PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS 



OP THE 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 



Jauuary 6, 1880. 

 Prof. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



Prof. Newton, M.A., F.R.S.,V.-P., drew the attention of the meeting 

 to a specimen of Chcetura caudacuta (the " Needle-tailed Swallow " 

 of Latham, Synops.Suppl.ii. p. 259), which had been intrusted to him 

 for exhibition by Mr. Gr. B. Corbin, of Ringwood, near which place it 

 had been shot on the 26th or 27th of July last. About the middle 

 of that month Mr. Corbin saw one evening two strange birds flying 

 over the river Avon in company with Swifts, and in the course of 

 the following week had better opportunities of observing at least one 

 of them. A few days after Mr. Corbin held in his hand the bird now 

 exhibited, which had been shot in the meantime, and was, he had 

 no doubt, one of tbose he had previously watched. Prof. Newton 

 stated that this example was the second of the species known to 

 have been obtained in this country — the first having been shot 

 in July 1846, near Colchester (Zool. p. 1492), and examined, before 

 it was skinned, by the late Mr. Yarrell and other naturalists of 

 authority. The species was described by Latham from a specimen 

 procured in New South Wales ; and for a long time Australia was 

 thought to be its habitat. By degrees ornithologists learned that 

 it was only a regular visitant to that country from its real home 

 in Eastern Siberia, where it was first discovered by Steller, while 

 Pallas, not knowing it was identical with Latham's Hirundo cau- 

 dacuta, redescribed it (Zoogr. R.-As. i. p. 541) under the name of 

 H, ciris. It has since been recorded from Nepau), Sikkim, and 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1880, No. I. I 



