OCR Text |
Show 138 THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. [Feb. 15, February 15, 1887. Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of January 1887:- The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of January was 38. Of these 6 were by birth, 21 by presentation, 5 by purchase, I by exchange, and 5 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 119. The most noticeable additions during the month were:- 1. Two Blakiston's Owls (Bubo blakistoni) from Japan, presented by J. H. Leech, Esq., F.Z.S., January 20th, new to the Society's Collection. Mr. Leech informs me that he procured the two specimens in question from Mr. H. Henson of Hakodate, Yesso. Mr. Henson had bought them from a native hunter, who took them for young eagles, which are common in Ytsso. Their exact locality is the lakes 20 miles north of Hakodate, and this is a new locality for the species, of which, Mr. Leech believes, only four specimens were previously known1. Mr. J. H. Gurney, F.Z.S., has kindly furnished me with the fallowing notes upon these birds :- " Blakiston's Eagle-Owl appears to belong to the Bubonine genus (or subgenus) Pseudoptynx of Kaup, instituted by that author for the reception of P. philippensis (Gray), and readily distinguished from Bubo in having the toes bare, although the tarsi are feathered. " P. philippensis is a native of the island of Luzon, from which I have seen specimens, and was figured by the late Lord Tweeddale in the Society's 'Transactions,' vol. ix. pl. xxv. fig. 2. "The only other species of the genus is P.gurneyi, Tweed., from the island of Mindanao, which was figured by Lord Tweeddale in the * Proceedings' of the Zoological Society, 1878, pl. lviii. "The localities inhabited by the three species of the genus Pseudoptynx appear to indicate that they form a natural group, geographically as well as structurally."-J. H. G., Feb. 26, 1887. 2. Three Hooker's Sea-lions (Otaria hookeri), presented by the Hon. W . J. M. Larnach, C.M.G., Minister of Marine of New Zealand, received the 26th January. Sir F. D. Bell, the Agent-General for N e w Zealand, informs me that these animals, which were captured at the Auckland Islands by Capt. John Fairchild, Master of the New-Zealand Government steamer ' Hinemoa,' were originally four in number (two males and two females), but that one died on the voyage. It is very difficult to settle the species of Otaria without reference to the form of their palates and dentition ; but, judging from the 1 Cf. Seebohm, ' Ibis,' 1884, pp. 42, 183, pl. vi.; id. P. Z. S. 1883, |