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Show 1900.] MR. SCLATER ON A tfEW SPECIES OP REEDBUOK. 429 May 8, 1900. W. T. BLANEORD, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S., Vice-President, in tbe Cbair. The Secretary read the following report on tbe additions to the Society's Menagerie during tbe month of April 1900:- The total number of registered additions to the Society's Menagerie during the month of April was 120, of which 41 were by presentation, 52 by purchase, 15 were received on deposit, and 12 were born in the Menagerie. The total number of departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 103. Amongst the additions attention may be called to :- 1. A young Lyre-bird (Menura superba), presented by Messrs. Carrick and Fry on April 12th. Of this well-known Australian type no specimen has been received by tbe Society since 1876. The present example is immature, and may be either a female or a youug male, the tail-feathers being not yet developed. 2. A Ural Owl (Syrnium uralense) obtained by purchase April 24th. This fine Owl of North-eastern Europe has not been previously represented in the Society's collection. Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of a male Eeedbuck (Cervi-capra), which had been mounted by Messrs. Rowland Ward & Co., for Mr. Ewart S. Grogan, F.Z.S. It had been already exhibited as a skin to the Society by Mr. R. Lydekker, on M a y 2nd, 1899 l. The specimen was of about the same size and dimensions as the Common Reedbuck (C. arundinum)2, but differed entirely in its pale grizzled grey colour above and white under surface, the anterior surface of all four limbs being of a dark rich brown. It had been supposed by Mr. Lydekker, and other good authorities who had examined this specimen, that the animal might be an albino or pale-coloured variety of the Common Reedbuck ; but, after studying the specimen carefully, Mr. Sclater had come to a different conclusion, and considered it to be referable to a new species, which, at the request of Mr. G-rogan, he proposed to call Cervicapra thomasince, with the following characters :- CERVICAPRA THOMASIN^E, sp. nov. (Plate XXVI.) C. quoad formam C. arundinum fere similis, sed colore albo, in clorso cineraceo et pedibus antice fulvo-brunneis, ut videtur, satis diversa : alt. ad humeros 35 poll. Hab. in ripis Laci Nyasae, Afr. or. The specimen exhibited bad been obtained by Mr. Grogan on the Songwe River, about six miles from its entrance into Lake 1 See P. Z. S. 1899, p. 555. 2 Book of Ant. vol. ii. p. 157, pi. xliii. PROC ZOOL. Soc-1900, No. XXIX. 29 |