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Show 616 MR. F. M. OGILVIE ON THE [Nov. 18, caves would afford undoubted proof of the occurrence of the Saiga in several localities. The Professor has kindly called the present writer's attention to some incidental allusions to the discovery of antelope-remains in the Harz Mountains1, in the vicinity of Quedin-burg2, Westeregeln3, and Nuremberg4, as also in the neighbourhood of Kaschau in Hungary5; and it seems probable that, in most instances, these fossils will prove to pertain to the remarkable species under consideration. November 18, 1890. Dr. St. George Mivart, F.R.S., in the Chair. Mr. F. Menteith Ogilvie, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of the Red-breasted Flycatcher (Muscicapa parva), and made the following remarks :- I have thought this specimen might be of sufficient interest to be exhibited, partly on account of its rarity as a British bird, partly because there seem to be a few errors in the descriptions of this Flycatcher in the latest ornithological text-books. In the 4th ed. of Yarrell the tail is said to consist of 10 feathers, in place of 12; and Mr. Saunders, in his lately published Manual, while he describes the tail as of 12 feathers, states that they all have conspicuous white bases except the central pair, which are black. In this specimen the four outer feathers on either side have more or less white on their basal halves, but the four central feathers are black. In length this specimen measured 5g inches, in place of 4^ in his description ; the legs were black, and the irides so dark a brown as to appear black at first sight. This bird I shot on the beach at Cley-next-the-Sea, Norfolk, Sept. 13th, 1890, during a week's visit to that place with a view to watching the autumn migration. I flushed it twice from the ' scrub '6 before I was able to secure it, following it for about five minutes. It uttered no note during this time. Its flight was peaceful and buoyant and always at some height from the ground, differing in this from the other birds I saw in the scrub, chiefly Warblers7, which flew very low and were flushed with some difficulty from their hiding-places. The weather during the week was very fine with hot sun, and light wind mostly from the west and north-west. On the 15th, 1 H. Grotrian, Zeitschr. deutsch. geol. Ges. vol. xxxii. (1880), p. 751. 2 A. Nehring, ibid. p. 473. 3 A. Nehring, ibid. p. 475. 4 A. Nehring, ibid. p. 488. 5 A. Nehring, Berl. Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie, 1881, pp. 103, 106. 6 As the sea-blite (Suceda fruticosa) is called, which covers the beach at Cley and Blakeney. 7 Willow-Wrens, Chiffchaflfs. |
