PROCEEDINGS 



OP THE 



SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS 



OP THE 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 4, 1881. 

 Professor Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited a skin of the Southern Merganser {Mergus 

 australis, Hombr. et Jacq. Voy. au Pole Sud, Zool. iii. p. 152, Atlas, 

 t. 31. fig. 2), from the Auckland Islands, belonging to the collec- 

 tion of Baron Anatole von Hiigel. 



Baron A. von Hiigel had obtained two examples of this very scarce 

 bird from the Auckland Islands when in New Zealand in 1875, and 

 had presented one of them to the British Museum. The other was 

 now exhibited. The acquisition of these birds had been already 

 recorded by Baron A. von Hiigel in the Ibis for 1875 (p. 392), but had 

 been overlooked by Mr. Sclater in his recent paper on the Anatidse 

 (P. Z. S. 1880, p. 513). 



Mr. Sclater observed that, though the colouring of the plate in 

 the ' "Voyage au Pole Sud ' seemed rather too bright, there could be 

 no question, he thought, of Baron A. Von Hiigel's bird being referable 

 to the same species. Mergus australis appeared to come nearest to 

 Mergus brasiliensis, as already indicated by Hombron and Pucheran, 

 but differed in its brown head, the longitudinal (not transverse) mark- 

 ings below, and longer bill. As regards the form of the tail, com- 

 mented on by Hombron and Pucheran, there seemed to be little 

 difference between the two species. 



Prof. Newton, M.A., F.R.S., exhibiting, on behalf of Prof. 

 Alphonse Milne-Edwards, For. Mem. Z. S., an egg of Cariama 

 cristata, remarked : — 



"This rare egg was lately sent to me by M. Alphonse Milne- 

 Edwards, that I might exhibit it to the Society. He writes to me :— 

 • L'oeuf de Cariama dont je vous ai parle a ete pondu a la Me'nagerie 

 au Muse'um cet ete. La ponte est de 2 ceufs. Le male et la femelle 

 convent successivement. Une eclosion a eu lieu au bout de 29 jours. 



Proc, Zool. Soc— 1881. No. I. 1 



