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Show 1871.] MR. SCLATER ON ATELES VARIEGATUS. 651 of the female being invariably devoid of such enlargement, it very much interested me to see that in the present species, while the male retained the normal and characteristic structure of this organ, the female enjoyed the same appendage, and that in a degree only slightly less developed. In either sex the trachea is somewhat enlarged above the bulla ossea, and then, as usual, rapidly tapers; and in both the bulla ossea is outwardly of the same general form as it is in the male of Anas boschas, Linn. I have inquired of Mr. Bartlett whether any peculiarity was observed in the call-note of the female bird during her captivity in our Gardens, but I cannot learn that such was the case. I abstain from making any comments on the curious fact I have mentioned, which is, so far as I am aware, unique; but it would be easy to enter upon some speculations as to its bearings on the important question of " Sexual Selection" which is now being agitated. I will, however, say that, though I know not how far other ornithologists are likely to agree with me, I conceive that, if we wish for a natural subdivision of the two large groups of Anatidce formed by what are generally termed the Anatince and Fuligulinee, the characters afforded by the trachea ought to be fully studied ; and I venture to refer to some suggestions on that question which I published some years ago in America*. It should be one of the first objects of every collector in foreign countries to examine the trachea of each bird that he skins; and nowhere is this more necessary than with members of the Anatidce. I am much averse to inventing new groups; but I think it very possible that this species, being thus shown to differ so singularly from any Duck with which we are acquainted, will be made the type of a new genus or subgenus ; and as some enthusiast may wish when conferring a name on a section so established to celebrate that of some notable person of the gentler sex who is gifted with masculine attributes, I think it as well to anticipate such a proceeding, and therefore suggest that if a new division be found expedient it should bear the appellation of Viragof, as a tribute to the virile characteristic of the ladies in question and of the female of this species of Duck. November 21, 1871. Professor Flower, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. Mr. Sclater exhibited and made remarks on a fine skin of Ateles variegatus, Wagner ( = A. bartletti, Gray), which had recently been received by Madame Verdey of Paris in a collection from Oyapok, situated on the river of the same name on the eastern limits of * Report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1860, p. 420. t Virago e genere Anatino cujus fcemina eadem quae mas organa vocis habet. |