122 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



need hardly say the professor was not seen near the Auk's eggs 

 for the rest of the day, and carefully avoided the subject. 

 English, French, and German were recognized as the common 

 languages of the Congress. The papers were read either in the 

 one language or the other ; one short address was given in 

 Russian, but very (tw, if any, except the deliverer, understood it, 

 but it was clapped all the same. 



At the last meeting of the Congress, on Saturday morning, it 

 was decided to hold the next meeting three years hence at Berlin. 

 On Saturday afternoon a reception was held at the Zoological 

 Society's Gardens in London, and many rare exhibits were 

 shown, including two perfect specimens of the Golden-shouldered 

 Parrakeet, Fsephotus chrysopterygius, the King Penguin, the 

 Apteryx haasti, and the typical specimen of the new Cassowary 

 from New Guinea, named by the Hon. Walter Rothschild 

 Casuarius philipi, and two examples of Foster's Lung Fish, 

 Ceratodus fosteri, from Queensland, taken to England by Mr. D. 

 O'Connor. 



On Saturday evening another reception was held by Sir John 

 Lubbock and others at the South Kensington Museum, and one 

 cannot well describe the wonderful store of natural history 

 objects there. The most attractive to the general public is 

 undoubtedly the cases containing British birds mounted with 

 their nest, young, and eggs witli their natural surroundings. 

 They are wonderfully done, and some of them took six months 

 to prepare before being ready for exhibition. I was unable to get 

 any photographs of them. 



On Monday most of the Corigress members paid a visit to 

 Tring, at the invitation of the Hon. Walter Rothschild, to inspect 

 his museum, the finest private museum in the world, and he has 

 a wonderful collection, and all his specimens good and well 

 mounted. As he has not much room, many of his larger speci- 

 mens are represented lying down. I was shown the egg and 

 nest of that beautiful Bird of Paradise, Paradisea raggiana, and 

 the egg was almost identical with that of our Rifle-bird, showing 

 how closely allied the birds are. He also has a fine series of 

 mounted Cassowaries ; and an old Queensland bird, Casuarius 

 australis, which he had alive, laid a clutch of four eggs, which 

 Mr. Rothschild kindly presented to me, and which I show here 

 this evening. He also had some kangaroo and emus, and some 

 New Zealand Kiwis. One of them, Apterx niantelli, laid an egg, 

 which Mr. Rothschild also gave me. We inspected his un- 

 rivalled collection of Giant Tortoises, including the big specimen 

 that lived for so many years in Sydn'ey, but died just before 

 reaching London. The only two examples of the newly-described 

 Echidna (from North New Guinea) were seen. Echidna nigro- 

 uculeala. They are considerably larger than the Australian forms. 



