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Show 380 MR. W. A. FORBES ON THE [May 4, 2. On a supposed Instance of Hybridization between and Lynx. By W . J. HOFFMAN, M.D. [Eeceived April 7, 1880.] The following statement was made to me a short time since by a medical gentleman, late of the U. S. Army, as having occurred during his residence at C a m p Apache, Arizona Territory, about six years ago. The doctor had received orders to report at that isolated station, and took a pet Cat with him, partly on account of his admiration for the animal, also for the purpose of ridding the quarters of annoying rodents. Upon the arrival of spring the Cat began to show symptoms of restlessness, with occasional fits of irritability, which would at times be replaced by evidences of more than ordinary affection and playfulness. Suspecting that the chief cause of these demonstrations was sexual excitement, and knowing that there was no other cat within eighty or a hundred miles of the station-the intervening country being badly broken and very desolate, the result was watched with interest. One day the Cat disappeared and remained away for over a week, when she as mysteriously made her reappearance with an apparent sense of contentment and a desire to remain about the building. In due time she gave birth to four kittens, three of which resembled the mother, but the fourth had a tail of but half the normal length, and was also of a greyish tawny colour, in time also growing much larger than the rest. As it grew up it became very tame, following its master around the buildings like a dog, showing various characteristic traits of the Lynx, such as the gait, quickness of motion, climbing trees, etc. As a Lynx (Felis rufa) is exceedingly common in the dense woods surrounding the Post, it is but reasonable to attribute the paternity of the kittens to the above-named species, especially so when we consider the general resemblances above stated. Washington, March 25, 1880. 3. Contributions to the A n a t o m y of Passerine Birds.-Part II. O n the Syrinx and other Points in the Anatomy of the Eurylcemidev1. By W . A. F O R B E S , B.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge, Prosector to the Society. [Eeceived April 5, 1880.] The true position of the Broadbills or Eurylcemidce in the series of birds, and particularly the question as to their passerine or non-passerine affinities, has long been in question amongst systematic 1 Part i. supra, p. 143. |