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Show 48 PROF. A. H. GARROD ON THE MECHANISM [Feb. 6, sides of the neck, which render P. rueppelli so easily distinguishable. But, in place of the conspicuous white throat and neck which are found in both of the previously known birds, the black colour of the belly is continued in Plectropterus niger (as I propose to designate the present form) up to the chin ; and the white colour on the body in front is confined to a small space on the mesial line of the lower abdomen. The white of the back and scapulars in P. niger has also a greenish lustre pervading it which is not observable in the other species. This colour passes into a bronzy purple on the wings. The size is rather larger than that of our P. gambensis. The bill is bright red with the tip whitish, the iris black, the legs and feet of a duller red. The two specimens received are believed to be both of the male sex; they are nearly alike, except that one individual has rather less white on the mesial line of the belly than the other. In answer to my inquiries, General Cunyngham kindly informs me that he received these birds from Zanzibar; so that that part of the S.E. African coast is probably the true habitat of this species. I will now say a few words as to the distinctness of the two other species of the genus (P. gambensis and P. rueppelli), which, though admitted, somewhat unwillingly, by Finsch and Hartlaub1, is denied by Heuglin2, the most recent authority on East-African ornithology. Here, in London, we know full well that the view that P. rueppelli is only the adult male of P. gambensis is quite untenable. W e have had a male of P. gambensis in our Gardens ever since May 1867 which shows no symptoms whatever of acquiring the frontal knob and bare neck of P. rueppelli. In 1864, this bird paired with a female of the same species placed in company with it; and the female laid eggs, but did not hatch them out. Since then another female, received in 1868, has been placed in his company; so that we have at present what must be undoubtedly a fully adult pair of P. gambensis. I will ask any naturalist to compare these birds with the example of P. rueppelli (probably a male) obtained from the Antwerp Gardens, and most kindly presented to us last summer by M . J. M . Comely, and to say whether it is possible to regard the species as otherwise than distinct. What De Sousa's Plectropterus sclateri (Jorn. de Sc. de Lisboa, vol. ii. p. 157, 1860) maybe, I cannot say. It has certainly nothing to do with the P. niger of our Gardens. 3. On the Mechanism of the Intervertebral Substance, and on some Effects of the Erect Position of M a n . By A. H. G A R R O D , M.A., Prosector to the Society. [Eeceived January 17, 1877.] In all works on human anatomy the structure of the disks of fibro-elastic tissue which intervene between the bodies of the verte- 1 Vogel Ost-Afrika's, p. 801. 2 Ornithologie Nord-Ost-Afrika's, p. 1275. |