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Show 26 THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. [Feb. 5, About the 21st of June 1888 she laid another egg in the same basket, and this was hatched on the 24th of July. The young bird was seen by our Secretary and our Superintendent, the latter of whom informs me that it had much the look of a newly-hatched Heron. Its eyes were open, and it was clothed with greyish-brown down. On the next day the keeper (Church) found it had disappeared, it having been doubtless eaten by one or other of its parents. Another egg laid by the same bird was hatched on the 7th of September 1888. Our Superintendent, to guard against a repetition of the former misfortune, abstained from any inspection ot it, but unhappily to no effect, for on the following day this nestling also was found by the keeper (Samuel Bartlett) to have vanished, having doubtless gone the same way as its deceased brother or sister. February 5, 1889. Professor Flower, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of January 1889 :- The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of January was 50. Of these 1 was by birth, 22 by presentation, 17 by purchase, 2 by exchange, and 8 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 116. The most noticeable additions during the month were:- 1. A small collection of birds from Algeria obtained by purchase from a dealer at Oran on January 10th. Among these are specimens of Clot-Bey's Lark (Ramphocorys clot-beyi), the Algerian Shore- Lark (Otocorys bilopha), and the Rosy Bullfinch (Erythrospiza githaginea), all new to the Society's collection. 2. Two White Ibises, purchased January 18th, and differing from the White Ibises we have previously had in the Society's collection in their larger size and bright red bills, as will be at once manifest on an examination of the specimens now in the Gardens. They would appear to belong to the species (or subspecies) designated by Wagler (Isis, 1829, p. 760) Eudocimus longirostris. On the other hand, on referring to Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway's ' Water Birds of North America' (vol. i. p. 89), it will be seen that their Eudocimus albus is the larger red-billed bird. This subject therefore requires fresh investigation, and I commend it to the notice of American Ornithologists. Mr. Sclater exhibited a living specimen of the Thick-billed Lark (Rhamphocorys clot-beyi) out of a flock of five which the Society had lately received from Algeria, and called attention to its peculiarities. |
