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Show 1889.] PROF. NEWTON ON THE BREEDING OF THE SERIEMA. 25 mouth. In the Tapir this muscle, although shorter, is more like the corresponding muscle of the Rhinoceros; it has the same origin from the bone and is inserted near to the corner of the mouth. The Maxillo-nasal seems to be, if anything, rather less developed • in the Rhinoceros than in the Horse ; it is not indicated in Murie's figure of the Tapir. The Levator labii superioris aleeque nasi is composed of two portions, which are decidedly more distinct from each other than in the Horse ; the lowermost portion of this muscle, which is attached to the lower jaw, corresponds to the muscular slip regarded by Chauveau as homologous with the risorius. The remaining muscles of the head as shown in fig. 10 call for no special comment. 3. O n the Breeding of the Seriema (Cariama cristata). By ALFRED NEWTON, V.-P. [Received January 15, 1889.] (Plate I.) It may perhaps be remembered that as nearly as possible eight years ago our Foreign Member, Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards, entrusted to m y care for exhibition to this Society a specimen of the egg of Cariama cristata which had been laid in the Jardin des Plantes, and that I then expressed (P. Z. S. 1881, p. 2) the hope that our own Gardens would, sooner or later, produce a similar example. That hope has been more than fulfilled, and our Secretary, in placing in m y hands the eggs now before you (Plate I.), has requested me to make a few observations upon them. These eggs were laid by a bird presented to the Society on the 12th of August 1S84 by Captain Jones, which had paired with a male bought by the Society on the 23rd of August 1882. Both are still living in our Gardens. The eggs were laid about the 15th of May 1887 in a rude nest built in a basket placed on one of the perches of a compartment in the Eastern Aviary, at the height of about a dozen feet from the ground. I understand that the mother sat upon them, but that they were found to be broken, and were then removed. So far as my memory serves me, these eggs present exactly the same characters as that which was laid in the Jardin des Plantes, and which was exhibited by me on the occasion just mentioned. They also resemble in the same way that figured by Thienemann (Fort-pflanz. der gesammt. Vogel, tab. lxxii. fig. 14) to which I then referred ; but Mr. Keulemans's drawings (Plate I.) are sufficiently exact to make further description unnecessary. In May 1888 this same hen Cariama cristata laid two eggs, but both were destroyed, as is believed, by the parents. |
