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Show 1886.] MR. COCKERELL ON PARMACELLA VALENCIENNESI. 137 March 2, 1886. Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. The Secretary read the following report on the additions made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of February 1886 :- The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of February was 79, of which 3 were by birth, 40 by presentation, 14 by purchase, 1 by exchange, and 21 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 99. Amongst the additions during the month attention may be called to:- 1. Five examples of a large Batrachian of the Argentine Republic, there called " Escuerzo" (Ceratophrys ornata), presented by Dr. Frederick C. Strutt, and received February 13th. 2. A Mantled Buzzard (Leucopternis palliata) from Brazil, purchased February 15th, being the first example of this fine bird of prey received by the Society. Mr. John G. Millais, F.Z.S., exhibited an adult male specimen of the Ivory Gull (Larus eburneus), which he had shot himself at Thurso, Caithness, on December 30, 1885, during a severe snowstorm from the north. The base of the bill to the end of the nostril in living specimen was light blue, and the point of the same orange-yellow; feet black, and eye surrounded by a ring of orange; the rest of the plumage being entirely white. Mr. Millais also exhibited an immature specimen of the same species killed at East Haven, Forfar, in January 1879. Mr. T. D. Cockerell exhibited a living specimen of a variety of Parmacella valenciennesi, Webb and Van Beneden, collected by J. H. Ponsonby, Esq., at Tangier, and made the following remarks :-The specimen differs from the typical P. valenciennesi in that it is marked with black, the original figure of the species being quite uniform. It may possibly prove to be distinct, but until further details are ascertained it is best classed merely as a variety of P. valenciennesi. A precisely similar form is found at Gibraltar, of which there are details in the 'Journal of Couchology ' for January 1886. The following papers were read :- PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1886, No. X. 10 |
