inches and a half; bill to frontal plumage three-quarters of an inch, and tarse seveneighths of an inch. "Irides orange with a red outer circle; feet dull lake." General colour rich and deep vinaceous-brown, having the whole top of the head, including the occiput, whitish-grey; primaries and secondaries, with the coverts of the primaries, winglet, and tail and its coverts, black, most of the large wing feathers inclining to grey towards their margins; rump also black, the feathers margined with glossy dark amethystine-purple; interscapularies broadly edged with the same, changeable to green, which latter predominates, while a reddish gloss prevails on the edges of the scapularies and wing-coverts; throat paler in some specimens, and the under-parts generally less glossy than those above.

Gallus Bankivus: male and female. The latter remarkable for bearing powerful spurs, which is very unusual in this sex.

Francolinus vulgaris: two males and two females. The Perdix Hepburnii of Gray, with its alleged variety, appear to me to be meant for females, or perhaps young males, of this common species.

Pondicerianus: male and female.

Northia; Polyptectron Northia, Gray and Hardwicke: female. Length eleven inches and a half, of wing five inches and a half, and tail three inches and five-eighths; bill to forehead three-quarters of an inch, and to gape seven-eighths of an inch; tarse one inch and a half. "Irides dull orange, bill horn-coloured, legs and feet vermillion." Space between the bill and eye almost nude, and deep coral-red in the dry specimen. All the upper parts rufous-brown, with two or three black bands on each feather, beyond the last of which the tip of the feather is less rufous; there is also a number of minute black specks on each plume, in addition to the bands; rump and upper tail-coverts minutely freckled; the tail-feathers chiefly blackish, with mottled rufous bars tending to become obsolete; primaries, their coverts, and the winglet, spotless dusky; crown blackish and subcrested; the neck olive-brown, albescent on the throat; on the lower part of the fore-neck the feathers become rufous in the centre and tipped with black, being laterally margined with olive-brown; and on the breast and flanks they are bright ferruginous with narrow black tips, somewhat like those of an English cock Pheasant; belly fuscous-brown, and under tail-coverts resembling the upper; wings and tail dusky underneath. The Perdix oculea of Hardwicke and Gray would seem to be nearly allied to this species.

Coturnix dactylisonans: three specimens.

C. textilis, Tem.: a female.

Hemipodius Dussumieri.

Cursorius Asiaticus.

Pluvianus Goensis: two specimens.

P. bilobus.

Limosa melanura.

Totanus ochropus.

Anastomus typus, Tem.: young.

Ardea Javanica: adult and young.

Porzana Akool: Rallus Akool, Sykes, P. Z. S., 1832, 164.

Mergus serrator: female.

Sterna seena, Sykes.

•Carbo albiventer, Tickell: female. Length about twenty-nine inches, of wing eleven inches, and tail (consisting of fourteen feathers,) seven inches; bill to forehead (in a straight line) two inches and a half, and to gape three inches and seven-eighths; tarse two inches and a half; longest toe and claw three inches and three-quarters. Colour of the whole under-parts white, but apparently changing to dusky on the foreneck and breast; flanks dusky brown; upper-parts dingy dark-brown, but a number of new feathers appearing on the scapularies and shoulders of the wings, dark silvery grey with a moderately broad black margin, analogous to what is observed in various other species; feathers of the crown and sides of the neck slightly margined laterally with whitish; bill dusky above, the rest pale; gular skin yellow, and feet and membranes black.

From M. M. Liautaud (Chirurgien de Marine) and Reymoneng (Eléve) of His French Majesty's Corvette, the Danaide, I have to announce the presentation of a collection of bird skins and of shells from various regions; the former consisting of, firstly, the following European species, killed in France :

*Alcedo ispida.

*Turdus torquatus: female.

Oriolus Galbula, ditto.

Sturnus vulgaris.

*Charadrus pluvialis.

From Panama (Republic of New Granada),

Tanagra episcopus.

From Chili (neighbourhood of Valparaiso),

*Turdus Magellanicus, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1830, 14; being a new locality, I believe, for this species, which is allied to the well known Robin Thrush of North America.

From Bone Bay, in the Caroline Islands,

*Ptilinopus purpuratus, Swainson: the example of which most elegant species, heretofore known as an inhabitant of O Tahiti, has unfortunately been denuded by insects of the skin of the fore-part of the forehead and throat.

From Luçonia, of the Philippines,

Petrocincla Manillensis: being the specimen before noticed in my account of the collection of bird-skins presented by Lieutenant Tickell.

•Ceblepyris cærulescens, Nobis. Length nine inches and a half, of wing four inches five-eighths, and tail three inches and a half; bill to forehead (through the feathers) fifteen-sixteenths of an inch, and to gape an inch one-eighth; tarse three-quarters of an inch: fourth, fifth, and third primaries successively longest; outermost tail-feathers not half an inch shorter than the middle ones. Colour of the upper parts black, the feathers edged with bluish dusky, paler on the forehead, and inclining to greyish on the rump; tail and greater wing-feathers wholly black: lower parts uniform dark greyish-dusky; the tips of the outermost tail-feathers paler underneath: bill and feet black, as are also the lores.

From Captain C. S. Bonnevie, of the Norwegian Royal Navy,Specimens of Lophastur*, Nobis,,n. g? Allied to Pernis, but wanting the peculiar

* This may possibly be the genus Buteopernis adverted to by Mr. Jameson, in Calc. Journ, Nat. Hust., No. III. page. 320.

character of that genus, the loral feathers resembling those of most other Falconida: beak also distinctly, though feebly, toothed; and the cere much less developed than in Pernis talons very feeble, and the anterior tarsal scales but semi-reticulate. Rest as in Pernis, and the medial occipital feathers elongated, as in P. cristatus, Cuv., v. Falco ptilorhynchus, Tem.,-as also in the genera Hyptiopus, Hodgson, v. Lophotes, Lesson (pre-occupied in Icthyology), v. Lepidogenys, Gray, and Spizætus, Vieillot, v. Nisætus, Hodgson.

*P. Jerdoni, Nobis: adult and young. Length about eighteen inches or nearly so, of wing twelve inches and a half, and tail nine inches; bill, over forehead, including cere, an inch and a half, and from point of upper mandible to gape an inch five-eighths; greatest vertical depth about five-eighths of an inch, and arcuation (as in Pernis) very moderate; tarse anteriorly one inch and three-quarters, having the upper half feathered; middle toe and claw two inches, the latter barely exceeding three-eighths of an inch, and hind claw little more than half an inch. Lengthened occipital feathers of a spatulate form, and two inches and a quarter long in both specimens. Plumage of the adult, on the upper-parts, of a hair-brown colour, each feather broadly terminated with dusky-brown, having a fine reddish-purple gloss, which terminal portion is alone externally visible on the back and scapularies; primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, crossed with a few bars of the same, and the latter edged at the tip with whitish; tail light hair-brown, with a broad subterminal dusky band, and three successively smaller ones, likewise successively less distant to the base; its extreme tip whitish beneath, the wings and tail are whitish-grey, with only the terminal bands as much developed as above. Lengthened occipital plumes dull black; and the nape and sides of the neck rufousbrown, with a medial dusky streak to each feather, more or less developed. Lower-parts whitish, somewhat broadly banded across below the breast with rufous-brown; the sides of the breast rufous; and a mesial line on the throat, fore-neck, and breast, composed of feathers which on the throat are almost wholly blackish, becoming less deep and mingled with rufous on the fore-neck and breast, where laterally margined with white. Beak horn-coloured, with a pale cere; and legs have probably been yellow. The young merely differs in having each feather of the upper-parts slightly margined with whitish, and those of the lower-parts are analogous to the immature plumage of the genus Accipiter; the mesial dark streak flanked with whitish may be traced almost to the vent, and this is merely the same, further developed, as exists upon the throat of a common Indian species of Accipiter, viz. A. Dussumieri, v. Dukhunensis of Sykes. I dedicate this handsome species to a naturalist to whose persevering researches students of Ornithology in this country are deeply indebted, and whose investigations, I am happy to say, now extend throughout the series of the animal kingdom, and may be expected to add considerably to our information on the Zoology of India.

Picus leucogaster, apud Horsfield, Catalogue of Javanese Birds prefixed to 'Zoological Researches in Java': P. Javensis, Horsfield, Lin. Trans. XIII. 175; but not P. leucogaster, Reinwardt, apud Bory, Dict. Class. d'Hist. Nat. XIII. 507, if the size be there correctly stated; the breast, too, is described as "noire, rayée de roussátre,” but this may be the case in some specimens, as a few of the pectoral feathers of a female in the Society's Museum have slight rufous-white edgings, and the colouring of the female bird is otherwise correctly enough described by M. Bory.

Dr. Horsfield strangely describes the P. pulverentulus, Tem., as the female of this species, but we now possess both sexes, and the female only differs from the male in having no crimson moustache, nor on the crown but only on the occiput. This fine species is closely allied to the P. Hodgsonii, Jerdon, Madras Journ. vol. XI. 215, and there admirably figured, but is not quite so large, having the wing but eight inches and a half, and tail but six inches and a half, and it differs in having scarcely any trace of white above the tail, but only a narrow incomplete cross-band just above the coverts; there is also a very slight lateral margining of this colour to the feathers of the throat, and to the posterior ear-coverts; and the wings inside anteriorly, with the axillaries, are also white; the white of the belly being somewhat deeply tinged with fulvous. The present and our previous specimen are both from Bengal. A much injured skin from Tenasserim has considerably more white about the croup, thus further resembling the magnificent P. Hodgsonii: and I make no doubt that the so called Picus maximus Malayensis, described by Dr. W. Bland in J. A. S. II. 952, refers to no other; the colouring exactly corresponds, if fulvescent be read for "yellow" on the belly and under wing-coverts; but the dimensions there assigned considerably exceed those of our specimens.

Gracula religiosa.

* Vanga cristata, Vieillot, badly figured in Griffith's Animal Kingdom, VI. 486. Euplocomus erythropthalmos: female.

Captain Bonnevie being desirous of putting this Society in communication with the Collegium Academicum of Christiana, for the purpose of exchanging duplicates of Indian specimens for such as could be procured for us in the North-west of Europe, I have gladly assented to his request by sparing for that body certain duplicate Zoological specimens, for the most part procured in this immediate neighbourhood, and not required for the Museum of the Hon. Company in London; and I have also furnished him, at his kind request, for transmission to the Norwegian institution, with a list of such desiderata procurable in Northern Europe, as would enrich and add much to the interest of our own Museum.

From J. J. Athanass, Esq.,

Phoenicopterus ruber: a beautiful adult specimen of this Flamingo, forwarded alive from the Upper Provinces, and which reached us before life was quite extinct, and consequently in a favorable condition for being properly mounted, its plumage being uninjured, with the exception of the wings.

Also skins of

Gypaëtos barbatus, Storr; considered by Captain Hutton to be a distinct species-G. Himalachanus, J. A. S. III. 22, but which I agree with Mr. Hodgson (Ibid. IV. 458,) in inclining to regard as that found in Europe and North Africa, the more especially as among the drawings of the late Sir Alexander Burnes, I find one of a specimen devoid of the dark pectoral cross-baud, which Captain Hutton presumes to be characteristic of the Lammergeyer of the Himalaya: a splendid adult.

• Distinct from two species of Accentor recently forwarded to the Society from Nepal by Mr. Hodgson.

From David Ross, Esq.,

An egg of the Cassowary (Casuarius galeatus).

From J. P. Hampton, Esq.,

Plotus Vaillaintii v. melanogaster: the Oriental Anhinga. A magnificent adult male, in finest possible condition of plumage. The anatomy of this bird I only very cursorily examined, from pressure of other occupation, and rather regret that I did not put the body aside in spirits; though I doubt not I shall soon obtain others, as I understand the Anhinga is not rare within a few miles of Calcutta. However, the general conformation of the soft parts was essentially that of the Cormorants, as might be anticipated; the capacious stomach possessed the accessory sac (analogous to that of the Crocodile) found in other Totipalmati, Cuv.; the intestines were long and furnished with the two small coca usual in this group; and the sternal apparatus, which has been preserved, is absolutely similar to that of a Cormorant.

From J. L. H. Gray, Esq. I have the pleasure to record the donation of skins of a very fine pair of

Argus giganteus, Tem. : male and female; and one of

Phaeton

? or Tropic bird; species undetermined.

From Mr. J. Keirnander,

*Aptenodytes Patachonicus: Patagonian Penguin; the brightly coloured portion of the fore-neck and breast.

Strix flammea: the common Barn Owl of Europe, which is of very frequent occurrence in Bengal: a living specimen, since dead and added to the Museum. From E. B. Ryan, Esq., two living Hawks; viz.

Elanus melanopterus; and

Circus rufus: both mounted in the Museum.

From Lieut. Phayre, through Dr. McClelland,

Ardea purpurea: the common Purple Heron; a specimen from Arracan.

Among the Birds procured in the neighbourhood, or from the dealers, I may briefly

notice

Palæornis Alexandrinus, v. nipalensis, Hodgson, As. Res. XIX, 177: young male, purchased.

P. Malaccensis: ditto.

*Lorius ornatus, Stephens: ditto.

*Falco tinnunculoides, Tem.: adult female.

Circus rufus v. æruginosus.

C. Swainsonii, v. pallidus.

C. melanoleucos.

Cuculus fugax, Horsfield, v. C. Lathami, Gray a good series.

C. canorus: the true British Cuckoo, which I have now living in a cage.

Phoenicura atrata.

*Budytes citreola ?

*Coturnix textilis.

Grus cinerea.

Parra Indica adult and young, which latter totally wants the conspicuous white eye-streak of the adult, and is otherwise so different, that until I obtained a specimen in a state of change, I rather inclined to doubt their specifical identity.