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Show 1873.] MR. SCLATER ON ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 473 specimen before the Meeting he owed to the kindness of Dr. Peters : it came, with others now in the Museum at Berlin, from tbe ponds of Count Frankenberg in Silesia. These naked Carp are looked upon by German fishermen as hybrids of the Carp and Tench, hence the popular name of Schleih-karpfen in some districts. Several living Spiegelkarp had been sent home from Berlin this year by Lord Odo Russell, and were now thriving in a pond at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. Dr. E. Hamilton, referring to the question of the great fecundity of Hydropotes inermis, read the following extract from a letter received from Shanghai, and dated April 3, 1873, upon this subject:- " I have been unable yet to procure a live Deer (Hydropotes), but have put beyond doubt that they have a great number of young at a birth. A female was shot near Taitsan, at the end of February ; and on cutting her open seven young ones were found. They were placed in spirits ; and I have carefully examined them. So far advanced are they that you can plainly distinguish their feet and eyes." Mr. H. E. Dresser, F.Z.S., exhibited and made remarks on some rare birds from the Ural, amongst which were the Smew (Mergus albellus) in down, nestlings of the Rustic Bunting (Emberiza rustica), and several specimens of the bird described by Lilljeborg as Salicaria magnirostris, which last he believed to be identical with Acrocephalus dumetorum, Blyth, from India, as seemed to result from the comparison of Indian examples. Mr. Sclater gave an account of the Gardens of some of the Zoological Societies on the continent, which he had visited during the past fortnight, and spoke of the principal novelties he had seen in tbem. At Antwerp the series of Antelopes was, as usual, very fine, and embraced examples of the West-African form of the Blau-bok (Hippotragus leucophceus), and pairs of the Bubaline Antelope (Alcelaphus bubalis) and Sing-sing (Cervicapra sing-sing). Amongst the Phasianidae were a pair of Argus giganteus, the female of which had deposited her first egg on the day of Mr. Sclater's visit (May 8th). The female Giraffe (Gamelopardalis giraffa) obtained from this Society in 1866 had born two young ones, a female born June 10th, 1871, and another female born March 15, 1872. Both these and the parents were in excellent health and condition. In the Rotterdam Gardens the most remarkable animal observed was a fine specimen of Cryptoprocta ferox, obtained from Hr. Van Dam, and probably the only specimen of this rare Madagascarian animal ever brought alive to Europe. Although in general external appearance more like a Viverra oi some sort, it certainly exhibited cat-like actions, and was especially remarkable for its long rounded tail. A second rarity was a specimen of the Papuan Cassowary lately referred to and figured in the Society's * Proceedings' (1872, p. 147, |