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Show 1876.] PROF. NEWTON ON THE DODO. 333 The present example has a deep-red face, but quite uniform non-annellated hairs. The ampliations, Dr. Anderson tells me, only appear in the adult animal. 2. Two Caraearas (Polyborus) in a very remarkable plumage, purchased of a dealer in Liverpool March 2nd, and stated to have been received from " Patagonia." Their general form and size is exactly that of Polyborus tharus; and I am of opinion, on the whole, that they are merely young individuals of that species in an abnormal phase of plumage; though it is right to say that other naturalists who have seen them are inclined to believe that they belong to a distinct species. Mr. Smit's drawing (Plate XXV.) gives a correct figure of these curious birds. The plumage is of a nearly uniform milky white, with yellowish shaft-stripes on the back and breast; the naked cere is flesh-coloured, the bill greenish yellow ; the feet are nearly white ; but the iris is dark brown. It will be observed that the tail is imperfect. 3. A lead-coloured Falcon (Hypotriorchis concolor), presented March 3rd by Mr. A. F. Allman, having been captured on board a vessel on its passage down the Mozambique Channel. This is an immature bird, nearly in the plumage figured by Schlegel and Pollen (Orn. Madagasc. pl. xii.), and is the first example we have received of this scarce species. 4. Three Sirens (Siren lacertina, Linn.), from South Carolina, presented by Mr. G. E. Maingault, Curator of the Museum of NaturaJ. History, Charleston, March 29th. Mr. Maingault has on a previous occasion transmitted to us an example of this rare and singular Batrachian; but these are the first that have reached us alive. 5. A South-American Flamingo (Phoenicopterus ignipalliatus), from the Upper Amazon, acquired by purchase March 29th. The individual assigned to this species in 1871 (P.Z.S. 1871, p. 627), which was quite young when received, and is now adult, is certainly not of this species, but either a small individual of P. antiquorum or one of the so-called P. minor; so that the present example is the first of the present species we have received. The bird is very remarkable for its party-coloured legs, the greater part of the toes and tibio-tarsal joint being of a bright scarlet. Professor Newton, V.P., exhibited a small volume, belonging to the Rev. Richard Hooper, of Upton Rectory, near Didcot, and remarked: - " This little book has been kindly lent to m e by its owner, who has before interested himself in enquiries after the Dodo (Didus ineptus)*. It is obviously the same work as that described by Broderip in our ' Transactions' (iv. p. 183), but an entirely different and, so far as I can learn, a hitherto unknown edition of it. Broderip's copy was published, he says, at Amsterdam, by Abraham Wolfgangh, in 1662. Mr. Hooper's is without date, and was published at the same place by ' Abraham en Jan de Wees, Boek-verkoopers, * Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (2) iii. p, 259. |
