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Show 1881.] ON LODDIGESIA MIRABILIS. 827 not reach their breeding-places, and have a suspicion, from the behaviour of the birds, that they had already hatched. " The Darter I take to be undoubtedly the African bird ; and if so, this is a very remarkable northward extension of its hitherto known range. I was told that the birds are never seen there in winter, and that they leave as soon as their young are fledged. " The Darter is not mentioned by Shelley as found by him in Egypt. Von Heuglin gives Lake Tchad, Senegambia, the Niger, Gaboon, as well as South Africa, as its habitat. Pollen and Van D a m state that the Indian, not the African, species is found in Madagascar. Schlegel mentions a specimen at Leyden from Sennaar, which is the nearest point to Antioch where I can trace it. Altogether, as Dr. Sclater and Mr. Forbes have pointed out to me, its occurrence in Northwestern Syria is most extraordinary." Prof. Newton, V.P., exhibited the specimen of Emberiza rustica, recorded by Mr. William Eagle Clarke in the current number of 'The Zoologist' (p. 465) as having been shot at Easington, on the coast of Yorkshire, on the 17th of September last, remarking that it was only the second example of the species reported to have occurred in this country, and also that on the very same day another specimen was obtained in Heligoland by Herr Gatke, C.M.Z.S. Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of the Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus), belonging to Sir Henry Mildmay, Bart. The specimen in question had been shot on one of the lakes of Dogmersfield Park, Hampshire, on the 5th of September, 1881, by one of the under keepers, and had been mounted by M r . G. Clothier, of Odiham. Mr. Sclater had examined the specimen, which had been ascertained to be of the male sex, in the flesh. The following papers were read :- 1. Notice sur la Loddigesia mirabilis (Bourc). Par L. TACZANOWSKI et J. STOLZMANN. [Eeceived September 9, 1881.] Une belle serie d'exemplaires de ce magnifique oiseau-mouche nous permet de donner la description de cette espece, beaucoup plus complete qu'elle ne 1'etait jusqu'a ce temps. Le male adulte est connu depuis plus de quarante ans, sa description cependant n'etait pas satisfaisante, les couleurs a ce qu'il nous parait ne sont pas ex-actement definies, de m e m e que plusieurs details, ce qui nous a decide a commencer par la description du male dans son plumage le plus parfait. O n ne connaissait rien sur les habitudes de cet oiseau; nous presentons done tous les details qui nous sont connus et qui paraissent etre interessants. Trochilus miraBilis, Bourc. P.Z.S. 1847, p. 4 2 ; Rev. Zool. 1847, p. 253. |