per mensem, with Rs. 10 per mensem additional, should his work give satisfaction, with a view to send him to Darjeeling to be under the orders of Dr. CAMPBELL and others; it was resolved to engage Mr. HOLQUETT, on the terms specified for six months, subject to special report at the end of that period. The Honourable the President having audited the accounts for the past year (1841), laid before the Meeting of January, ordered that they be printed. SIR, To H. TORRENS, Esq. Secretary, Asiatic Society. In the latter part of the month of September 1840, you did me the kindness to confer upon me the appointment of Accountant to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, and the year 184 having just expired, I do myself the honor to submit my Account Current, closed to the 31st Dec. 1841, exhibiting in favor of the Society, Co's. Rs. 19,516: 1:9; viz. I am not aware that it is necessary for me to enter into any detailed explanation as regards the accounts, but I may be permitted to draw attention to the following circumstances: 1st. That the Society have become enriched during the last 15 months in its Library and Museum to the extent of Rs. 1,521 8 6 • Library. Purchase and binding of Books and Table, 1,103 8 6 *Museum. 2d. That the debt of the Society to the Baptist Mission Press for printing has been paid off, Rs. 1,912: 3: 9. 3d. That the Secretary has been paid for supplying his Journals to Members and learned Societies in Europe, Rs 3,88. *1st 1,521 8 61 4th. That for paper, and drawing and lithographing the specimens of Natural History by the late Sir A. Burnes, under preparation for publication in the Transactions, have been disbursed, .. 2d 1,912 3 9 3d 3,888 0 0 4th 1,176 0 0 Co's. Rs. 8,497 12 3 making in the 4 items a total expenditure of Rs. 1,176 0 0 *8497 12 3 Sir, Your most obedient humble Servant, W. H. BOLST CALCUTTA, 20th Jan, 1842. The following contribution was presented by Mr. W. MASTERS, of the La Martiniere, for the Museum of the Society : A bottle containing a double child joined breast to breast, with four legs, four hands, one face, four ears, one on each side of the face, and two in close juxtaposition at the back of an apparently double head: the sex is male in each, and perfect: the limbs and features are natural, and without distortion. "This monster," writes Mr. MASTERS, "was the offspring of a Malabar woman, and born about five years ago in the vicinity of Madras; it died a few hours after its birth. After its birth people flocked from all quarters, under superstitious impressions, to present gifts to the mother." The Curator read his Report for the past month, as follows: Report for February. SIR,-During the short time that has intervened since our last meeting, specimens of the following Mammalia and Birds have been added to the Society's Museum. MAMMALIA. Viverra Rasse, Horsfield, or V. Indica of M. Is. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, but not V. Indica of British authors; Viverricula Rasse, Hodgson. This, with its near ally, the V. Indica of British naturalists, are both common in this neighbourhood, and unquestionably distinct. I also know a third species, which I believe is from Northern India, and hitherto undescribed. For this and the next, the Society is indebted to the kindness of Dr. Wallich. Paradoxurus typus, a remarkably fine old male, of a much deeper ground-colour than that noticed in my last report. Meminna Indica : the female which was presented to the Society last month having died, it has been added to our collection of stuffed specimens. Ovis Nahoor, Hodgson. I have procured a handsome skin of this species, more deeply coloured than usual, and having the generic markings on the limbs, &c. very black and well defined. AVES. Athene lugubris; Strix lugubris, Tickell, J. A. S. i. 572. A common species in this neighbourhood. Timalia Horsfieldi, J. and S., Ill. Orn., pl. cxix: male and female. The habitat of this species is accordingly now ascertained, it being not a rare bird in the vicinity of Calcutta. The figure alluded to is defective, in so far as that the orbits are conspicuous bright orange, and the irides pale brownish-yellow; bill black, having the conch-like membrane of the nostrils wax-yellow, and the legs are of a tolerably bright orpiment-yellow. I possessed these birds alive for some days, and noticed that they frequently placed one foot upon their food, while they picked it with the bill. In several respects, they much reminded me of Calamophilus; but, on dissection, I found neither the powerfully muscular gizzard, nor the large craw, or dilatation of the esophagus, characteristic of that very distinct genus; which latter Mr. Swainson still strangely confounds with the Tits-Parus (Class. Birds, i. 43), whereto I cannot perceive that it is at all allied, either internally or externally, in habits, nidification, eggs, voice, or indeed aught else.* Alaudide. The species of Indian Larks are extremely difficult to identify from the descriptions of them which have been hitherto published; these being, for the most part, much too concise and deficient in the needful details to be satisfactory. I have obtained four species in this neighbourhood, which are as follow: 1. Mirafra Assamica, M'Clelland and Horsfield, P. Z. S., 1839, 162; being probably also the species doubtfully assigned to M. Javanica by Mr. Jerdon, Madr. Jour. xi. 33, in which case, the Since writing the above, I have obtained other live specimens of Timalia Horsfieldi, which I have kept some weeks; and continued observation of them has satisfied me, notwithstanding the anatomical differences above noted, that Calamophilus approaches much nearer to this group than to any other with which I am acquainted.-E. B. 9 16 5 16 impropriety of its topical name becomes obvious, as the species would extend over the greater part of India. Length 5 to 6 inches: extent 93 to 10 inches: wing from bend 3 to 34 inches: tail li 11 inch bill to forehead above inch, to gape inch and upwards, and vertical depth at base 16 inch: the penultimate fourth of the edges of both mandibles strongly inflected: tarse nearly 1 inch : the hind toe inch; and its claw from to inch. The form of the wing (as characteristic of this generic group) differs much from that common to the three others, the 1st quill, which in the restricted Larks is excessively diminutive, measuring fully 1 inch: the 2nd is shorter than the 6th, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th, equal and longest. Irides hazel; bill dusky above, the sides of the base of the upper mandible, and all the lower one except its extreme tip, whitish; legs and feet light brown with a tinge of carneous, the joints and claws rather darker. General colour ashy-brown above, the coronal feathers, interscapularies and scapularies, having broad dusky-brown centres, or they may be described as of the latter hue, slightly tipped and broadly margined laterally with cinereous, which last prevails on the nape and rump: wings and tail dusky, margined with rufescent pale fulvous, a little deeper at the base of the caudal plumes: the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th primaries successively more emarginated outwards on their exterior webs, and the unemarginated portion, with nearly the whole outer webs of the other primaries excepting the two first, deep rufoferruginous: underneath, the wings are almost wholly of a fainter ferruginous, and the rest of the under-parts are fulvous white, somewhat deeper and marked with dusky spots on the breast, and paler on the throat: a fulvous-white streak passes over the eye; and the ear-coverts are confusedly speckled with dusky. A common species in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. It has none of the sprightliness of the true Larks, but (as observed in captivity) is a thick-built, heavy and inactive bird, prone to hide itself from observation by creeping under other birds, or availing itself of whatever sort of cover there happens to offer. The sexes are undistinguishable. The next may, I think, be referred to the genus Corypha, G. Gray, or Brachonyx, Swainson. It is the Ortolan of Europeans in India, or Baghairee of the natives, though other species are often sold with it under the former name, especially a large Pipit which appears to be the Anthus Richardi, and which is brought in great numbers to supply the tables of the luxurious towards the close of the cool season, when the present species gradually replaces it. 13 2. C. baghaira: Emberiza baghaira, Franklin; Alauda Dukhunensis, Sykes. Length 6 to 64 inches; 7 extent 13 to 134 inches; wing from bend 83 inches; and tail 24 inches: bill to forehead inch; 16 and inch to gape; its vertical depth at base less than inch; tarse inch, or nearly so: the hind toe and claw averaging inch representative of the usual 1st quill wholly obsolete, and what therefore become the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, are subequal, and inch longer than the 4th. In the typical Alauda which follow, the first quill exists in extreme minuteness, and the four next are longest and subequal. Irides dark hazel. Bill whitish-horny, blackish along ridge of upper mandible, and slightly on that of lower; legs brownish, and darker at the joints. This bird changes its plumage in February, and the prevalent hue of the upper parts, in newly moulted specimens, is slightly rufescent pale sand-colour, each feather having a moderately broad streak of dusky; stripe over the eye, and the whole under-parts, fulvous-white, deepening on the breast, and wholly spotless in some, in the generality a little spotted, more or less obscurely: ear-coverts tinged posteriorly with dusky: wings dusky-brown, with fulvous edgings, broader and deeper coloured on the tertiaries and tips of the coverts, and a whitish edge to the first primary only: tail also dusky, its penultimate feather having the exterior web white-edged, and the outermost feather having its exterior web wholly white to near the base, and also a considerable portion of its inner web. In the old or worn plumage, the dusky much prevails upon the back, from the fulvous edgings to the feathers having disappeared, and, in general, there is a strong rufous cast upon the crown, which is seldom very distinctly apparent in the new feathers; the breast has commonly a few small and narrow dusky streaks, and a patch of the same appears on each side of the lower part of the fore-neck, composed of the outer webs of the uppermost exterior pectoral feathers; this is more or less developed in different specimens, and less observably in the newly moulted plumage. This species, like the last, progresses on the ground as much by hopping as by running, but has a true Lark's chirrup. It is caught in immense numbers for the table. The next is a typical Alauda, allied to the European Wood Lark (A. arborea), and more from a combination of collateral evidence than from the sufficiency of any description to which I have access, I conclude it to be the No. 185 of Mr. Jerdon's list, referred by that naturalist to 4. Chendoola, Franklin, but which appears to me to be rather 11 to 11 inches inch, and to 1. 4. gulgula, Franklin, P. Z. S, 1831, 119. Length 6 inches to 64 inches, by 10 in extent; wing from bend 34 to 34 inches, and tail 2 to 24 inches; bill to forehead gape inch; tarse barely 1 inch, and hind-toe and claw averaging the same. Irides dark hazel. 16 Bill dusky above, the rest whitish; and legs pale brown. Colour of the upper parts blackish dusky-brown, relieved with contrasting pale fulvous lateral margins to the feathers; beneath fulvescent-white, deeper and spotted or streaked with dusky-black on the breast and ear-coverts partly, the remainder of the latter being suffused posteriorly with dusky: a pale streak over the eye; and the erectile coronal feathers moderately elongated: some have a rufous tinge on the small upper tail-coverts, and also margining the large quills, more especially the secondaries; while the coverts are edged with grey: the tail has its outermost feather almost wholly, and the penultimate on its exterior web only, fulvescent-white. As compared with the British Wood Lark (and writing from memory of the latter), the general cast of colour inclines less to rufous, especially about the rump, the coronal feathers are less lengthened, and the eye-streak is not carried round the occiput. This species is common, and during February more especially, is brought to the bazaar more numerously than the Mirafra, or than any of the other species sold as Ortolans, excepting the large Pipit and the Corypha.* 13 4. A. gracilis, Nobis. The dimensions of this nearly accord with those of the preceding species, but the shape of the living bird is considerably more slender, and the merest glance suffices to discriminate them apart; yet on endeavouring to describe them separately, I find the greatest difficulty in hitting upon any one satisfactory distinction. The hind-claw is certainly longer and straighter in this, measuring inch; and the aspect of the plumage is different, though not adequately so describable: the colours of the feathers are much more cleanly defined apart, and the light hue all but quite obsolete on the outer side of each scapulary and interscapulary, while in the preceding species both sides are distinctly so marked (the outer, however, being darker and browner than the inner side), and the mottling is a more confused character. On examining many specimens of (presumed) A. gulgula, I cannot find one in which the penultimate tail-feather is tipped on its inser web with white; but in this species it is distinctly so tipped for nearly inch, and all its whitah or albescent is much more deeply suffused with ferruginous. I have seen but two examples of this bird, the first alive in the shop of a dealer who had sold it, and the second was shot by Mr. Frith, and presented in a fresh state to the Society, as noticed in my Report for January. When I come to know more of its notes and habits, I shall doubtless be able to describe it more satisfactorily than at present; but in the mean while I am quite satisfied of its distinctness, and should never hesitate in recognising it the moment I beheld a specimen. Besides the above, the little Pyrrhulauda crucigera is common here, as in other parts of India.t A specimen of the Mirafra alone existed in the Society's Museum at the period of my taking charge of it. I have since obtained the young in full-grown nestling plumage, which closely resembles the corresponding garb of the British Sky Lark: the crown is very dark, with whitish edgings to the feathers; eye-streak strongly marked, and carried round the occiput as in a Wood Lark; a rufous tange to the edgings of the great wing and tail feathers: length 5 by 10 inches in extent, wing 3, and tail inches. This also breeds in the vicinity of Calcutta, and the nestling plumage of the young definitively refers the genus to the Alaudida, or Lark family: it essentially resembles that of the true Larks, being of a dull greyish-brown, darker and but slightly whitish-edged on the crown, scarcely at all to edged on the inter-scapularies, and most broadly on the wing-coverts; under parts dull fulvouswhite, with a few narrow and minute dark pectoral streaks, suffusing part of the feathers. Length of the wings, with full-grown feathers, 2 inches, and of the tail 1 inch. The nest and eggs have been described by Mr. Jerdon. Tragopan satyrus: male and female, and a skeleton also of the latter. Coturnix dactylisonans: male and female. Ciconia alba; the European White Stork: male, female, and a skeleton of a third. C. leucocephala, or umbellata of Wagler. (Double-tailed Stork.) This species, which is nearly allied to the smaller Adjutants, is remarkable for the singular form of its tail, which, strictly speaking, is merely rounded, and consists of twelve white feathers; but its upper coverts are unusually broad and firm, and present the appearance of a second tail overlying the first, and which is of a black colour, and deeply forked, the outermost of these coverts being longer than the exterior true rectrices. I have not observed a similar structure in any of the allied birds. Ardea Caboga, vel russata: second plumage. Machetes pugnax. I have procured a few of these birds alive, with the intention of having them set up when they have put forth their extraordinary vernal livery, in which it is rare to find even two that much resemble each other. In the dress adverted to, I cannot learn that this species has been observed in this part of the world. Scolopax heter ura and Sc. gallinula, male and female of each. Totanus fuscus, fine specimens. Porzana maruetta, v. Crex porzana, Auct: both sexes. Casarca rutila, male and female. Anas pœciloryncha, male. Fuligula rufina, male. Sterna Seena, ditto. Carbo pygmæus, ditto. A small collection of bird skins from the Malay Peninsula has been purchased, containing the following species: Icthyäetus nanus, Nobis. Allied to I. Horsfieldi, v. Falco icthyäetus, Horsfield; but considerably smaller, being under 2 feet in length, the wing 14 inches, and tail, which is a little wedged, 84 inches; bill over curve, including cere, 1 inch, and 18 inch from tip of upper mandible to gape; tarse 2 inches; the talons large, and all (as in I. Horsfieldi) completely rounded with the exception of that on the middle toe; 4th and 5th primaries equal and longest, a little exceeding the 3rd and 6th; colour of the upper parts somewhat light purplish-brown, darker on the quills, and the nuchal feathers having each a mesial whitish streak; forehead, streak over the eye, throat, fore-neck, and the ear-coverts except posteriorly, white; the whole under-parts appear to have been formerly of this colour, which in the specimen before me is nearly altogether replaced by new feathers which are wholly pale brown upon the breast, and more or less so elsewhere, the white being chiefly retained upon the medial part of the feathers, and being laterally more or less freckled with the pale brown of the rest; some of the lengthened tibial plumes have a few nearly obsolete pale fulvous bars, the rest being white, as are likewise the vent and under tail-coverts: tail pure white at base, where impended by deep brown upper-coverts, then suffused with brown on the outer webs, and freckled with deeper brown on the inner webs, forming two or three dark spots on each, or rudimental bars; the terminal 1 inch dark aquiline-brown, with paler extreme tips: bencath the wing are also rudiments of a few distantly placed dark bars. Bill dusky: the legs appear to have been yellow; and talons blackish. Alcedo Bengalensis. Picus pulverentulus. P. puniceus. P. tristis. Megalorhynchus Lathami: M. spinosus, Eyton, P. Z. S. 1839, 106; Bucco Lathami, Gmelin apud Sir Stamford Raffles, (Lin. Trans. xiii. 284,) who describes it as follows:-" It is about six inches in length. Bill more compressed and arched than in other Barbets, and wanting the bristles at the base, almost black in the male, but yellowish in the female. The legs are red, but |