OCR Text |
Show 566 EXHIBITION OF BIRDS' EGGS FROM N.E. RUSSIA. [Nov. 16, Mr. Sclater exhibited the upper horn of a two-horned Rhinoceros that had been shot in March last by Lieut.-Col. C. Napier Sturt, F.Z.S. in the valley of the Brahmapootra, about 40 or 50 miles north-east of Dohbree, when in compauy with Mr. Archibald Campbell, Deputy-Commissioner of Dohbree, and Mr. Williamson, Governor of the Towra Hills. The place where the Rhinoceros was found was near the gorge where the Sunkos river issues from the Bhotan range, and is actually within the old boundary of Bhotan. Mr. Sclater remarked that this seemed to prove conclusively the existence of a two-horned species of Rhinoceros in Assam, which would probably turn out to be the same as that from Chittagong, now living in the Society's Gardens. Mr. Sclater read an extract of a letter addressed to him by M. le Dr. N. Funck, Director of the Zoological Garden, Cologne. Dr. Funck stated that tbe bird figured in Mr. Sclater's article on the Curassows, recently published in the Society's 'Transactions' (vol. ix. pl. 53) as Pauxis galeata, var. rubra, was the true female of P. galeata. Dr. Funck had traversed the district inhabited by this species from Puerto Cabello in Venezuela, to Valencia and Truxillo *, and had killed upwards of 50 individuals ; amongst these were many females, shot at the side of the males, coloured exactly as the above-mentioned figure. Under these circumstances, Mr. Sclater was now inclined to believe that the case of the female resembling the male in plumage, of which two instances were given in the article above mentioned, was abnormal, corresponding to that known to occur occasionally in the females of other birds. Mr. Seebohm, F.Z.S., exhibited a series of rare and interesting birds and eggs from the tundras and deltas of the Petchora river, North-Eastern Russia, collected there by Mr. J. A. Harvie-Brown and himself during the present year. The following were the chief objects :-The eggs and young in down of the Grey Plover (Squatarola helvetica) ; the nest, eggs, and young in down of the Little Stint (Tringa minuta) ; the eggs of Bewick's Swan (Cycjnus be-ivickii) ; skins, nest, and eggs of Phylloscopus tristis (new to the European fauna) ; skins, nest, and eggs of a new species of Anthus, which Mr. Dresser has named A. seebohmi, after its discoverer; skins, nest, and eggs of theYellow-headed Wagtail (Motacilla citre-old) ; skins of Parus kamsckatkensis ; skins of a Herring-Gull, differing specifically from Larus argentatus and L. leucophceus, and probably identical with Larus cachinnans of Pallas. Eggs and down of ten species of Ducks, including the Smew (Mergus albellas), obtained in the valley of the Petchora were likewise exhibited. * Dr. Funck states that Pauxis galeata is abundant in the forests from San Eetevan (one league from Puerto Cabello) up to the Cumbre of Valencia, i. e. from 1000 to 3000 feet in altitude, and likewise in the mountains of Noigua and Montalban in the same province. |