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Show PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS OF TnE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. • •> January 4, 1881. Professor Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. Mr. Sclater exhibited a skin of the Southern Merganser (Mergus australis, Hombr. et Jacq. Voy. au Pole Sud, Zool. iii. p. 152, Atlas, t. 31. fig. 2), from the Auckland Islands, belonging to the collection of Baron Anatole von Hiigel. Baron A. von Hiigel had obtained two examples of this very scarce bird from the Auckland Islands when in N e w Zealand in 1875, and had presented one of them to the British Museum. The other was now exhibited. The acquisition of these birds had been already recorded by Baron A. von Hiigel in the Ibis for 1875 (p. 392), but had been overlooked by Mr. Sclater in his recent paper on the Anatidse (P. Z. S. 1880, p. 513). Mr. Sclater observed that, though the colouring of the plate in the ' Voyage au Pole Sud' seemed rather too bright, there could be no question, he thought, of Baron A. Von Hugel's bird being referable to the same species. Mergus australis appeared to come nearest to Mergus brasiliensis, as already indicated by Hombron and Pucheran, but differed in its brown head, the longitudinal (not transverse) markings below, and longer bill. As regards the form of the tail, commented on by Hombron and Pucheran, there seemed to be little » difference between the two species. Prof. Newton, M.A., F.R.S., exhibiting, on behalf of Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, For. Mem. Z. S., an egg of Cariama cristata, remarked:- " This rare egg was lately sent to me by M . Alphonse Milne- Edwards, that I might exhibit it to the Society. He writes to me :- ' L'ceuf de Cariama dont je vous ai parle a ete pondu a la Menagerie au Museum cet ete. La ponte est de 2 oeufs. Le male et la femelle couvent successivement. Une eclosion a eu lieu au bout de 29 jours. PROC. ZOOL. S O C - 1881. No. I. 1 |