258 LETTER FROM MR. W. H. HUDSON. [Mar. 21, 



March 21, 1871. 

 R. Hudson, Esq., F.R.S., in the Chair. 



The following report by the Secretary on the additions to the 

 Society's Menagerie during the month of February 1871 was read : — 



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

 gerie during the month of February 1871 was 45, of which 9 were 

 by birth, 8 by presentation, 26 by purchase, and 1 by exchange, 

 1 animal having been received only on deposit. The total number of 

 departures during the same period, by death and removals, was 100. 



Amongst the additions almost the only one of special interest was 

 two pairs of a small West-African Finch (Spermestes fringilloides*), 

 purchased February 14. Our Superintendent has already given us 

 full particulars of the birth of the young Hippopotamus, which oc- 

 curred February 21. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited a skin of the Ceylonese Prinia spoken of 

 by Mr. W. Vincent Legge in a communication to the Society read 

 on November 1, 1870f last, and now forwarded for examination by 

 that gentleman. Lord "Walden had pronounced the specimen to be 

 P. socialis of Sykes, not differing from examples collected iu Coorg 

 and Candeish. 



Dr. E. Hamilton, in corroboration of Mr. Swinhoe's remarks 

 (P. Z. S. 1870, p. 91) on the prolific nature of Hydropotes biennis, 

 read the following extract from a letter lately received from Mr. 

 J. A. Arnott of Shanghai : — 



" Do you know that the doe of this species has constantly five or 

 six young ones at a birth ? We often find it so when the animal is 

 opened, as is customary immediately after it is shot." 



Dr. Hamilton observed that this corroboration of Mr. Swinhoe's 

 observations was important. As a rule the various species of the 

 genus Cervus usually only have one calf at a time. Cervus dama 

 sometimes brings forth two, and occasionally, though very rarely, 

 three ; Cervus capreolus never more than two. It would be inter- 

 esting to know whether the nearest allies to this genus (viz. Cervus 

 pudu of Chili, and Moschus moschiferus of North-eastern Asia) have 

 this peculiarity, as it was certainly a distinct feature in the Hydro- 

 potes. 



The following (eleventh) letter^ on the Ornithology of Buenos 

 Ayres by Mr. W. H. Hudson, C.M.Z.S., was read: — 



" Buenos Ayres, 2nd September, 1870. 

 " Sir, — Besides the Black-headed Gull (Larus cirrhocephalus), 



* Plocens fringilloides, Lafr. Mag. de Zool. 1853, pi. 48. 

 t P. Z. S. 1870, p. 673. 



\ For preceding letter, see antca, p. 4. See also Sclater and Salvin, P. Z. S. 

 1868, p. 137, et 1869, p. 158. 



