466 LETTER FROM DR. BURMEISTER. [June 13, 
The Secretary called the attention of the Meeting to several in- 
teresting additions to the Society’s Menagerie. Amongst these 
were— 
1. A specimen of the Letter-winged Kite (Elanus scriptus, Gould), 
which had been procured from.a native at King George’s Sound, 
West Australia, and presented to the Society on the 29th of May 
last by Ernest de St. Jean, Esq. 
2. A specimen of a species of Haematornis from the Andaman 
Islands, presented to the Society by Arthur Grote, Esq., of Alipore, 
Calcutta, Corr. Memb. This bird was forwarded by Mr. Grote as 
a specimen of Hematornis elgini, Blyth, but was considered b 
Mr. Gurney not to be different from Hematornis bacha (H. bido, 
Horsf.) of the Malayan region. 
3. A Paradoxurus from the same islands, also presented by Mr. 
Grote as Paradoxurus tytlerii of Blyth. 
4. A third living Apteryz, presented to the Society on the 23rd 
of May last by Mr. Henry Slade, R.N., of H. M.S. ‘ Miranda.’ 
This specimen had been purchased in Auckland by Dr. Slade, from 
a person who had obtained it in the south part of the North Island, 
about six months before. A second living example of this bird, for- 
warded in the same vessel by His Excellency Sir George Grey for 
the Society, had died on the passage. 
5. Two specimens of the Japanese Badger (Meles ankuma, Temm. 
Faun. Japon. Mamm. pl. 6), believed to be the first examples of this 
scarce animal received alive in Europe. 
6. A fine young female example of the Japanese Pig (Sus leuco- 
mystax, Temm. Faun. Japon. Mamm. pl. 20), presented by Messrs. 
Glover and Co., Nagasaki, Japan, and transmitted to the Society in 
the ship ‘ Comet,’ Capt. Wright. 
Mr. P. L. Sclater exhibited some specimens of Heliomaster angele 
(Gould’s Mon. Troch. iv. pl. 263), and read the following extract 
from a letter received from Prof. Burmeister, For. Memb., relating 
to them :— 
**T take the liberty of sending you four Humming-birds of this 
country, all belonging to T'rochilus angele, Lesson, which is not un- 
common in the vicinity of Buenos Ayres. I have also found the 
same species at Parana, but only in the young state ; and as I could 
not procure the bird, I described it in my ‘ Reise’ as a new species 
(Campylopterus inornatus). Afterwards, in Tucuman, I procured 
the bird in full dress ; but I did not see the young at the same time, 
and therefore did not think it was of the same species. The species 
was long ago described by Azara, the male as the ‘Cola de tixera’ 
(no. 299), and the female as ‘ Blanco debajo’ (no. 297) ; but as 
Azara did not know the male in its full summer dress, no one would 
understand that his ‘Cola de tixera’ was the Trochilus angele of 
Lesson. I have given some notes on the Humming-birds of Azara in 
the work accompanying my letter; but when I wrote them I did 
not know that the ‘Cola de tixera’ was the old male in the winter 
dress, and therefore described that dress as being that of immatu- 
