| OCR Text |
Show 2 LETTER FROM DR. A. ERNST. [Jan. 13, of which by Mr. Richter was now in the Society's Library*. Mr. Sclater remarked that he had little doubt that the Simia melanocephala of Humboldt (Rech. Zool. i. p. 316, t. xxix.) was really intended for the same animal, as it was obtained in the same locality (that is, from the Upper Rio Negro), and it was hardly likely that two so nearly allied species could coexist in the same district, the species of this group being remarkable for their distribution in definitely limited geographic areas f. The following extract was read from a letter addressed to Mr. Sclater by Lord Lilford, F.Z.S. : - " I notice that in the last part of the Zoological Society's ' Proceedings,' p. 276, you say that the Otus capensis sent to m e by Major Irby last year was captured on the Rock of Gibraltar. This is a mistake ; it was the Bubo maximus (which arrived at the Gardens at the same time with Otus capensis) which was caught in one of the galleries in the Rock. The Otus capensis was one of several which Major Irby shot near Casa Vieja, about fifty miles west of Gibraltar, beyond Tarifa. I have just received from Major Irby a very fine skin of the same species from Tangier. From what I can make out, this bird migrates northwards irregularly in autumn. Major Irby found five or six in a marsh in October 1868, and has failed to find them, or hear of them, in that locality, or elsewhere in Spain, in spring or summer. It is not a common bird near Tangier." The Secretary read the following extracts from a letter addressed lo him by Dr. A. Ernst, C.M.Z.S., dated Caracas, August 20th, 1869:- " A few days ago one of m y collectors brought m e a fine male specimen of the Echimys cristatus, Desm. It was shot in a spot called the Palmar, which is about 4500 feet above the level of the Caribbean Sea. The animal appears to be very rare in the immediate neighbourhood of Caracas ; but I was told it was pretty abundant in the hotter regions of the valley of the Tuy river. Its vulvar name is ' Catiragua.' The colour agreed pretty well with the only description I was able to find in m y books (Boitard, Le Jardin des Plantes, Mammiferes, p. 345). I took the following measurements : - F r o m tip of nose to root of tail 28 centim.; tail 22 centim.; distance between the ears 4 centim.; distance between the eyes 2\ centim.; tip of nose to the line between the ears 5 centim. ; circumference of body in its thickest part 16 centim. The animal was shot from a tree; its habits are therefore arboreal, as generally in this genus. " Of Bats I obtained the Vespertilio lucifugus, Leconte. In the higher part of the river Catuche, about 6000 feet above the sea, a * Cf. Dr. Gray's remarks, P. Z. S. 1849, p. 9, where there is a woodcut taken from this drawing. t Cf. Wallace, P. Z. S. 1852, p. 108. |
