186/.] MR, p. L. SCLATER ON OREAS CANNA. 953 



as in Zambezia there are so many. Of Butterflies I have not col- 

 lected above forty kinds ; but some of these are very fine. 



" From Mozambique I have a valuable collection of Snakes and 

 Insects, perhaps nothing new, but representing rare species. 



" This has not been to me a year productive in specimens of 

 natural history ; but I hope in two months to get off for a few days 

 to Lamoo, where are the Numida vuJturina and other nice things. 

 A tame hen of this Numida lived for some time at the French Con- 

 sulate here, but has been stolen lately ; it was an extremely hand- 

 some bird. They seem to be common at Lamoo. When the 'Syria' 

 was there the officers saw several in the market, and killed them for 

 the table, keeping only the skin. I had asked them to look out fpr 

 it ; but they mistook the bird when they saw it, thinking they were 

 to seek for something much more rare." 



Dr. Peters communicated a note on the relation of the tympanic 

 bone to the mandible in the Marsupials, stating that he had found 

 in a young Habnaturus bennettu (8.5 millim. long without tail) and 

 in a young Didelphys, that the former bone is inserted into the 

 cavity formed by the angle of the latter. He considered that this 

 temporary glenoid surface is to be compared with the permanent 

 glenoid cavity in birds, or at least to a part of it, as it is well known 

 that relations which are permanent in lower animals are often re- 

 presented by a temporary condition during the period of evolution 

 in higher classes. In the author's opinion this observation tends to 

 confirm the view that so important and constant a bone as the tym- 

 panic is in the Manmialia does not disappear at once in other verte- 

 brates. It also obviates one of the principal objections urged against 

 the homology of the os tijmpanicum with the quadrate bone of birds 

 and reptiles, viz. that it is never united to the lower jaw; at the 

 same time it explains the peculiar form of the angle of the lower jaw 

 in the Marsupials. 



Mr. Sclater called attention to the important fact of a fat male 

 Eland (Oreas canna), bred by Lord Hill, at Ilawkstone, Shropshire, 

 being exhibited at the cattle-show of the Smithfield Club, and being 

 about to be offered for sale at the close of the show for the market 

 — the first event that had ever happened of this kind. The animal 

 was stated to be a male, aged six years and seven months, and to 

 weigh alive 17601b. 



In answer to some inquiries on the subject made last summer. Lord 

 Hill had forwarded to Mr. Sclater the following communication : — 



" I wish I could send you an account of the Elands I have bred 

 and disposed of since I purchased the pair from the Zoological Gar- 

 dens, as the returnnvould be most satisfactory. Unfortunately I have 

 kept no record, which I have often regretted ; but I can state that I 

 have not had a single case of disease among them, that the females 

 have bred as regularly as possible, except on one occasion (when I used 

 too young a male, about a year and a half old), and that the losses 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1867, No. LXI. 



