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Show 968 MR. H. SEEBOHM ON THE RUSTY GRACKLE. [Dec. 13, October last. But few of them long survived their birth ; but the large number of young produced on one occasion by this venomous Snake is remarkable, and worthy of record. 2. A Vinaceous Amazon (Chrysotis vinacea), purchased November 30, being of a species new to the Society's collection. Mr. Sclater exhibited two skins of a Rail obtained from Macquarie Island, south of N e w Zealand, and transmitted to him by Sir George Grey, K.C.B., F.Z.S. The skins were in bad condition and hardly suitable for exact determination, but appeared to belong to the species lately described by Captain Hutton as Rallus macquariensis (Ibis, 1879, p. 454). Mr. Sclater proposed to deposit these specimens in the British Museum. Mr. Henry Seebohm, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of the Rusty Grackle (Scolecophagus ferrugineus), which had been shot on the 4 th of October last, by a workman engaged as a wheelwright, within a mile of Cardiff, on the grassy flats between the sea and the mountains which are known there as " moors." It had been brought a few hours after being killed to Mr. Robert Drane, F.L.S., by the man who shot it, and who was in the habit of bringing to that gentleman any rare bird that he happened to meet with. It had been shot on the wing; and the plumage was in such a perfect condition, that the idea of its having escaped from a cage seemed untenable. Mr. Drane had known the man some time as an intelligent though uninformed workman, fond of birds, and believed perfectly in his bona fides. This bird had never before been recorded as a British one. It was said to breed in the arctic regions of the American continent up to the limit of forest-growth from Labrador to Alaska. The example obtained at Cardiff appeared to be an adult male in autumn plumage. Mr. Seebohm also exhibited a specimen of Pallas's Great Grey Shrike (Lanius major), which had been shot in the April of the present year, by a gamekeeper, twenty miles west of Cardiff, and sent in the flesh to a bird-preserver in that town, who had shown it to Mr. Drane before skinning it, and in whose possession it had remained. This species was known to breed from North Scandinavia eastwards throughout Siberia, but had not been recorded before from the British Islands, The following papers were read :- |