PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 187 
Mr. L. M. D’Albertis exhibited some new and rare birds, obtained 
during his recent expedition up the Fly River, New Guinea. 
Prof. Newton exhibited, on behalf of Mr. J. Robinson, of Trinity Hall, 
Cambridge, a specimen of Sylvia nisoria, believed to have been killed at 
Cambridge many years ago. 
A communication was read from Mr. L. Taczanowski, containing a list 
of the birds collected by Messrs. Stolzmann and Jelski in Northern Peru 
in 1878. Fifty-six species were enumerated, several of which were new to 
science. 
Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe read some notes on birds obtained on Kina-Balu 
Mountain, in North-Western Borneo, by the collectors of Mr. Treacher, 
amongst which were several species new to science. 
Mr. F. Jeffrey Bell read the first portion of some observations on the 
characters of the Echinoidea. The present paper contained remarks on the 
species of the genus Brissus and on the allied forms Meoma and Metalia. 
A communication was read from the late Mr. Frederick Smith, F.Z.S., 
containing the descriptions of new species of Hymenoptera from Central 
America. 
A communication was read from Mr. W. A. Forbes, containing a 
synopsis of the Meliphagine genus Myzomela, to which were also added the 
- descriptions of two new species. 
A communication was read from the Rey. O. P. Cambridge, containing 
descriptions of new and little-known species of Araneidea, principally 
belonging to the genus Gasterocantha. 
March 18, 1879.—Prof. St. GkoreE Mivarrt, F.R.S., Vice-President, 
in the chair. 
-The Secretary called the attention of the meeting to the herd of 
Japanese Deer, Cervus sika, in the park of Viscount Powerscourt, at 
Powerscourt, in Ireland, now about eighty in number, and gave an account 
of their introduction and history, from particulars supplied to him by Lord 
Powerscourt. 
A communication was read from Dr. G. Hartlaub, containing the 
descriptiou of a new species of Barn Owl from the island of Viti-levu, which 
he proposed to call Stria oustaleti. 
Mr. E. R. Alston read a paper “ On Female Deer with Antlers,” showing 
that these weapons are not unfrequenutly abnormally developed in fertile 
females of sertain species of Capreolus and Cariacus, and giving reasons 
for believing that, in the ancestral forms of deer, they were probably 
common to both sexes. 
Mr. Sclater made remarks on some of the rarer Parrots living in the 
Society’s Gardens. The whole series of this group in the Society’s 
Collection was stated to consist of 170 individuals belonging to 98 species. 
