104 REPORT OF THE ARRIVAL OF INDIAN BIRDS. [April 21, 



" Like most of our animals, the Thylacine is nocturnal, inhabiting 

 the remoter parts of the colony, and ascending to the tops of our 

 mountains at an elevation of some 4000 feet above the sea. You 

 need not, therefore, treat them as tender, as they are exposed to both 

 frost and snow in our winter season, although, from the wooded cha- 

 racter of our island, the shelter is very great and the cold necessarily 

 much modified as compared with the climate of Britain, — our annual 

 mean temperature being about 54°-92, the mean of the hottest month 

 being about 63°'57, and of the coldest 45°'82. These temperatures 

 are, however, from Hobart-Town observations ; but the haunts of 

 the Thylacines are where the temperature is much lower. 



" They, invariably, will eat only what they kill, and thaty>'e5^ ; so 

 that after killing a sheep they never (or very rarely) return to the 

 dead carcase, but kill another. Hence it has been found impossible 

 to kill them by means of strychnine and other poisons, as has beea 

 desired by our sheep-owners. In confinement, however, I have 

 found them eat the meat furnished to them with avidity. 



" The present one, in giving suck to its young, used to lie down 

 like a dog, the skin of the pouch being thrown back so as to admit 

 of the young ones getting easily at the teats. When alarmed, the 

 young ones crawled in with their backs downwards, the mother as- 

 sisting by lowering her hind quarters to facilitate their getting in ; 

 and by also placing her rump against the side of her cage to give 

 the cubs a purchase with their hind legs against the cage, and thus 

 push themselves in. They were so large when they left this, that 

 when all in the pouch it hung down very low, and seemed almost a 

 deformity." 



The Secretary reported the arrival in the Society's Gardens, on 

 the 31st of March, of a fine collection of birds from India, partly 

 presented to the Society by the Babu Rajendra Mullick of Calcutta, 

 and partly deposited in the Gardens by Mr. John J. Stone and the 

 Rev. William Smythe. The collection shipped at Calcutta had con- 

 sisted of fifty birds, thirty-five of which had reached the Gardens in 

 safety, and the greater part of them in excellent condition, namely — 



9 Horned Tragopans {Ceriornis satyra), 6 males, 3 females. 



4 male Impeyans {Lophophoriis impeyanus). 



4 male White-crested Kaleeges (Gallophasis albocristatus) . 



1 male Cheer {Catreus wallichii). 



1 male Pucras {Puerasia macrolophd). 



12 Hardwick's Spur-fowl {Galloperdix lunulosa). 



1 male Polyplectron {Polyplectron chinquis). 



3 Hornbills {Buceros pica). 



The Secretary stated that the Society were greatly indebted to 

 Mr, Stone for the arrangements he had made in facilitating the 

 transport of these birds by the overland mail from Calcutta. 



The following papers were read : — 



