| OCR Text |
Show 1888.] ON MAMMALS FROM EQUATORIAL AFRICA. 3 Mr. F. Day, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of the Spanish Loach, Cobitis tamia, captured the previous week at Hungerford. Mr. Day also exhibited two specimens of hybrid Salmonidse from Howietoun, both of which had been removed from the ponds on Dec. 1st, 1887. The first was of the leopard breed, 13*2 inches long, and one of the progeny from 8000 eggs of an American Char (Salmo fon-tinalis), taken on November 15th, 1882, milted from a Loch-Leven Trout. Although 4 years and 10 months of age, this was the first season that they had been observed to be fertile ; the specimen was a female full of nearly ripe eggs. The second fish was one of the zebra breed, 18 inches long, 3 lb. in weight, and one of those raised from 3000 ova of the Loch-Leven Trout taken on November 29th, 1883, and milted from an American Char. This fish, 3 years and 10 months old, was also a fertile female. The external colours in these two forms were very similar, and coloured drawings of the hues exhibited by the fish when first captured were likewise shown. These fishes were covered with reticulations or vermiculated lines on a grey or silvery ground, and differed in appearance from either of their parents. But the most remarkable feature was the dentition of the vomer, for in the Char teeth are only found along the hind edge of the head of that bone, not along its shaft, where they are, however, present in Trout. In these hybrids the hind edge of the head of the vomer was toothed as in a Char, and also for a short distance along the shaft of that bone, where three or four teeth were to be seen. Thus a fertile form could be produced, differing in external colours from Trout or Char, and having neither the dentition of S. salvelinus nor of true S.fai-io, but a compound between the two. If such a form had been captured wild, and it is now so found in Cardiganshire, doubtless it would have been referred to a new species. The following papers were read :- 1. On a Collection of Mammals obtained by Emin Pasha in Equatorial Africa, and presented by him to the Natural History Museum. By O L D FIELD THOMAS. [Received December 14, 1887.] (Plates I. & II.) The Mammals recently received by the Natural History Museum from Dr. Emin Pasha number 115, belonging to 39 species-a collection which is of the utmost value as a contribution to our knowledge of the Central-African fauna, and one which reflects the highest credit on the energy and scientific spirit of the man by whom it was formed. When the cares and anxieties of a person in the position of responsible governor of a large and turbulent African province are considered, it seems wonderful that Emin should have been able to make any collections at all, and still more should have 1* |
