846 DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE LEMURINA. [Nov. 19, 



in their usual loose uncertain fashion, straggling here and there to 

 hawk for insects as they journeyed. But late in April, after almost 

 all the other passage birds had ceased from passing, these continued to 

 appear ; the weather was already cold ; and all these late comers flew 

 with great celerity and as directly north as if their flight had been 

 guided by the magnetic needle. 



I know yet nothing of this bird except from seeing them pass in 

 autumn ; and it seems strange to me that they should pass over Buenos 

 Ayres flying north, unless they come straight from the Falklands, and 

 so cross in their passage over six hundred miles of ocean. 



In February I watched the Swallows passing with much interest 

 in hopes of seeing flights of the Patagonian Progne purpurea, but 

 was disappointed ; probably they pass considerably to the west of 

 Buenos Ayres. But late in summer I had observed an individual 

 of this species associating with the Common Swallow, P. chalybea, 

 which it so much resembles ; and as I have seen these birds here be- 

 fore, I think it likely that a few pairs remain to breed as far north as 

 this district. 



9. Notes on Propithecus, Indris, and other Lemurs (Lemiirina) 

 in the British Museum. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S. &c. 



[Keceived October 11, 1872.] 



(Plates LXIX.-LXXI.) 



Propithecus. 



For many years a single species only of Propithecus was known, 

 the Propithecus diadema of Bennett. Lately several speci- 

 mens have been received from Madagascar which differ in colour 

 from the species described by Mr. Bennett ; and each set of speci- 

 mens possessing a different colour has been described as a distinct 

 species, to which often more than one name has been applied. 



In the ' Catalogue of Monkeys and Lemurs in the British Museum ' 

 (pp. 90 aud 136), I noticed the three species which the Museum 

 then possessed, observing " they are so much alike that I should not 

 be astonished if all the three named species were varieties of colour 

 of the same animal. We have skulls of Propithecus diadema and 

 P. damonis in the British Museum, and they are very much alike." 

 Since that time the British Museum has received another variety of 

 colour which I indicated as P. bicolor in the Annals and Magazine 

 of Natural History for 1872, vol. x. p. 206, but which we are now 

 informed* had been previously named P. edwardsii by M. A. Gran- 

 didier (Compt. Rend. 1871, lxxii. p. 231) ; and I should be particu- 

 larly sorry to deprive my friend Prof. Edwards of the honour thus 

 conferred upon him. I have also had the opportunity of examining 

 several specimens of the three other presumed species, and also of 

 comparing the skulls of P. bicolor and P. edwardsii with the other 



* See Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1872, vol. x. p. 298. 



