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Show 654 MR. R. LYDEKKER ON A MODEL OF A UNIQUE EGG. [Nov. 20, November 20, 1894. Sir W. H. FLOWER, K.C.B., LL.D., F.E.S., President, in the Chair. The Secretary read the folloAving report on the additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of October 1894:- The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the mouth of October was 103, of which 66 were acquired by presentation, 12 by birth, 14 by purchase, 4 by exchange, and 7 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 108. Amongst the additions are a pair of Somali Ostriches (Struthio molybdophanes), from Somaliland, purchased Oct. 26th. This is the first pair of tbe blue-skinned form of Ostrich, which inhabits Eastern Africa, that has reached us. These birds have been placed in the Giraffe-House, along with a pair of the ordinary form and with an example of a curious pied variety of the Ostrich, deposited by the Hon. W . Eothschild, F.Z.S. The Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Dr. C. Kerbert, C.M.Z.S., a photograph of a Mountain-Antelope (Nemorhcedus sumatrensis) from a specimen living in the Gardens of the Eoyal Zoological Society of Amsterdam, and remarked that he had never seen a living example of this rare animal, and that specimens of it in Museums were very scarce. Mr. B. Lydekker exhibited photographs and a model of a unique egg, the original of which had been obtained many years ago in Southern Patagonia, and was now preserved in the Museum at La Plata. If not an abnormal specimen, it could not be assigned to any known species of bird. W h e n travelling in the district where the specimen Avas obtained, Dr. P. Moreno, Director of the Museum at La Plata, many years ago saw numbers of small Batite birds, Avbich he at first took to be small Bheas. By the natives, to w h o m they were well knoAvn, he was, however, assured that they were adult birds, allied to the Bheas. Desirous of confirming this information, Dr. Moreno applied to a friend acquainted with the district; who replied that not only did he well know the birds, but that he possessed an egg, that egg being the original specimen of which a model was now exhibited. Assuming the egg to be a normal one, Mr. Lydekker was of opinion that, taken in connexion Avith the evidence of two independent witnesses Avho had seen the birds, it pointed to the existence in Southern Patagonia of a small unknown Batite bird more or less nearly allied to the Bheas. Mr. Tegetmeier exhibited the felted covering of a long-haired |
