160 EXHIBITION OF FEMALE GEOCICHLA LAYARDI. ([Mar. 6, 
dealer in Liverpool, Feb. 14th, and said to have been received from 
Para, being the first example of this very well-marked spieces of Asio 
(sive Otus) which I have seen alive. 
2. A Rhea, purchased at Liverpool, Feb. 14th, along with the 
above-mentioned Owl and other animals. This bird appears to belong 
to the species which, in 1860, I distinguished as Rhea macrorhyncha 
(Trans. Zool. Soe. iv. p. 356, pl. xlix.), from an example then living 
in the Society’s Gardens, which had been originally obtained at the 
same port. 
There can be no question, I think, that we have here to deal with 
a locally isolated race of Rhea americana, probably existing some- 
where in the campos of the interior of N.E. Brazil, whence individuals 
are generally brought down to Para. 
The present specimen is in very poor condition, but, so far as a 
cursory examination of it in its present state can decide, presents all 
the characters assigned to R. macrorhyncha in my description and 
figure. 
“[P.S.—Since I read this report, Mr. Salvin has called my attention 
to the following passage in Stedman’s ‘ Narrative of an Expedition 
to Surinam’ (London, 1806), which seems to indicate the existence 
of a Rhea in that country :— 
“The largest bird in Guiana is there called ¢wyew, and by others 
emu. It is a middle species between the Ostrich and the Cassowary 
(as I was told ; for I never saw one in the country). It is said to be 
about six feet high from the top of the head to the ground: its head 
is small, its bill flat, the neck and limbs long, the body round, with- 
out a tail, and of a whitish-grey colour; its thighs are remarkably 
thick and strong ; and it has three toes on each foot, while the Os- 
trich has but two. This bird, it is said, cannot fly at all, but runs 
very swiftly, and, like the Ostrich, assists its motion with its wings. 
It is mostly found near the upper parts of the rivers Marawina and 
Seramica.”’ | 

Mr. E. W. H. Holdsworth, F.Z.8., exhibited a specimen of Geo- 
cichla layardi, Walden, which had been obtained in 1876, at Jaffna, 
in the north of Ceylon. It differed from the type specimen described 
by Lord Walden in 1870, the only previous example recorded, in 
having the orange parts less bright, and the back and wing strongly 
tinged with olive. As the latter character is distinctive of the female 
in some other species of this group of Thrushes, there was every 
reason to believe that both sexes were represented in the only two 
examples known of this peculiar Ceylonese species. 

The following papers were read :— 
“Tecolotl” of Fernandez, can be fairly construed as applicable to this Owl, is 
very doubtful indeed; but as to continue to use the term americanus wouldlead 
to great ambiguity, it is better, perhaps, to adopt Gmelin’s name mewxicanus for 
the present species.—P. L, S. 
