145 



November 8, 1831. 



William Yarrell, Esq. in the Chair. - 



An extract of a letter from Captain Fayrer, Corr. Memb. Z.S., 

 was read. It was dated on board H. M.'s Packet Arrow, Port Pa- 

 trick, October 23, 1831, and referred to the migrations of certain 

 birds from that neighbourhood. That of the Larks commenced 

 about Oct. 1 2. " Their numbers," says Captain Fayrer, " are be- 

 yond anything I would venture to state, but millions. They start 

 at daylight, steer directly across to the Capelona Islands off Belfast 

 Loch ; and seem to prefer the wind directly against them. Very 

 large flocks of Statlings have arrived within the last few days: 

 they start before sun-rise, but steer to the southward. The Lap- 

 wings have also arrived : but these birds do not take their flight till 

 day has set well in : they appear to go directly across. I see all 

 these birds at each end of their passage (21 miles), and few, I think, 

 perish." 



A letter was read from E. W. A. Drummond Hay, Esq. H. M.'s 

 Consul for Marocco, dated Tangier, Oct. 6, 1831. It accom- 

 panied a present to the Society from that gentleman, consisting of 

 two Ichneumons, (Herpestes Pharaonis, Desm.,) and a pair of striped 

 Barbary Mice,(Mus Barbarus, Linn.) The former were caught in 

 the neighbourhood of Tangier, where they are called by the na- 

 tives, in the dialect of the Arabic used there, Serro. The Mice 

 are not rare: the name given to them by the natives is Phdr-Azeffy 

 the Palmetto Mouse. 



Mr. Drummond Hay also referred to four Ostriches sent in the 

 same transport as a present to His Majesty from the Sultan of Ma- 

 rocco, which have since been graciously presented by His Majesty 

 to the Society. They were obtained in a region of the Desert 

 called Hamadah, situated about eight or ten days journey from Tafi- 

 leht in the direction to which the Modsselmin address their prayers. 

 Though yet so young as not to have assumed their adult plu- 

 mage, (no external distinction being at present observable in them,) 

 two of them were seen in the act of treading while they remained 

 at Tangier. — The same precocity, it may be remarked, has been 

 previously noticed in other birds. 



The letter concludes by promising a continuance of Mr. Drum- 

 mond Hay's exertions on behalf of the Society, and by referring 

 particularly to his endeavours and those of Mr. Willshire, H. M.'s 

 Consul at Mogadore, to procure skins and living specimens of seve- 

 ral interesting Mammalia and Birds, and especially the quadruped 

 known to the Arabs as the Mhorr. 



A collection of Fishes was exhibited, consisting of nearly thirty 

 species. It was presented to the Society by Captain Belcher, R.N., 

 by whom it was formed during his recent survey of part of the At- 



