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Show 148 Mil. P. L SCLATER ON THE ANATIDcE. [Mar. 13, It is this imperfection of the description that has left the genus so long unrecognized, and, indeed, made it impossible to determine what it was without the examination of the type specimen. The hair is of a very bright uniform red-brown colour, much redder than in any specimen of Chilonycteris in the British Museum ; but it is a question whether this is the proper colour of the fur, or whether it arises from the partial bleaching of the specimen, which was probably taken from spirits when it was prepared. The hair is of one uniform colour to the base, wherein it agrees with the description of Lobostoma cinnamomeum of Gundlacb from Cuba, which I believe to be only a variety of Chilonycteris macleayii. In the proportions of the arm-bone and the fingers, & c , it also agrees with Chilonycteris macleayii. The generic characters of Aello, as given by Dr. Leach, occupy nearly a page of a quarto book, and yet no one has been able to discover the genus. One could not have a more convincing proof that it is not mere length of character that is required to define a genus. It is remarkable that Dr. Leach described two genera, Mormops and Aello, so nearly allied to each other, without seeing their relation, and placed one in his group of Bats with leaves on the nose, and the other in that without a nose-leaf. Yet he was a person who had a quick eye for natural affinities; and zoologists ought never to forget that it is to him we owe our acquaintance with the work of Cuvier and Latreille. It was the desire to present the latter to the English reader that induced him to devote the greater part of his nights to its translation. H e made it a rule to translate a certain number of pages every morning before he had his breakfast and began bis daily official duties; and this hard work, I believe, caused the breaking down of his health and early death. 2. Additional Notes on the Anatidar of the Genera Dendro-cygna and Tadorna. By P. L. S C L A T E R , M.A., Ph.D., F.R.S., & c , Secretary to the Society. I have a few additional remarks to offer on the species of Ducks of the genera Dendrocygna and Tadorna, concerning which I have previously communicated some notes to the Society*. Sp. 6. DENDROCYGNA MAJOR. The occurrence of Dendrocygna major in Madagascar has been confirmed by the receipt of a skin of this species recently collected in that island by M r . Gerrard, which has been kindly submitted to m y examination by M r . A. Newtonf. This species is at once distinguishable from D. arcuata by its larger size and the white band across the upper tail-coverts. * " Note on the species of Tadorna living in the Society's Menagerie " (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 189), and " Note on the Geographical Distribution of the Ducks of the genus Dendrocygna " (ibid. p. 299). f See Mr. Newton's account of this collection, P. Z. S. 1865, p. 837. |
