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Show 1885.] DR. GTJNTHER O N A VARIETY OF FELIS LEOPARDUS. 243 the eggs, I found that the majority averaged 0*24 inch in diameter. The cause of the failure in this instance may probably have been more due to the young age of the male (a rising two-year-old) than to its being a hybrid. Next winter, however, ought to set this question at rest. November 12, 1884.-A female rising two-year-old hybrid Char of the Struan l race gave 146 eggs, out of which only six hatched on February 3, 1885. November 12, 1884.-4500 eggs of Lochleven Trout were milted from a hybrid rising two-year-old of the Struan race; they hatched on February 2, 1885. Among them are many deformities, a few dropsies ; while about half the ova hatched. Respecting the rising Struan two-year-old hybrids2, they have suffered from the winter more than any other form. Kept in plank-pond no. 4, as December set in they began to be languid ; and one or two having died, they were shifted into the old fario pond, no. 5, on Dec. 24, when 74 fish were transferred. The next day 15 died, and two on the 26th. Since then a few have succumbed; and one on Feb. 12. These fish seem, in their shallow pond, to have felt atmospheric changes very severely, requiring deeper water into which to descend, while it is very remarkable that the hybrid crosses between the American Char and the Lochleven Trout (9 leopards and 146 zebras) were not so affected, although kept under precisely similar surroundings. In continuation of the table of measurements of the eggs 3 of Grilse, Lochleven Trout, American Char, and those of the Struan hybrids which I gave in m y last paper, I have the following additional ones to record :- Salmo salar, 16 lb. weight: diameter of each egg 024 of an inch. ,, ,, Howietoun Grilse: „ „ 0'20 to 022 of an inch. ,, trutta, small: ,, ,, 0175 to 018 of an inch. „ levenensis, 8 years old: „ a few 0-20, 0'22, most G"24 inch. „ ,, 2 ,, „ each egg 0-17 of an inch. „ fontinalis, 3 „ „ „ 0-17 of an inch. „ „ 2 „ „ ,, 044 to 0-16 of an inch. Hybrid Ohar, Struan race „ ,, 045 of an inch. 9. Note on a supposed Melanotic Variety of the Leopard, from South Africa. By Dr. A. G U N T H E R , F.Z.S. [Received March 3, 1885.] (Plate XVI.) A few days ago Mr. F. Bowker brought to me the flat skin of a "rare Leopard" which he had obtained at Grahamstown. The animal had been killed in a hilly district covered with dense scrub and situated at a distance of about forty miles from the town. On further inquiry I learned that a second specimen had been obtained in 1 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1884, p. 587. 5 L. c. p. 586. 3 L. c. p. 588. |