J 868.] LETTER FROM DR. R. A. PHILIPPI. 531 



fowl (Pavo nigripennis, Sclater*), and had subsequently ascertained 

 that this was the ordinary species of Cochin-China. 



In reference to the Elaphurus, the Secretary announced that the 

 two adult specimens of Elaphurus davidianus, which had been pre- 

 sented to the Society at Pekin by Mons. H. de Bellonnet, had died 

 at Pekin before they could be sent to this country; but that the 

 skin and skeleton of one of them had been sent home and safely 

 received. The Council had presented the complete skeleton of this 

 rare mammal, being the first specimen of it that had ever been received 

 in this country, to the Royal College of Surgeons, and the skin to the 

 British Museum. Two pairs of shed horns had been likewise re- 

 ceived along with the skeleton, and were exhibited at the Meeting. 



A letter was read, addressed to the Secretary by Mr. Gerard 

 Krefft, C.M.Z.S,, dated Australian Museum, Sydney, April 1st, 

 and enclosing some photographs of a large specimen of a Skate of 

 the genus Cephaloptera, recently captured near Sydney. The .body 

 of this fish, from the snout to the anus, was stated to measure 

 4 feet 10 inches, and the tail 2 feet 8 inches. The species was be- 

 lieved to be undescribed, and further particulars were promised. 



Mr. Sclater read an extract from a letter addressed to him by Dr. 

 W. Peters, F.M.Z.S., in reference to a Pteropine Bat acquired by 

 the Society on the 29th April, 1867, and subsequently deceased. 

 This Bat had been entered in the Society's register as Pteropus ar- 

 gentatus. Gray (see P. Z. S. 1867, Appendix, p. 1037). Dr. Peters, 

 to whom the specimen, when dead, had been sent for more accurate 

 examination, had determined it to he Pteropus hypomelanus, Temm. 

 {cf. Peters, Monatsb. Berl. Ac. 1867, p. 320), of Ternate. It 

 had been recently ascertained that the true locality of this speci- 

 men was not "China" (as given in the Society's Report for 1868, 

 p. 25), but that it had been captured at sea by a vessel coming 

 from China. 



Mr. Sclater read extracts from letters received from Dr. R. A. 

 Philippi, C.M.Z.S., dated Santiago, May 30th and July 16th, and 

 containing some remarks upon Mr. Sclater's article upon the " Birds 

 of Chili," published in the Society's 'Proceedings' for 1867, p. 319. 

 Of his Anas iopareia Dr. Philippi had procured but one specimen, 

 and believed now that it was probably a bastard between the common 

 Anas and Anas moschata. Erismatura vittata he acknowledged 

 was merely the young of E. ferruginea, as already suggested by Mr. 

 Sclater {I. c. p. 336). Some of the birds mentioned in Mr. Sclater's 

 list were considered by Dr. Philippi to be not Chilian, such as Progne 



* P. Z. S. 1860, p. 221, et 1863, p. 123. See Mr. Darwin's remarks on the 

 interest attached to this species, 'Animals and Plants under Domestication.' vol i 

 p. 290. ' 



