226 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Sti'uthers and Nicholson have concluded their examination the skeleton and 

 other parts will, it is understood, be preserved in Aberdeen University. — 

 J. E. Harting. 



Albino Field Mouse. — On March 28th I. was given an albino Long- 

 tailed Field Mouse, Mus sylvaticus, L., which had been found dead that 

 day in the garden of Dropmore Vicarage, near here. It was a true albino, 

 the eyes being pink; there was the slightest possible tinge of colour on 

 part of the back and flanks. It was a female, and its unusual colour had — 

 from the look of the teats — proved no obstacle to its finding a mate, and 

 becoming the mother of a family. — Alfred H. Cocks (Gt. Marlow, Bucks). 



BIRDS. 



The British Ornithologists' Union. — The annual meeting of this 

 Society, so well known throughout the ornithological world by the publica- 

 tion of its quarterly journal, ' The Ibis,' was held in Loudon on May 2 1st, 

 when the yearly accounts were audited, new members balloted for, and other 

 matters of administration disposed of. In the regretted absence, through 

 illness, of the President, Lord Lilford, the chair was taken by Mr. P. L. 

 Sclater. The last published list of Members showed that tlie Society num- 

 bered 131 Ordinary Members, eight Honorary, and twenty Foreign Mem- 

 bers. Fifteen new Members were balloted for and elected, amongst whom 

 were the following well-known naturalists : — Major E. A. Butler, Capt. C. T. 

 Bingham, Messrs. W. R. Davison, H. 0. Forbes, R. Lloyd Patterson, 

 F. E. Beddard, and Abel Chapman. Mr. Bowdlcr Sharpe took the oppor- 

 tunity of exhibiting a specimen of a Nuthatch new to Europe, which had 

 been procured in Corsica by Mr. Whitehead, and which it was proposed to 

 name after the discoverer. The unexpected occurrence of this distinct 

 species in an island supposed to have been so well explored created, as 

 might be supposed, some surprise. Its nearest ally appears to be Sitta 

 Krufpperi of Asia Minor. After the business part of the proceedings had 

 terminated the Members present dined together at "The Grosvenor" 

 Restaurant, in Bond Street, and passed an agreeable evening in ornitho- 

 logical gossip. 



Wingless Birds. — On April 19th an interesting lecture on this subject 

 was delivered to the members of the Essex Naturalists' Field Club in the 

 Lecture Room at the new Natural History Museum, South Kensington, by 

 Dr. H. Woodward, F.R.S., Keeper of the Department of Geology and 

 PaliEontology. After some introductory remarks on the distinguishing 

 characters of the class Aves, and on the modifications of structure which 

 have suggested the primary divisions of the Saururm, RatitcB, and Carinalm, 

 Dr. Woodward, taking each of these divisions in turn, gave an account of 

 some of the more remarkable forms in each, at the same time exhibiting 



