( 235 ) 

 SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



LiNNEAN Society of London. 



May 1, 1884.— Prof. P. Martin Duncan, F.R.S., V-P., in the chair. 



Messrs. William Denison Roebuck and Fred. Newton Williams were 

 elected ordinary Fellows of the Society. Prof. Ernst Haeckel, of Jena, 

 Prof. Alex. Kowalevsky, of Odessa, and Prof. O. Schwendeuer, of Berlin, 

 were likewise balloted for and elected Foreign Members of the Society. 



Mr. S. 0. Ridley exhibited drawings of the spiculation of some Sponges 

 collected and forwarded by Dr. Wm. Chas. Ondaatje, of Ceylon, sections of 

 which had been shown and commented upon at a previous meeting of the 

 Society. Mr. Ridley also exhibited coloured sketches from nature of 

 Ceylonese Actiniidir, made under the superintendence of Dr. Ondaatje. 

 Prof. Jeffrey Bell afterwards pointed out the chief characteristics of a set 

 of drawings of Comatulids, taken from the living objects as obtained by 

 Dr. Ondaatje from the seas of Ceylon, the entire series giving promise of 

 useful scientific work in progress on the Ceylonese coasts. 



Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe read a pajjer " On a Collection of Birds from 

 the Bahr el Ghazal province and the Nyam-Nyam country in Equatorial 

 Africa." For the opportunity of examining and describing this interesting 

 collection he expressed his indebtedness to Herr Bohndorff, who had just 

 returned from a long residence in these regions. The author noted, with 

 expressions of surprise, the presence of many species in Bohndorff's 

 collection of birds hitherto believed by ornithologists to be peculiar to West 

 Africa, referring in the case in question to those species which had been 

 shot in the Nyam-Nyam country. On the other hand, he adverted to those 

 species from the Bahr-Gazelle tributaries and adjoining nilotic district as 

 well-known inhabitants of North-Eastern Africa and the Senegambian area. 

 From this he inferred that Herr Bohndorff had crossed the boundary line 

 of two faunas, and that the animals of the Nyam-Nyam region assimilate to 

 those of the Gaboon territory and Congo, rather than to those of the Lado 

 district or of Kordofan. This change in the fauna is attributed by Herr 

 Bohndorff to the difference in the nature of the country ; swamp and low- 

 lying grassy plains on the east being replaced by forest-land on the west. 

 Mr. Sharpe, following the classification adopted by Hartlaub in his record of 

 Emir Bey's collections from Equatorial Africa, gave descriptions of new 

 species and remarks on little-known birds. Amongst new forms are Cra- 

 teropus Bohndorji, Sigmodus vientalis, Ceuthiiwchares intermedius, Pionias 

 crassus, Syrnium Bohndorffi, and others of considerable significance in 

 relation to faunal distribution. 



The interest of this communication was heightened by remarks from 

 Herr' Bohndorff himself, and the presence of his servant Yuma, a veritable 

 Nyam-Nyam boy, whom he had brought with him. An interesting 

 discussion followed. 



