2 LETTER FROM DR. A. ERNST. (Jan. 13, 
of which by Mr. Richter was now in the Society’s Library*. Mr. 
Sclater remarked that he had little doubt that the Szmza melano- 
cephala of Humboldt (Rech. Zool. i. p. 316, t. xxix.) was really 
intended for the same animal, as it was obtained in the same locality 
(that is, from the Upper Rio Negro), and it was hardly likely that 
two so nearly allied species could coexist in the same district, the 
species of this group being remarkable for their distribution in defi- 
nitely limited geographic areas. 

The following extract was read from a letter addressed to Mr. 
Sclater by Lord Lilford, F.Z.S. :— 
“TI notice that in the last part of the Zoological Society’s ‘ Pro- 
ceedings,’ p. 276, you say that the Otus capensis sent to me by 
Major Irby last year was captured on the Rock of Gibraltar. This 
is a mistake; it was the Bubo maximus (which arrived at the Gardens 
at the same time with Oéus capensis) which was caught in one of 
the galleries in the Rock. The Otus capensis was one of several 
which Major Irby shot near Casa Vieja, about fifty miles west of 
Gibraltar, beyond Tarifa. I have just received from Major Irby a 
very fine skin of the same species from Tangier. From what I can 
make out, this bird migrates northwards irregularly in autumn. 
Major Irby found five or six in a marsh in October 1868, and has 
failed to find them, or hear of them, in that locality, or elsewhere 
in Spain, in spring or summer. It is not a common bird near 
Tangier.” 

The Secretary read the following extracts from a letter addressed 
to him by Dr. A. Ernst, C.M.Z.S., dated Caracas, August 20th, 
1869 :— 
“A few days ago one of my collectors brought me a fine male 
specimen of the Echimys cristatus, Desm. It was shot in a spot 
called the Palmar, which is about 4500 feet above the level of the 
Caribbean Sea. The animal appears to be very rare in the imme- 
diate neighbourhood of Caracas ; but I was told it was pretty abun- 
dant in the hotter regions of the valley of the Tuy river. Its vulgar 
name is ‘Catiragitia.” The colour agreed pretty well with the only 
description I was able to find in my books (Boitard, Le Jardin des 
Plantes, Mammiféres, p. 345). I took the following measurements : 
—From tip of nose to root of tail 28 centim.; tail 22 centim.; dis- 
tance between the ears 4 centim.; distance between the eyes 23 
centim. ; tip of nose to the line between the ears 5 centim. ; cireum- 
ference of body in its thickest part 16 centim. The animal was shot 
from a tree; its habits are therefore arboreal, as generally in this 
enus. 
“‘Of Bats I obtained the Vespertilio lucifugus, Leconte. In the 
higher part of the river Catuche, about 6000 feet above the sea, a 
* Cf. Dr. Gray’s remarks, P. Z. 8. 1849, p. 9, where there is a woodeut taken 
from this drawing. 
+ Cf. Wallace, P. Z. 8. 1852, p. 108. 
