134 LETTER FROM MR. R. SW'INHOE. [April 9, 



smaller degree) in the genus Tinamus*, one or two Parrots, and also 

 in some of the Birds ol Prey." I have not, however, met with them 

 in any gronp except the Ardece and their allies. I can assert most 

 positively that no traces of these patches exist in the Pelicans, 

 Storks, or Cranes. I have also taken considerable trouble with Sco- 

 pus. This bird is considered by Prof. Reinhardt to be closely allied 

 to Balfeniceps. I cannot find anything to justify such a belief ; the 

 skins and skulls of the two birds are so entirely different, that it is 

 useless to enter into any further details respecting them. 



There is one thing, however, that I wish to remark, and I do so 

 with considerable uneasiness lest I should be accused of casting a 

 doubt upon the veracity of the gentleman to whom we are in- 

 debted for the first living specimens of this rare bird ; and this con- 

 sideration would have prevented my making the remark, had not my 

 great desire been to call attention to the subject in the hope of ob- 

 taining a truthful explanation of what appears to me inexplicable 

 — I refer to the statement, made by Mr. Petherick, that Balceniceps 

 runs about in search of food immediately after it is hatched. If this 

 is true, it is one of the most extraordinary facts 1 have yet met with. 



April 9th, 1861. 



Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair, 



The following extracts from a letter addressed to the Secretary by 

 Robert Swinhoe, Esq., Corresponding Member of the Society, dated 

 British Consulate, Amoy, Jan. 1st, 1861, were read to the meet- 

 ing :— 



" I returned a few weeks ago from the north of China, where I was 

 attached to Sir Hope Grant as Interpreter. Through the kindness 

 of Major Sarel of the 1 7th Lancers, attached as Aide-de-camp to Sir 

 Hope Grant, I was enabled to procure three skins of a Deer found in 

 herds in the Imperial Parks of the Summer Palace. The three 

 deer are apparently first, a two-year-old buck ; the second, a one- 

 year-old buck ; and the third a doe. I skinned them, and preserved 

 their skulls. They are, I think, Cervits wallichii of Pallas, from 

 Eastern Siberia ; and I trust will form an acceptable acquisition to 

 the collection of the Zoological Society. Major Sarel also procured 

 the heads of three fine bucks, which he has sent to his brother-in- 

 law, Edmund Bury, Esq., of Manchester, and which will shortly be 



* Since writing the foregoing I have examined Tinamus. The structure re- 

 ferred to by Nitzsch appears to differ so widely from the down-patches of the 

 Ardeine family, that I shall describe it in another paper upon this subject, which 

 I hope to have ready shortly. 



