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Show 356 PROF. F. J. BELL ON AN IMMATURE ECHINOID. [May 4, pial that has been brought alive to Europe. Many attempts have been made by the friends and correspondents of the Society in Australia to induce specimens of this animal to live in captivity ; but all have hitherto failed. The present example, which was purchased of a dealer in London, was brought home fed upon dried leaves of Eucalyptus, and had been several weeks in this country before it was acquired by the Society. I also take this opportunity of calling attention to the fine Toucan, brought from the State of Tolima, U. S. of Colombia, and presented to the Society by Mr. L. Merino on the 26th of August 1826, and still living in the Parrot-house. This Toucan was correctly entered in the list of additions in 1876 (P.Z.S. 1876, p. 834) as Ramphastos ambiguus, but in the last edition of the List of Animals (1879, p. 258) was unfortunately referred to R. tocard, a closely allied but perfectly distinct species. R. ambiguus is readily recognizable, as will be seen by the coloured drawing of the head which I now exhibit, by the black colour of the lower and of the base of the upper mandible, where in R. tocard there is a large reddish blotch. This is well shown in Mr. Gould's plates (Ramph. ed. 2, pis. iv. & v.) ; but the naked space round the eye in R. ambiguus, which is there coloured blue, should be of a pale yellowish green. Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of the Ibis (Geronticus comatus) obtained at Biledjik on the Euphrates by Mr. Danford in February 1879 (as mentioned by him in a recent number of 'The Ibis,' 1880, p. 88, and there referred to Geronticus calvus)-and made some remarks on its previously known distribution, which appeared to extend from Tangier on the west (Favier in Irby's ' Birds of Gibraltar,' p. 192) to Gomfuda upon the Arabian shore of the Red Sea (Hempr. & Ehr., in Riippell's Syst. Ueb. p. 119). It was singular that the bird had not been hitherto obtained in Eastern Palestine, which it would apparently pass through on its northern migration. Dr. Gunther informed the meeting that he had received another communication from the Rev. G. Gordon with respect to the occurrence of Holacanthus tricolor * in the Western Isles. His correspondent had made further personal inquiries at Lossiemouth, from which it appeared that the specimen was brought from Stornoway to Lossiemouth, that it had been carried to "Stornoway by the master of a small ship that had come from Glasgow, and that the fish had not been caught at Stornoway by a herring-net or otherwise." Under these circumstances it could not be held that this specimen had been caught on the British shores. Prof. F. Jeffrey Bell exhibited an immature specimen of an Echinoid belonging to the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, and made the following remarks :- The specimen which I have now the honour of exhibiting to the 1 P. Z. S. 1880, p. 23. |