LINNEAJT SOCIETY' OF LONDON. . 9 



April 7tli, 1898. 

 Dr. Albert C. L. G-. GtjyxniiR, F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 

 The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



Dr. H. Marett Tims wa^* admitted ; and I'oe followinjij were 

 elected Fellows of the ^Society: Messrs. Alfred .lames Ewart, 

 AVilliam George Freeman, Ernest Ciiarle.s Horrell, Charles 

 Edward Jones, and Richard Frank Huinl. 



Mr. J. E. Harting, F.L.S., exhibited specimens of tlie Asiatic 

 Partridge, Perdix daurica, of which a large consignment had 

 been lately received in London. The sjjeeies was described from 

 the Altai and Danria so long ago as 1811 by Pallas (Zoogr. 

 Ro.^s.-Asiatica), who reganled it as a variety of Perdix cinerea. 

 It was re-described in 1S63, by Verreaux and Dcs Murs (Proc. 

 Zool. Soe. 1S63, p. 62, pi. 9), from specimens procured by 

 Taczanowski in Central Dauria, and was named bv them Perdix 

 harhata from the peculiarly elongated fe:itbers of the chin, an 

 excellent coloured figure of the bird by Josejih Wolf accompany- 

 ing their description. According to Swinhoe tins bird is brought 

 in numbers in a frozen state to tlie Peliin market, in winter, 

 by the Mongolians who snare them ; and it seemed not unlikely 

 that those received in London had been forwarded by Kussian 

 agents t-m St. Petersburg, or perhaps trom Irkutsk nortli of the 

 Mongolian territory, which is the true home of the species. 



Mr. W. E. De Winton, who brought another specimen of this 

 bird for exhibition, made some remarks on the geographical 

 distribution of the species, and expressed the opinion that it had 

 been improperly described by certain writers as Manchurian, its 

 true habitat lying to the Avest of the Ivhin;;!ia;i Mts. in Mongolia. 



The President observed that the market price of this Partridge 

 in London (haJf-a-crowu per brace) could hardly pav the cost of 

 so loiii^ a transport, although he tnougiit it more likely that the 

 birds had reached St. Peterbtirg from Irkutsk at tije southern 

 end of Lake Baikal, rather than from Pekiu. 



Mr. J. E. Harting also exhibited the skin and skull of a 

 Wild Cat, Felis catus, recently obtained near Speanbridge, in 

 Inverness-shire, He pointed out the present restricted range of 

 the animal, which had not only disappeared eutirt-ly from England 

 and Wales, but was no longer to be found in Scotland south of a 

 line drawn from Oban to Ben Lui, along the southern and 

 eastern boundary of Perthshire, and then^'e northward to Nairn. 

 He explained the cause of reversion in the colour of emancipated 

 liouse-cats to the wild type of Felis catus, and referred to the 

 skulls of cats which had been exhumed on the site of the 

 lioman city of Silchester, which he thought dis])rovoil the view 

 of the late Prof. RoUeston (Journ. Aiiat. ynd Physiol.) to the 

 effect that the domestic cat was not known to the Romans. 



