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Show 1879.] MR. E. L. LAYARD ON THE GENUS PTILOPUS. 385 I have also to report that our Superintendent has had the four Indian Elephants carefully weighed, and that their sizes and weights are as follows : - lb. 23 11 26 5 I propose to record these weights and dimensions in the Society's ' Proceedings ' for future reference. Jung Pacha.. Suffa Culli .. Rustom .... Omar Height at shoulder. ft. in. 7 0 6 10 6 0 6 2 Circumference of the front foot above the toes. ft. in. 3 8 3 8 2 11 3 2 tons. 2 2 1 1 Weight. cwt. qrs. 3 0 2 3 3 3 7 1 The following letter, addressed to the Secretary by Mr. E. L. Layard, F.Z.S., dated from Noumea, 29th January, 1879, was read :- " SIR,-While giving m y friend Mr. D. G. Elliot all the credit due to him for the vast amount of research and labour bestowed on his elaborate paper on the genus 'Ptilopus' (P.Z. S. 1878, p. 500), which has just reached me, and thanking him for the kindly and honorable way in which he has referred to m y poor labours in the field of ornitbology, permit me to protest as loudly as I can against my name being given as guarantee for very false information. "As you, Sir, well know, m y wandering life has cut me off from well-filled museums, specimens, and books. I therefore do not presume to offer an opinion on the classification or identification of any species. But I do profess, as a collecting naturalist, to describe correctly the habits and geographical distribution of the species which I meet with. " N o w Mr. Elliot gives m y authoritj', amongst others, for ' Tonga-tabou' and 'Fiji' as being the habitats of Ptilopus purpuratus, and for the ' Navigators' and Friendly' Islands as being the habitats of his Pt,pictiventris. Surely Mr. Elliot has strangely overlooked what I wrote, P. Z. S. 1876, pp. 495 & 502 ; also P. Z. S. 1877, p. 464 ! 1 " I know not who procured the specimens examined by Mr. Elliot, and whether their habitats are to be trusted ; but this I affirm, that of these green Ptilopi with magenta-coloured heads I never procured but one species on each group of islands, and I doubt if any one else ever did; I will undertake to pick out the Fijian, the Tongan, and the Samoan birds among a thousand. I suppose Mr. Elliot unites the Tongan and Fijian races as one; I am convinced they are distinct. I have sent, either to you or to the ' Ibis,' a paper on this subject, pointing out the distinctions. Where the paper has got to I don't know ; it has apparently shared the fate of some others and been lost sight of; but surely what I have written (l.s. c.) might have prevented Mr. Elliot from giving m e as a guarantee for the propaga-gationof what I consider an error." PROC. ZOOL. SOC- 1879, No. XXV. 25 |