcely solvable question whether they were species, races, or varieties. A fusion of allied fossil forms may be left to further study ; this can only be effected when the detailed knowledge of fossil forms has become much more extensive. According to my investigations, the following forms of domestic dogs have been made known from alluvial, prehistoric, and early historic times by the discovery of their remains : — Canis familiaris Spalletti, Strobel ; C. familiaris palustris, Riitim. ; C familiaris palustris ladogensis, /Lnucin; C. familiaris intermedins, Wold. ; G. familiaris Mostranzeivi, Anucin ; G. familiaris ojptima; matris, Jcittcles (two forms) ; and G. familiaris decumanus, Nehring. Of * See the author's memoir ^'Ueber Cauideu des Diluviums," in Denkschr. k.-k. Akad. Wiss. in Wien, Band xxsix., and other papers.
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