PROCEEDINGS. 



413 



The following contributions have been sent to the British Museum for 

 identification and return : — 



Contribution. 



Locality. 



Donor. 



17 Mammal Skins and Skulls . . 



37 Birds 



12 Magpies . . 



Moko k c h u n 



Naga Hills. 

 Kurdistan 



Shiraz, Persia 



J. P. Mills. 

 Major E. J. Poss. 

 Col.J. E. B. Hotson. 



EXHIBITS. 



^Ir. S. H. Prater, acting Curator, exhibited an interesting number of contribu- 

 tions received since the last meeting. These included specimens received from 

 a range of country extending from the banks of the Oxus to the deserts of 

 Central Arabia. 



Special attention was drawn to a number of animals obtained by Major E. J. 

 Ross from Central and South Kurdistan ; these include a leopard, a wolf, two 

 mottled pole-cats and the heads of the Persian wild goat and Oorial. The 

 two mottled pole-cats are a welcome addition to the Society's collection. They 

 are nocturnal animals living in burrows and feeding on small animals, birds, 

 insects and reptiles. Hutton gives an interesting account of one which he kept 

 in captivity ; he says that it killed in succession four wagtails and four rats. 

 It had a special way of dealing with rats, these were always seized behind the 

 ear and held until they stopped struggling and were then despatched with a 

 couple of bites through the skull. The animal would never eat during the 

 day but stored its victims away in the corner of the cage and finished them 

 after night fall. The skin of an ostrich presented by Lt.-Col. A. T. Wilson 

 attracted great attention. It was given to Col. Wilson by the Chief of the 

 Anaizah tribe m Central Arabia. Outside African hmits the ostrich is to-day 

 confined to the deserts of Central Arabia and possibly the borders of Palestine. 

 In former times this bii-d had a very much wider distribution. Evidence of its 

 occurrence in Europe has been found through discovery of a petrified egg in 

 the Cherson district of South Russia. And we read that a "Camel Bird " or 

 ostrich was amongst the presents received by an Emperor of China from a 

 Cham in Turkestan. That it once occurred in India is proved by the finding 

 of a fossil specimen in the phocene beds of the Siwahk range. This fossil 

 specimen is named " Struthio asiaticus ", it differs from the modern bird in 

 having a stouter neck, but in other respects closely resembles it. Within 

 recent times ostriches occurred in Mesopotamia and Persia and perhaps 

 in Baluchistan and Sind though evidence as regards the last two countries is 

 rather slender. Not long ago the common way of hunting ostriches in Arabia 

 was to ride them down— an interesting account of this is given by Canon 

 Tristram. At the present day, however, the more prevalent metliod is that 

 briefly described by Col. G. Leachman, who in a letter just received writes :— 



The ostriches are hunted by Sulaib (Sing. Solubbi) a type of nomad, thought 

 to be orf non-Arabian origin. Thev five alone in small camps far out in tho 



