Ornithologists^ Club. 289 



No. L. (January 30th, 1898). 



The forty-ninth Meeting of the Club was held at the 

 Restaurant Frascati, 32 Oxford Street^ on Wednesday, the 

 19t]i of January, 1898. Chairman : Philip Crowley. 

 Twenty Members and three guests were present. 



Dr. BowDLER Sharpe exhil)ited a specimen of Otus abys- 

 sinicus, Guerin, from Somaliland. This individual was 

 obtained by Mr. J. Benet Stanford, and was of great interest 

 as determining a species which had hitherto been unidentified 

 in England. In 1875, when writing the second volume of 

 the ' Catalogue of Birds,' Dr. Sharpe had been unable to 

 determine the species further than by quoting Heuglin's 

 description of it. The late Mr. Gurney had suggested that 

 Otus abyssinicus might be identifical with Bubo niilesi, Sharpe; 

 but a comparison of the two birds showed that this was not 

 the case, although the former species was really a Bubo and 

 not an Asio, so that its proper title was Bubo abyssinicus 

 (Guerin). The shape of the ear-orifice conclusively proved 

 this to be the case, as was admitted by Mr. Pycraft, who had 

 recently made a special study of the Owls. 



Dr. Bowdler Sharpe also exhibited some specimens of 

 Tvrdus tristis, Swains., and T. leucauchen, Sclater, from the 

 Salvin-Godman Collection. Up to the present day these 

 two species had been united together as the extremes of one 

 variable form, and the late Mr. Seebohm believed that every 

 possible intermediate link existed between them, and that 

 they Avere found side by side in most parts of Central America. 

 Dr. Sharpe pointed out that the splendid series now in the 

 Salvin-Godman Collection proved that T. tristis was perfectly 

 distinct from T. leucauchen, and was confined to Mexico. 

 It never had a yellow bill, even in summer, and had the tail 

 olive, like the back. T. leucauchen, on the other hand, had 

 a black tail, and in summer had a grey upper surface and an 

 entirely yellow bill. In autumn and winter the bill was 

 blackish and the plumage brown of various tints, but there 

 was no reason to confound it with T. tristis at any time of 



