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Show 1891.] MR. LYDEKKER ON PLEISTOCENE BIRD-REMAINS. 467 of the second black ring, where the tail was broken, as if given by the only point of the ring encroached upon by the somewhat oblique fracture, and it extends to the tip. Few Iguanoids have striped tails. In fact I know but a few species, belonging to the genera Liolcemus and Sceloporus, which are so marked, and these genera happen to be among the few in the family which have the scales normally disposed quincuncially, at least in the basal part of the tail, as in the reproduced tails of nearly all Iguanoids. However, the manner in which the stripe originates in the present speci men perhaps excludes any explanation based on phylogenetic considerations. But it is a most remarkable fact how constant the type of scaling of the regenerated tail in these Lguanidce is, in spite of so much diversity in the scaling of the intact organ, as shown by Hoplurus, Ctenosaura, Liolcemus, and many others which I have been able to examine * ; whilst, on the other hand, all Lacertidce, Teiidce, Zonuridce, and Gerrhosauridce reproduce verticillate tails, whatever their normal scaling may be." Mr. R. Gordon Wickham exhibited a remarkably fine pair of horns of the Gemsbok Antelope (Oryx gazella) obtained near Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony. The following papers were read:- 1. On Pleistocene Bird-remains from the Sardinian and Corsican Islands. By R. L Y D E K K E R , B.A. [Eeceived July 30, 1891.] (Plate XXXVII.) During the past summer I received from my friend Prof. C. J. Forsyth "Major, of Florence, a small collection of bird-bones from Pleistocene deposits in the Sardinian and Corsican islands, with the request that I would undertake their examination. The great . majority of these specimens were obtained from a cave at Pietro Tampoia in the island of Tavolara, on the north-east coast of Sardinia ; while others came from the ossiferous breccia of Monte San Giovanni, near the town of Iglesias, in the south-western corner of Sardinia itself. The remainder are from a breccia at Toga, near Bastia, Corsica. The specimens forming this collection are by no means the first bird-remains which have been obtained from the Sardinian islands, since as far back as 1832 Rudolph Wagner2 described and figured a considerable number of bird-bones from the ossiferous breccia of Cagliari. None of these specimens were, however, specifically 1 I find, however, the verticillate scaling on the reproduced tails elegans and U. nigricans. * Abh. Munch. Akad. vol. i. pp. 751-786. |