On some new fossil Mammalia from the Freshwater Strata. 3 fe9 



were supposed to consist in the basal portion of the lateral tail- 

 feathers being white, while the T. pelagica is described by most 

 authors as having the tail wholly black. I had however for some 

 time suspected that the melitensis and pelagica were identical, 

 having observed in my own specimen of pelagica that the lateral 

 rectrices were in fact white towards the base, though this colour 

 is nearly concealed by the incumbent tail-covers. 



By the kindness of Capt. Drummond I am now enabled to set 

 at rest these doubts, having just received from him several speci- 

 mens of the supposed species named melitensis, obtained at Malta, 

 but which turn out to be quite identical with the Thalassidroma 

 pelagica of the British seas. This opinion is confirmed by Mr. 

 G. 11. Gray, to whom I have sent one of Capt. Drummond' s spe- 

 cimens, and who assures me that he has compared it with the 

 specimens of the true pelagica in the British Museum, and that 

 he can find no distinctions between them. 



Capt. Drummond (who is now at Malta) has communicated to 

 me the following corrections to be made in his papers on the birds 

 of the Ionian Islands and of Crete. 



The species entered as Picus major (Annals, vol. xii. p. 418) 

 should be P. leuconotus, — the P. major not being found in Corfu. 



The birds which are sold at Malta to the uninitiated for snipes 

 (p. 418) are the Upupa epops, and not (as stated through a mis- 

 print) the Yunx torquilla. 



The falcon mentioned at p. 423, as chasing beetles in the even- 

 ing in Crete, is proved on further examination to be the Falco 

 Eleonorce, and not F. subbuteo, which last species was not noticed 

 in Crete. Falco Eleonorce may also be included, though as a rare 

 bird, in the fauna of the Ionian Islands, a specimen having been 

 obtained from the island of Fano. 



XL VI. — Record of the discovery of an Alligator, with several 

 new Mammalia in the Freshwater Strata at Hordwell. By 

 Searles Wood, Esq. F.G.S. 



Dear Sir, York, Oct. 23, 1844. 



As the Report in the Athenaeum of the late Meeting of the Bri- 

 tish Association here, does not contain any abstract of the highly 

 important discoveries made by Mr. Searles Wood in the fresh- 

 water strata at Hordwell, perhaps you will find room in the forth- 

 coming Number of the ' Annals ' for a brief notice of this gen- 

 tleman's researches. 



Yours, dear Sir, most faithfully, 



Edward Charlesworth. 

 Richard Taylor, Esq. 



Part of the summer of 1843 was devoted by Mr. Wood to an 



