52 PROF. NEWTON ON ZONOTRICHIA ALBICOLLIS. {[Jan. 27, 
Tschudi, who, however, gave its occurrence in Peru (Faun. Peruan. 
Mamm. p. 213) from hearsay, not having himself observed it. 
According to the native reports, it was found in Peru, on the eastern 
slope of the minor Cordilleras, at an elevation of from 7000 to 
8000 feet above the sea-level. 
Mr. Sclater remarked that the acquisition of a living specimen of 
this animal would be of great interest to science, and announced 
that the Council had already placed a sum of money at the disposal 
of Mr. White for the purpose of making preliminary investigations. 

In laying before the Meeting a skin of the North-American Zono- 
trichia albicollis, which had been shot near Aberdeen on the 17th 
of August 1867*, and sent for exhibition by Mr. W. C. Angus of 
that town, Professor Newton called attention to the practice of many, 
or most, ornithologists in this country, who are prone to give the 
name of ‘ British birds’ to all such species as occur from time to 
time in the United Kingdom. This practice he deemed to be very 
injudicious, as it tended to confound every correct notion as to the 
geographical distribution of species—one of the most important 
subjects with which naturalists had to deal. Without venturing at 
present to draw a positive line of demarcation, he thought that at 
any rate those species of birds which confessedly do not breed within 
the limits of the zoogeographical region in which the British islands 
lie should on no account be termed “ British,” and that it should be 
a matter for future deliberation how far the same title might pro- 
perly be given even to species which certainly do breed within the 
same limits. Speaking accurately, the term ‘ British’? should be 
restricted to those species of birds which for a longer or shorter 
period of the year actually ixhadit the British islands. But Prof. 
Newton was inclined to think that this rule might be relaxed in the 
ease of certain European or even North-Asiatic species which, 
though apparently only chance stragglers, might reasonably be re- 
garded, in the absence of more complete observations, as occurring 
much oftener without attracting attention; and added that it was 
quite possible that some of these, which had been noticed the most 
frequently, were in fact regular annual visitors to this country. 

Dr. Cobbold, F.R.S., exhibited specimens of, and made remarks 
upon, the new Entozoon from the Aard-wolf, described at the last 
Meeting of the Society, and proposed to be called Acanthocheilonema 
dracunculoides (vide antea, p. 9). 

Mr. G. Dawson Rowley, F.Z.S., exhibited, and made the follow- 
ing remarks upon, a specimen of the Siberian Lark (Alauda sibirica, 
Gmelin) and other rare British birds :— 
‘«T have the pleasure to exhibit to the Society a specimen of the 
* Vide Proceedings of the Natural-History Society of Glasgow, vol. i. part 1, 
p. 209, plate. 
