626 THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. [Nov. /, 



presented by tlie Baron de Riviere August 14th. The distinctness 

 of this species from CE. bistriatus, the best-known and only other 

 American form of this genus, has recently been confirmed by myself 

 and Mr. Salvin (Exot. Urn. p. 59, pi. xxx.) ; but, the present bird is 

 very little known, and the receipt of living specimens of it is a fact 

 of much interest. 



4. Three specimens of a Land-tortoise of the genus Cinixys, 

 which seem to be referable to Home's Cinixys (Cinixys homeana, 

 Bell). These Tortoises were brought home by H.E. Governor 

 Ussher on his recent return to this country, and presented by him 

 and Staff-Surgeon Mosse jointly to the Society, along with some fine 

 specimens of Vipera rhinoceros and Vipera nasicornis. Of Home's 

 Cinixys Mr. Ussher gives me the subjoined particulars : — 



" Tolerably common in Fantee and the Aura districts, where it 

 forms an article of food with the natives, who prize it much on this 

 account, and who therefore do not usually offer it for sale. It ap- 

 pears to live for a very long time in the water, one of those brought 

 home by me having existed some months in a tank of water." 



5. A young male specimen of Baird's Tapir (Tapirus bairdi) 

 from Nicaragua, purchased August loth, being the first example of 

 this newly discovered Mammal that has yet reached us. Dr. Gray 

 (P. Z S. 1867, p. t-85, pi. xlii.) has introduced into the illustration 

 a figure of the immature form of this species from a photograph sent 

 to me by Capt. Dow; but the colour (not having been given in the 

 original photograph) is not quite correct. Mr. Verrill, however, has 

 published an accurate description of the young in ' Silliman's Ame- 

 rican Journal' (vol. xliv. p. 126 ; cf. Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. xx. 

 p. 232). Mr. Smit's figure (Plate L.), which I now exhibit, shows the 

 condition of our specimen soon after its arrival. It did not live long 

 in the Society's Gardens, I regret to say, and died September 27th. 



6. A specimen of the singular little mud-inhabiting fish of New 

 Zealand, being an aberrant form of the family Galaxiidce, recently de- 

 scribed by Dr. Giinther (Ann. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. xx. p. 305, pi. vii.) 

 as Neochanna upoda, presented August 18th by the Acclimatization 

 Society of Canterbury, New Zealand. Unfortunately it did not live 

 long in our Gardens, and I now exhibit the specimen in spirits. 



7. Two Frigate or Man-of-War Birds (Fregata aquila), which 

 arrived August 28th, having been forwarded to us by our excellent 

 friend and correspondent Capt. John M. Dow, F.Z.S., who is always 

 on the look-out for something that may prove acceptable to the 

 Society's collection. Five individuals of this species, Capt. Dow 

 informs me, were captured by him on 23rd of July last, during a 

 visit to an island in Fonseca Bay, which contains a well-kuown 

 breeding colony of this fine bird *. The two specimens that have 

 reached us are both in the white-headed plumage of immaturity. 



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

 gerie during the month of September 187 1 was 1 38 ; of these, 7 were 

 by birth, 45 by presentation, 27 by pur-ha^e, 49 by exchange, and 



* See Mr. G. C. Taylor's account of it in ' Ibis,' 1859, p. 150. 



