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Show 1871.] PROF. OWEN ON DIDUS INEPTUS. 299 are given in a very interesting letter from M. L. D. Carreau, Apostolic Missionary in Thibet, published in a recent number of the ' Bulletin' of the Societe d'Acclimatation of Paris (ser. 2, vii. p. 582). 4. A Civet Cat (Viverra) from Quiah, north of the Cameroons river, purchased March 27, the determination of which has caused me some little difficulty. It is manifestly specifically different from the Civet Cat now in the Society's collection, which was presented in 1860 by Mr. Edmund Gabriel, H.B.M. Commissioner at Loanda, and was, I believe, obtained in the vicinity of that city. The only second species of African Civet Cat described is, as far as I know, Viverrapoortmanni, Pucheran*, "similis V. civettae, sed major vit-taque oculari nigra nasum non transeunte." This does not agree at all well with our newly acquired animal, which is remarkable for its long rounded and Genet-like tail, and for the much greater distinctness of the bands on the body than in V. civetta. But the black ocular band does not cross the nose in the Angolan animal, whereas it does in the specimen lately received from Quiah. Under these circumstances I cannot at present undertake to decide which of them (if either) is referable to Viverra poortmanni, and must wait until their death affords me an opportunity of making an accurate examination of them. The accompanying figure by Mr. Smit (Plate XXIX.) will serve to render this doubtful animal more easily recognizable. Mr. H. E. Dresser, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of the Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) which had been picked up dead in a wood near Aberystwith by Mr. C. J. Williams, and sent up to town for examination by Captain Coscus of Unys Hir House, Llan-dovey, in whose collection it had remained. This made the fifth occurrence of this Cuckoo in Great Britain on record, four having been recorded by Yarrell. The specimen above referred to showed no signs of having been in captivity, and was apparently a young bird. Sir Victor Brooke, Bart., F.Z.S., exhibited and made remarks on a mounted specimen of an Esquimaux Curlew (Numenius borealis) which had been recently obtained near Sligo, in Ireland, and belonged to his own collection. Prof. Owen, F.R.S., F.Z.S., read the second part of his memoir on the Dodo (Didus ineptus). This communication contained notes based on an articulated specimen of the skeleton of this extinct bird which had been recently prepared for the collection of the British Museum from bones transmitted from the Mauritius by Mr. G. Clark, C.M.Z.S. This paper will be published in the Society's Transactions. * Rev. Zool. 1855, p. 304, et Arch. d. Mus. x. p. 109, pl. ix. |