18/4.] THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. 151 



March 3, 1874. 

 Dr. E. Hamilton, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The following report by the Secretary on the additions to the 

 Society's Menagerie during the month of February 1874 was read : — 



The total number of registered additions to the Society's Mena- 

 gerie during the month of February 1874 was 54, of which 4 were by 

 birth, 16 by presentation, 20 by purchase, 3 by exchange, and 11 

 received on deposit. The total number of departures during the 

 same period, by death and removals, was 9 1 . 



The most noticeable additions during the month were : — 



1. A Malayan Hornbill (Buceros malayanus), purchased Feb- 

 ruary 17, 1874; new to the Society's collection, this fine species 

 not having been previously received alive. 



2. A Python (Python molurus), transmitted to the Society by Mr. 

 Charles James Noble, of Hong-kong, having been caught in his 

 garden on the Chinese mainland, about two miles from Hong-kong. 



3. A young male Deer from Northern China, purchased Feb- 

 ruary 27th, 1874. This Deer is evidently the representative in 

 China of Cervus sika of Japan, which it resembles in general habit, 

 though the present example is slightly smaller in stature. It is 

 readily distinguishable, however, from its Japanese ally by its dark 

 reddish face and perfectly white tail and buttocks. Mr. Swinhoe 

 communicated to us a description of this species in June last year, 

 along with that of Cervus kopschi (see P. Z. S. 1873, p. 572). Sub- 

 sequently he requested me to withdraw the description, not being 

 quite certain as to its distinctness from Cervus sika of Japan. There 

 can, however, I think, be little doubt of the species being distinct 

 from Cervus sika, although it is certainly very closely allied to the 

 smaller form of Cervus mantchuricus, which we have lately received 

 specimens of from Japan. I therefore gladly adopt for it as a tem- 

 porary designation Mr. Swinhoe's name, Cervus euopis, under which 

 it has already been distinguished in the printed minutes of this 

 Society of the 1 7th of June last. 



Mr. Swinhoe has favoured me with the following notes on this 

 Deer : — 



"In Mr. Vraard's gardens at Shanghai, in an enclosure with a doe 

 C. sika from Japan, was a horned brown buck, which on first glance 

 I took for a buck of the same species in winter coat. Mr. Vraard 

 assured me that the animal was from Newchwang ; he had had it 

 three years, and it never got spotted in summer, its hair merely 

 changing to a shorter coat of polished brown. This was on the 27th 

 of March of last year, when its pile was long and somewhat shaggy 

 at the throat; its eye large, and well open towards fore canthus, 

 with scarcely any lachrymal slit ; the muzzle large, and confluent 

 with the upper lip ; the head short, narrow at the snout, broad at 

 the eyes, with large ears, pale round eyes and on forehead, abound- 

 ing in long bristles about snout above" and below, and about eyelids 



