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Show 1890.] ON SOME LARGE EXTINCT BIRDS FROM MALTA. 403 I may further add, from my own knowledge of the caves in Mauritius I think it very unlikely that any animal remains so recent as those of the Dodo or its contemporaries will be found in them, as in the rainy season they are generally flooded by roaring torrents, which would at once wash away modern deposits. 2. On a new Toucan pf the Genus Pteroglossus. By P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., F.R.S., Secretary to the Society. [Received April 24, 1890.] A single skin in the British Museum, formerly in the Salvin- Godman Collection, seems to indicate the existence in Upper Amazonia of a new species of Toucan allied to P. viridis. This I propose to call PTEROGLOSSUS DIDYMUS, sp. nov. Supra obscure viridis, alis caudaque nigricantibus viridi limbatis capite nigro; uropygio coccineo: infra limonaceo-flavus in ventre medio brunnescente adumbratus; gutture et colli lateribus nigris tibiis brunneis ; rostri mandibula superiore flavida, hujus culmine et ipsa apice nigris ; inferiore nigra, ad basin margine flctvicante ornata : long, tota 14\5, ala 4'6, Cauda 5'6, rostri, a rictu apicem linea directa, 3*3. Hab. Amazonia superior. Obs. Proximus P. viridi, sed rostri culmine nigri, et tibiis brunneis distinctus. The typical specimen bears one of Hauxwell's well-known paper labels marked : - "Male, iris red. Skin round the eye indigo-blue, with a red patch behind eyes : 27. 8. 80.-J. H." The species seems to be the Upper Amazonian representative of P. viridis, of which there is a good series in the National Collection from Guiana, Cayenne, and Rio Negro. 3. On the Remains of some large Extinct Birds from the Cavern-deposits of Malta. By R. L Y D E K K E R , B.A., F.Z.S., &c. [Received May 2, 1890.] (Plates XXXV. & XXXVI.) The greater number of the remains of Vertebrates obtained from the Pleistocene cavern-deposits of Malta having been described in the publications of this Society, I have thought it well to bring to tbe notice of the Society evidence of some new species of birds from these deposits. In the year 1865 Prof. W . K. Parker described in the ' Proceedings ' of our Society1 a number of bird-bones from the Maltese 1 P. Z. S. 1865, p. 752. |
