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Show 52 VROF. NEWTON ON ZONOTRICHIA ALHICOLLIS. [Jfl Tschudi, who, however, gave its occurrence in Peru (Faun. Peruan. M a m m . p. 213) from hearsay, not having himself observed it. According to the native reports, it was found in Peru, on the eastern slope of the minor Cordilleras, at an elevation of from 7000 to 8000 feet above the sea-level. Mr. Sclater remarked that the acquisition of a living specimen ot this animal would be of great interest to science, and announced that the Council had alreadv placed a sum of money at the disposal of Mr. White for the purpose of making preliminary investigations. In laying before the Meeting a skin of the North-American Zonotrichia albicollis, which had been shot near Aberdeen on the 1 "th of August 18G7*, and sent for exhibition by Mr. W . C. Angus of that town, Professor Newton called attention to the practice of many, or most, ornithologists in this country, who are prone to give the name of " British birds" to all such species as occur from time to time in the United Kingdom. This practice he deemed to be very injudicious, as it tended to confound every correct notion as to the geographical distribution of species-one of the most important subjects with which naturalists had to deal. Without venturing at present to draw a positive line of demarcation, he thought that at any rate those species of birds which confessedly do not breed within the limits of the zoogeographical region in which the British islands lie should on no account be termed " British," and that it should be a matter for future deliberation how far the same title might properly be given even to species which certainly do breed within the same limits. Speaking accurately, the term "British" should be restricted to those species of birds which for a longer or shorter period of the year actually inhabit the British islands. But Prof. Newton was inclined to think that this rule might be relaxed in the case of certain European or even North-Asiatic species which, though apparently only chance stragglers, might reasonably be regarded, in the absence of more complete observations, as occurring much oftener without attracting attention ; and added that it was quite possible that some of these, which had been noticed the most frequently, were in fact regular annual visitors to this country. Dr. Cobbold, F.R.S., exhibited specimens of, and made remarks upon, the new Entozoon from the Aard-wolf, described at the last Meeting of the Society, and proposed to be called Acanthocheilonema dracunculoides (vide anted, p. 9). Mr. G. Dawson Rowley, F.Z.S., exhibited, and made the following remarks upon, a specimen of the Siberian Lark (Alauda sibirica, Gmelin) and other rare British birds : - " I have the pleasure to exhibit to the Society a specimen of the * Vide Proceedings of the Natural-History Society of Glasgow, vol. i. part 1, p. 209, plate. |
