SESSION 1893-91. xxxiii 



FiELB Meetixg, 23iiD June, 1894, 

 TRING. 



The chief object of this meeting -was to visit the Zoological 

 Museum established by the Hon. Walter L. Kothschihl, F.Z.8., 

 at Tring. Mr. llothschild's permission having been obtained, the 

 arrangements were made by Mr. A. Macdonald Brown, of Beech 

 Grove, Tring, who acted as director. 



The members, numbering about forty, assembled at Tring Station 

 at half-past one, and drove to the Museum, where they were 

 received by Mr. llothschild's principal Curator, Mr. E. Hartort. 

 Only a few of the more interesting objects of the collection which 

 were pointed out by Mr. Hartert can here be mentioned. 



The first case which attracted special attention was one of extinct 

 and nearly extinct bii'ds, such as the Moa [Binornis) of JS^ew 

 Zealand — probably the biggest bird that ever lived, and which, in 

 former days, was hunted by the Maoris. The same case contains 

 some enormous bones of the ^pyornis, a gigantic bird of nearly 

 equal size from Madagascar, of which no entire skeleton has been 

 obtained ; and also specimens of the Kiwi [A]]tenjx) of New 

 Zealand, which is not yet quite extinct but will probably soon 

 become so, falling a prey to rats, cats, and other animals introduced 

 there by man. These are wingless birds. The Labrador duck 

 ( Camptolmmus lahradoricus), seen in another case, is also nearly 

 extinct. 



In another case a hybrid between the lion [Felis led) and the 

 tiger [F. tigris), born in Austria, attracted attention from the 

 strangeness of such ferocious animals of distinct species breeding 

 together. 



There are a few fossils, introduced to elucidate the affinities of 

 the li\'ing forms. Amongst them one of the most conspicuous is 

 the giant ground-sloth {Megatherium ameruanmn) of the Argentine 

 Eepublic, in juxtaposition with a stuffed skin and skeleton of the 

 recent two-toed sloth ( Choloepus didadylus) from the same region, 

 to illustrate the various differences. 



The fishes are stuffed here by a new process. Amongst them 

 are already most of the British species, including an enormous 

 sun-fish, and many foreign rarities, specially noticeable being 

 some species with beaks like those of parrots. 



Besides the large collections which are open to the public on 

 four days of the week, there are private collections, which, from 

 the standpoint of the zoologist, are still more valuable. They are 

 for the scientific researches of Mr. Rothschild as well as of his 

 curators and other competent persons, and are not generally 

 accessible to visitors. These collections consist only of Lepidoptera, 

 Coleoptera, and the skins and eggs of birds, and they are being 

 arranged, studied, and added to continually. The results derived 

 from these studies are given in an illustrated magazine {' NoviUdes 

 Zoologic(B ') edited and published at the Museum, and to which the 

 Society subscribes. The butterflies and beetles, which are under 



