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Show [62 MR. P. L. SCLATER ON NEW PHEASANTS. [Mar. 2 1, The following papers were read :- 1. Notice of the arrival in the Society's Gardens of living Specimens of two newly described Species of Phasianida?. B y P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. (Plates XIV., XV.) Since the last Meeting, the Society's collection of living Phasia-nidse has been enriched by the acquisition of the original typical specimens of two very fine species of the genera Lophophorus and Ceriornis, which have been iately described as new by Dr. Jerdon. The discovery of these remarkable additions to the list of known Pheasants is a matter of so much interest that I venture to offer to the Meeting a few remarks upon the subject, in connexion with the drawings of these splendid birds which I now exhibit. In October last Dr. T. C. Jerdon, the well-known Indian naturalist, addressed to m e a letter ftom Shillong, a new sanitarium on the Khasya Hills in Upper Assam, stating that he had obtained from the hill-ranges in the neighbourhood of Suddya a skin of a Tragopan (Ceriornis), distinct from either of the well-known Indian species, but which he believed might be C. temminckii oi China, and had seen a living example of an Impeyan from the same Hills, which he regarded as probably new to science, and proposed to call Lophophorus sclateri. This letter was accompanied by an enclosure upon the same subject for pubjication in 'The Ibis,' which was duly forwarded to the editor of that journal, and appeared in the last number*. In a subsequent communication, received through Dr. J. Anderson, our excellent correspondent and honorary agent at Calcutta, Dr. Jerdon informed me that, in the interests of the Society, he had begged of Major Montagu, of the Bengal Staff Corps, the fortunate possessor of the new Impeyan, the living bird in question, as also a living example of the so-called* Ceriornis temminckii, in the same gentleman's possession, and had forwarded them to Calcutta to Dr. Anderson for transmission to the Society. Dr. Jerdon likewise stated that, since he last wrote, having had an opportunity of consulting authorities, he had convinced himself that the Ceriornis was distinct from C. temminckii, and, in a notice sent to the 'Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,' had proposed to call it Ceriornis blythii. It is to Major Montagu, therefore, that the Society are primarily indebted for these two splendid birds, which reached us in safety on the 12th inst., though our best thanks are likewise due to Dr. Jerdon and Dr. Anderson for their kind assistance in the matter, and to Mr. William Jamrach, who most liberally undertook to convey them home, under his personal care, and has delivered them to us in excellent condition. * See ' Ibis,' 1870, p. 147, and J. A. S. B. 1870, p. 61. |