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Show 626 THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. [Nov. 7, presented by the Baron de Riviere August 14th. The distinctness of this species from OS. bistriatus, the best-known and only other American form of this genus, has recently been confirmed by myself and Mr. Salvin (Exot. Orn. p. 59, pl. xxx.) ; but the present bird is very little known, and the receipt of living specimens of it is a fact of much interest. 4. Three specimens of a Land-tortoise of the genus Cinixys, which seem to be referable to Home's Cinixys (Cinixys homeana, Bell). These Tortoises were brought home by H.E. Governor Ussher on his recent return to this country, and presented by him and Staff-Surgeon Mosse jointly to the Society, along with some fine specimens of Vipera rhinoceros and Vipera nasicornis. Of Home's Cinixys Mr. Ussher gives me the subjoined particulars: - " Tolerably common in Fantee and the Aura districts, where it forms an article of food with the natives, who prize it much on this account, and who therefore do not usually offer it for sale. It appears to live for a very long time in the water, one of those brought home by m e having existed some months in a tank of water." 5. A young male specimen of Baird's Tapir (Tapirus bairdi) from Nicaragua, purchased August 15th, being the first example of this newly discovered Mammal that has yet reached us. Dr. Gray (P. Z S. 1867, p. 885, pl. xiii.) has introduced into the illustration a figure of the immature form of this species from a photograph sent to me by Capt. D o w ; but the colour (not having been given in the original photograph) is not quite correct. Mr. Verrill, however, has published an accurate description of the young in ' Silliman's American Journal' (vol. xliv. p. 126; cf. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. xx. p. 232). Mr. Smit's figure (Plate Li), which I now exhibit, shows the condition of our specimen soon after its arrival. It did not live long in the Society's Gardens, I regret to say, and died September 27th. 6. A specimen of the singular little mud-inhabiting fish of New Zealand, being an aberrant form of the family Galaxiidce, recently described by Dr. Gunther (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. xx. p. 305, pl. vii.). as Neochanna apoda, presented August 18th by the Acclimatization Society of Canterbury, New Zealand. Unfortunately it did not live long in our Gardens, and I now exhibit the specimen in spirits. 7. Two Frigate or Man-of-War Birds (Fregata aquila), which arrived August 28th, having been forwarded to us by our excellent friend and correspondent Capt. John M . Dow, F.Z.S., who is always on the look-out for something that may prove acceptable to the Society's collection. Five individuals of this species, Capt. Dow informs me, were captured by him on 23rd of July last, during a visit to an island in Fonseca Bay, which contains a well-known breeding colony of this fine bird *. The two specimens that have reached us are both in the white-headed plumage of immaturity. The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of September 1871 was 1 38 ; of these, 7 were by birth, 45 by presentation, 27 by purchase, 49 by exchange, and * See Mr. Gr. C. Taylor's account of it in ' Ibis,' 1859, p. 150. |