117 



and Mr. G. F. H amp s on, on the Moths collected at Aden and Somaliland 

 by the same naturalists and by other collectors. — Mr.F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., 

 communicated (on behalf of Miss Marion Newbigin) a paper dealing with 

 the metallic colours of Humming-birds and Sun-birds. It had been held 

 that these peculiarly coloured feathers played some special part in the 

 economy of the bird, for they could not be of much use for flight owing to 

 the disconnected barbules. The author combated this view, pointing out in 

 the first place that the statement of fact did not apply to all Humming-birds, 

 in the metallic feathers of which the barbules were often connected by cilia. 

 It was urged in the next place that the very perfection of the flight of 

 Humming-birds led to correlated variations in feather-structure productive 

 of their especially brilliant metallic tints. The difficulty of the plaincoloured 

 Swifts — possibly near allies of the Humming-birds — was met by the sug- 

 gestion that the latter have fewer enemies, and had therefore had greater 

 scope of possible colour-variation. — Mr. C. W. Andrews read a note on 

 a skull of Orycteropus Gaudryi^ an extinct species of Ant-bear from the 

 Lower Pliocene deposits of Samos, originally discovered and described by 

 Dr. C. J. Forsyth-Major. Except in size and in some slight difi"erences in 

 the cranial bones and teeth, which were pointed out in the paper, the extinct 

 form closely resembled Orycteropus aethiopicus from East Africa, The former 

 range of Orycteropus was much greater than the present distribution , for its 

 remains had been found as far east as Maragha in Persia, and the fauna with 

 which it is associated both there and in Samos extended from Spain probably 

 to Southern China. It seemed, therefore, that though the genus was now 

 exclusively Aethiopian, it might have had a northern origin, and have spread 

 into Africa along with the rest of the Pliocene fauna. — Mr. Frank E. 

 Beddard, F.R.S. , read a paper upon the anatomy of the Scissor-bill 

 [Rhynchops)^ in which the structure of the viscera and muscles of this bird 

 was described. The muscular anatomy was found to differ greatly from that 

 of the Gulls, Skuas, and Terns, and was held amply to justify its separation 

 as a distinct subfamily Rhynchopinae. 



3rd March 1896. ' — The Secretary read a report on the additions 

 that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of February 

 1896, and called special attention to a young Klipspringer Antelope, pre- 

 sented by Commander Alfred Paget, R.N. — Mr. G. E. H. Barrett- 

 Hamilton, F.Z.S., exhibited two skeletons and other bones of the Nor- 

 way Lemming [Myodes lemmus]^ obtained by Dr. H. Gadow from caves in 

 South Portugal. This discovery had increased our knowledge of the dis- 

 tribution of the Norway Lemming in past times. In present times the 

 Norway Lemming was, roughly speaking, only to be found in Norway and 

 Lapland, its southern range extending to about 58Y2°N.lat; but its remains 

 had been met with in England, and in Quedlinburg in Saxony. — Dr. H. 

 Gadow, F.R.S. , gave an account of the caves in Southern Portugal in 

 which he had procured these Lemmings' bones along with those of other 

 animals. — Mr. S dater opened a discussion on the Rules of Zoological 

 Nomenclature by reading a paper on the Divergences between the Rules for 

 naming Animals of the German Zoological Society and the Stricklandian 

 Code usually followed by British naturalists. After giving some details of 

 the plan proposed by the German Zoological Society for a new work on the 

 Animal Kingdom, to be called »Das Tierreich«, and to contain an account 



