128 MR. SCLATER ON AMHERST’S PHEASANT. _ [Mar. 10, 
The male of this Fruit-bat had been purchased on the 27th of 
May, 1868*, and had been placed in a cage in the Monkey-house 
along with two other Fruit-bats (Pteropus medius and P. polioce- 
phalus). On the Ist of November, 1869, a female of the same spe- 
cies was obtained by purchase from a dealer at Liverpool, and placed 
in the same cage (see P. Z. S. 1869, p. 602). The pair immediately 
became friendly together, and usually remained in a separate corner 
of the cage, but were never positively seen to copulate. It is there- 
fore possible, though not very probable, that the female might have 
been pregnant when received. 
The young one was born covered with short smooth hairs of a 
nearly uniform pale cinereous, darker at the tips. It hung by its 
hind-claws to the lower part of the body of the mother, with its 
mouth usually attached to one of the two mamme, which are placed 
on the pectoral muscle beneath the wing, as represented in the 
drawing (p. 127). 
This was believed to be the first recorded instance of any of the 
Chiroptera having been observed to breed in captivity. 

Prof. Owen read a paper, containing descriptions of various bones 
of Aptornis defossor, A. otidiformis, Notornis mantelli, and Dinornis 
curtus, obtained from deposits in various parts of New Zealand, and 
forming the fifteenth part of his series of memoirs on the extinct 
birds of the genus Dinornis and its allies. 
This paper will be published in full in the Society’s * Transactions.’ 

Prof, Flower exhibited a drawing of a Cetacean animal lately 
captured in a Mackarel-net off the coast of Cornwall, which he iden- 
tified with Globiocephalus rissoanus (Delphinus rissoanus, Laurill.), 
a species hitherto only known to occur in the Mediterranean. The 
specimen was stated to be an adult female, about 11 feet long. 
Prof. Flower proposed to give a detailed description of the ex- 
ternal characters, and an account of the osseous structure of this 
interesting Cetacean, as soon as its skeleton is prepared. 
In reference to Mr. Swinhoe’s communication at the last Meeting 
on the locality of the Amherst’s Pheasant (Thaumalea amherstiet), 
Mr. Sclater stated that Mr. J. J. Stone had kindly placed in his 
hands copies of two letters addressed by Monseigneur Chauveau, 
Bishop of Sebastopolis and Vicar Apostolic of Lhassa, to Mr. Med- 
hurst, the English Consul at Hankow, one of which was the letter 
spoken of by Mr. Swinhoe. There could be no doubt, therefore, 
that the birds collected by Monseigneur Chauveau were the same as 
those which ultimately reached Mr. Stone, and that this Pheasant is 
‘exceedingly common” on the hills bordering the western part of 
* See, for notice of its arrival, P. Z. 8. 1868, p. 404. 
+ See anted, p. 107. 
