116 



two-thirds of the under mandible yellow, apical third blackish brown ; 

 feet yellow. 



Total length, 3f inches ; bill, 1 ; wing, 1| ; tail, 1|. 



Hab. Columbia. 



Remark. — Nearly allied to P. Eremita and P. pygmcBa, but dif- 

 fering from them in being of a larger size, in the total absence of any 

 crescentic black mark on the chest, in having the throat clouded with 

 dark grey instead of buff, and the two central tail-feathers tipped 

 with grey and their shafts black. 



4. Note on the Suborbital Gland of the Nylghau. 



By H. N. Turner, Esa., Jun. 



Among the cranial characters of the genus Portax I have adduced 

 the want of a suborbital depression, and the existence of a smooth 

 liue running along the surface of the bone ; and as I had observed 

 appearances of a suborbital sinus in the living animal, which I could 

 not detect in the dried specimens, I felt much interested in the exa- 

 mination of the parts in one that recently died in the Gardens, and 

 which Mr. Mitchell kindly forwarded to me for dissection. 



Externally there is a slight pit immediately in front of the orbit, 

 and anteriorly to it a small longitudinal fold of the skin, in the middle 

 of which is a little round pore, through which exudes a yellowish 

 secretion, furnished by a gland placed just underneath. The gland 

 itself is slightly larger than a hazel-nut, and is laid upon the surface 

 of the bone without any fossa to receive it, but is firmly attached to 

 the smooth line before observed. The tendo oculi, and a few fibres 

 of the orbicularis palpebrarum are attached to it. 



The small pit immediately in front of the orbit is merely the space 

 below the tendo oculi, between the gland and the rim of the orbit. 

 In the Nylghau, the existence of a " lacrymal sinus" has usually 

 been acknowledged ; but it affords a good example of the incertitude 

 with which we can ever deny that it exists in a species of which fresh 

 specimens have not been examined vnth a view to this character, and 

 in which no traces of the organ are discernible, either in the dry skin, 

 or in the existence of a fossa in the skull. 

 Pimlico, March 1851. 



5. Letter on the Deal-fish, from Dr. Duguid to 

 Dr. Barker. Communicated by Mr. Yarrell. 



"Kirkwall, 5 March 1851. 

 "In April 1829, I received from Mr. Strang, Sanday, a specimen 

 of a fish which had been found on the shores of that island, with a 

 request that I should give him some information about it. He men- 

 tioned that he had met with many specimens during a series of 

 years, — that it was well known to the natives of the island, by whom 

 it was called the Dea^fish, and that they often found it thrown 

 ashore, and even occasionally used it as food. I easily ascertained, 

 from the works to which I had access, that it was a fish unknown to 



