1SG8.] LETTF.R FROM THE REV. W. HINCKS. 21 I 



ministrateurs dii Museum de Paris, que je cherche en vain a me 

 procurer depuis deux aiis ; il est tout d'un bleu uniforme, plus ol)- 

 scur dans les parties iuferieures, avec la queue noire et courte, et les 

 pieds et le bee rouges. Un Lophophore peut-etre ?" 



A letter was read from Percy Brandon, Esq., dated Bogota, Jan. 

 16th, 1 868, stating that the Great Ant-eater {Mijrmecophaga jubata) 

 in the Society's Gardens, which had been presented by him on the 

 8th Nov. 1867, had been obtained when quite young from the Llanos 

 of Casanare on the eastern side of the Andes of New Granada. 



Dr. Murie communicated the subjoined extract of a letter from 

 the Rev. William Hincks of Toronto*: — 



" You will observe that I carefully guarded, in my first communi- 

 cation, against too great reliance on any of the characters which 

 might possibly be affected by the degree of stretching or the precise 

 position given in setting up. I still think these points worth care- 

 ful comparison, but I referred to them in confirmation only of other 

 characters ; but we must not let their uncertainty affect more impor- 

 tant points. As to colour we must always allow for some variation ; 

 and no doubt there are Trumpeter-Swans pure white Hke those that 

 fell under your notice. Reliance cannot, therefore, be placed on this 

 character, although it is well known here that the Trumpeter gene- 

 rally has the ferruginous hue on the head and neck, which Cygnus 

 americamis never has, and which none of the specimens examined 

 which seem to belong to C. passmori have, but which my last young 

 specimen of C. buccinator has prominently, according to the rule to 

 which I referred in my first paper, that such colouring is seen most 

 in young birds. Absence of the characteristic colour is, then, some 

 presumption against a Swan being C. buccinator, though after your 

 specimens it is evident it is no proof, since the sterna you figure 

 make it certain that your birds belong to C. buccinator. 



" Now as to the sizes : of course very young birds are very small, 

 and have to pass through all the grades to their full size ; but their 

 gi'owth is generally pretty rapid, and in very young birds there are 

 various signs of immaturity, specially, for instance, the condition of 

 the generative organs, which I had examined in every specimen. I 

 stated in my paper that our first specimen of C. passmori (then the 

 ordy one) seemed to be a mature bird. Now in comparing birds 

 that have passed their first season, size is generally accounted a very 

 important character ; and, as an instance in point, I referred in my 

 last letter to the case of Bernicla canadensis and B. hutchinsii, where 



* I have been favoured by a communication from the above-named gentle- 

 man, in which he expresses his unaltered conviction that Cygnus passmori is a 

 distinct species from C. buccinator. As in a former paper of mine laid before 

 this Society (P. Z. S. 1867, p. 8), I ventured to oppose the specific separation of 

 C. passmori from C. huccinator, I think it but justice to Mr. Hincks to publish 

 such portions of his letter to me as may vindicate lu's assertion. — J. M. 



