PROCEEDINGS OP SOCIETIES. 483 



means of " cordage," mentioning several instances to the contrary from his own 

 observation. I have not any specimens of the nest at hand to refer to ; and 

 perhaps I ought not to speak too positively from recollection, but, if my memory 

 does not greatly deceive me, I am strongly inclined to think that the bird does 

 employ cordage wherewith to fasten its nest. Indeed I have seen instances of 

 the nest hanging underneath a fir branch in which this must necessarily have 

 been the case. But I rather send this with a view of eliciting further remarks 

 on the subject than in order to communicate a matter of fact. 



If this trifle is deemed worthy of a place in the pages of The Naturalist, its 

 insertion will oblige. 



Thine respectfully, 



James Dillon. 



PROCEEDINGS OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. Richard Owen, F.R.S., in the chair. — Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of 

 Musignano, exhibited the drawing of a new species of Salamander, differing 

 both from the Triton and the Menobranchus, which he characterised as a new 

 genus. The same distinguished naturalist likewise characterised several new 

 birds from Mexico, from a collection which he had received for examination from 

 that country, many of which had before been considered to be confined exclu- 

 sively to the United States. Full descriptions of several of the new varieties 

 were promised by him for publication in the Transactions of the society. Co- 

 lonel Sykes, F.R.S., read some observations on the identity of the Wild Ass of 

 Thibet, which principally inhabits Kutch, on the Indus, with the Jikta, or Equus 

 herniones of Pallas. Although known to Aristotle, Pliny, ^Elian, and 

 other early writers on Natural History, this interesting animal appears to have 

 been scarcely known in Europe until Pallas described it in the Memoirs of the 

 Russian Academy. This animal has, it appears, a very wide geographical range, 

 being found in Mongolia, Arabia, the Himalayan Mountains, and many other 

 parts of the continent of India. The learned author also mentioned that the 

 ordinary distribution of Asses according to size was not correct, it being imagined 

 that the largest species were found at the tropics, and that they diminished in 

 size according as they approached towards the north, as the reverse was in many 

 instances the fact, in some parts of India even the Asses, which are used as beasts 



