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Show 108 LETTER FROM PROF. J. REINHARDT. [Feb. 4, February 4, 1879. Dr. A. Gunther, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. The Secretary made the following report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during January 1879 : - The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of January was 83, of which 2 were by birth, 43 by presentation, 25 by purchase, 9 received in exchange, and 4 received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 96. The most noticeable additions during the month were :- 1. A Bar-winged Rail (Rallina pwciloptera, Hartlaub), from the Fiji Islands, purchased of the " Museum Godeffroy " of Hamburg, January 6th, new to the collection. 2. A young male Giraffe (Came/opardalis giraffa), received on deposit from Mr. Rice, January 27th, and intended to be purchased if it appear to be perfectly healthy. The recent death of one of the two males of this animal has rendered this proposed acquisition desirable. Mr. Sclater read the following extract from a letter received from Prof. J. Reinhardt, F.M.Z.S., dated Zoological Museum, Copenhagen, August 2, 1876 :- "There is living at present in the Zoological Gardens of this place a Curassow which seems to deserve some attention. "It is a 'Mitua,' agreeing with M. tuberosa in possessing a crest of elongated straight feathers, which can be erected quite as in this species; but the beak is differently shaped, and more like that of M. tomentosa. It is, however, its colouring which exhibits the chief interest, the belly being pure white, and the tail-feathers broadly tipped with the same colour. " I never saw such a bird before; and I have failed to find any indication of it in the literature known to me. At first I was inclined to suppose that the bird in question might be, perhaps, the female of M. tuberosa ; but this suggestion implies that the sexual difference in this case is exactly the contrary to the general rule in the family. It also seems to be a well-established fact that the sexes are alike in the genus Milua; and you yourself have given the weight of your high authority to this statement. Nor does it seem likely that the bird can be the immature or young Mitua tuberosa. I have at least never heard of a change of the colour of the abdomen, as a bird advances in age, from white to rufous in any of the Cracidee. Moreover, as Natterer has collected such a large number of specimens of Curassows (and particularly not less than thirty-four of the two well-known species of Mitua), such a change could scarcely have escaped this most acute observer if it really |