OCR Text |
Show 1887.] MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON XENOPUS L.EVIS. 563 undertook to inquire of the surviving members and connexions of the Dalton family, and, fortunately again, one of the latter, being Mr. George Clarke of Tanfield House, Bedale, a son-in-law of Captain Dalton, was found, who not only remembered the specimen perfectly well, having seen it ' scores of times,' but produced an old manuscript note he had made on the margin of a ' Bewick' (in which he had been accustomed to record ornithological observations), to the effect that this bird was ' found dead on the Bridge at Tanfield,' and had been given to his father-in-law, who had it ' preserved by the late John Stubbs of Ripon, fishing-tackle maker and bird-stuffer.' Mr. George Clarke also remembered the owner having several times refused the offer of twenty guineas for the specimen, and after his death had looked in vain for the specimen, which, it appears, had been put away in a lumber-room and wholly forgotten. I think, therefore, that no doubt can be entertained of our having before us the remains of the very bird which was found dead at Tanfield, as recorded by Gould, and that we are much indebted to the gentlemen concerned in hunting out this specimen, which had so long disappeared." Mr. H. E. Dresser exhibited on behalf of Lord Lilford some specimens of a Titmouse obtained by Dr. Guillemard in Cyprus, and made the following remarks :- " I have pleasure in exhibiting three specimens of a Titmouse from Cyprus, allied to Parus ater, which appears to me to be worthy of specific distinction, and for which I propose the name Parus Cypriotes. The specimens in question were collected by Dr. Guillemard near the Kikko Monastery, Cyprus, at an altitude of 4000 feet, and, as will be seen, differ from Parus ater in having the upper parts brownish as in Parus britannicus, but rather darker, in having the white nuchal patch almost obsolete, and in having the black on the throat extended much further down than in Parus ater, thus covering a much larger area. The underparts are tinged with buff, the flanks and under tail-coverts being much darker in tint. " This form is nearly allied to Parus cemodius from the Himalayas, and on comparison with a series will, I think, prove to be also nearly allied to Parus michaloioskii, from the Caucasus." Mr. Boulenger exhibited a living specimen of a rare African Batrachian, Xenopus lavis, Daud., one of the few representatives of the Aglossa, which had been sent to him by Mr. Leslie, F.Z.S., of Port Elizabeth. The specimen, a breeding male, showed closely-set fine black asperities, forming a band along the upper surface of each finder; copulatory asperities had not previously been noticed in Xenopus. Another point of interest resides in the curious position of the hand. When the animal is at rest the hand is bent sideways and inwards, with the fingers superposed instead of on the same horizontal plane, so that the inner finger only touches the ground; the outer surface (which corresponds to the lower in other frogs) is |