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Show 1875.] T H E SECRETARY O N ADDITIONS TO T H E MENAGERIE. 527 November 2, 1875. Dr. E. Hamilton, V.P., in the Chair. The Secretary read the following reports on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during the months of June, July, August, and September 1875:- The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of June was 162, of which 49 were by birth, 54 by presentation, 45 by purchase, and 14 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 116. The most noticeable additions during the month of June were as follows :- 1. A not quite adult Cassowary, received June 7th, having been brought from New Zealand by Dr. Hector, and presented to the Society by The Right Honourable Sir James Fergusson, Bart., F.Z.S., lately Governor of the Colony. This bird was obtained in 1873, when quite young, along with another similar specimen by the officers of H.M.S. 'Basilisk' from the natives of Touan or Cornwallis Island, a small island in Torres Straits, four miles distant from the south coast of New Guinea, and seventy miles from the opposite coast of Cape York. The natives are said to have captured the birds on the coast of New Guinea. The present specimen was conveyed in the 'Basilisk' to Wellington in July 1873, and had remained there ever since. When brought to Wellington it was supposed to have been about nine months old. It appears to be most like the Australian Cassowary (Casuarius australis), but differs in its stronger legs and stouter form, as also in the throat-wattle being single and mesial, but divided at the extremity, as shown in the accompanying figure (Plate LVIII.). I believe it to be probably of the same species as that of the Aroo Islands, which I have lately described as Casuarius beccarii (anted, p. 87). 2. A Black Wood-Hen (Ocydromus fuscus) from Snares Island, south of N e w Zealand, presented by Dr. G. Hector, F.R.S., C.M.Z.S., June 7th, being the first example of this species of Ocydromus which we have received. 3. A young male brown Indian Antelope of the southern form, in which the front pair of horns are barely apparent (Tetraceros subquadricornutus, Elliot*), purchased June 8, 1875. Dr. Jerdon does not distinguish this animal from the northern T. quadricornis; hut Sir Victor Brooke tells m e he thinks that the two forms must be kept separate. 4. A female Grant's Gazelle (Gazella granti, Brooke) from East Africa, presented by Dr. John Kirk, C.M.Z.S., June IOth. The arrival of a living example of this fine Gazelle, which has * Antilope subquadricornutus, Elliot, Madras Journ. x. p. 225, pl. 4. fig. 2 ; Tetraceros subquadricornutus, Gray, P. Z. S. 1850, p. 117. PROC. ZOOL. SOC-1875, No. XXXIV. 34 |