648 MR. p. L. SCLATER ON PAUXIS GALEATA, [DeC, 14, 



December 14, 1880. 

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



The Secretary read the following rei)ort on the additions to the 

 Society's Menagerie during the month of November 1880: — 



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

 gerie daring the month of November was 116, of which 3 were by 

 birth, 39 by presentation, 67 by purchase, 3 were received on 

 deposit, and 4 by exchange. The total number of departures during 

 the same period, by death and removals, was 1 33. 



The most noticeable additions during the month of November 

 were as follows : — 



1. Two Matamata Terrapins (Cheli/s matamata), purchased No- 

 vember 26th. Only two examples of this singular Tortoise have 

 been previously received. 



2. A Uniform Water-snake (Furdoiiia uiticolor), purchased No- 

 vember 29th, and new to the collection. This Snake was captured 

 in the Hoogley by a man round whose leg it had clung when he was 

 in the water, and was brought home in a bottle of water. It is slug- 

 gish in habit, and apjiears to live constantly in the water. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited the skin of the brown female of Pauxis 

 galeata, formerly living in the aviary uf the late Mr. G. Dawson 

 Rowlej', F.Z.S., and alluded to in Sir. Sclater's memoir on the 

 Curassows, published in the Society's Transactions (vol. ix. p. 285). 

 The bird having recently died, Mr. G. F. Rowley, F.Z.S., had kindly 

 forwarded it in the flesh to Mr. Sclater. The bird had been ascer- 

 tained by dissection to be a female, and was uo doubt an old bird, 

 as when Mr. G. D. Rowley wrote to Mr. Sclater on tlie subject in 

 1873 it had then been five years in Mr. Rowley's possession. There 

 could be no doubt, therefore, that the adult female of this Curassow 

 did not always assume the black plumage of the male, as had been 

 observed to be the case in certain specimens. 



Mr. Sclater also exhibited the trachea of the above-mentioned 

 specimen, which was of a fhort and sin^ple form instead of present- 

 ing the complications well known to occur in the male {cf. Tem- 

 minck's Pig. et Gall. vol. iii. pi. iv. fig. !). 



Dr. Giinther, F.R.S., read a paper on some rare Reptiles and 

 Batrachians now or lately living in the Society's Menagerie. The 

 species spoken of were Chehjs fimhriata, Metopoccrus cornutus, 

 Teius rvfescens, and Ceratophnjs ornata. 



This paper will be published in the Society's ' Transactions.' 



The following papers were read ; 



