1881.] ON LODDIGESIA. MIRABILIS. 827 



not reach their breeding-places, and have a suspicion, from the 

 behaviour of the birds, that they had ah-eady hatched. 



" The Darter I take to be undoubtedly the African bird ; and if so, 

 this is a very remarkable northward extension of its hitherto known 

 range. I was told that the birds are never seen there in winter, and 

 that they leave as soon as their young are fledged. 



" The Darter is not mentioned by Shelley as found by him in Egypt. 

 Von Heuglin gives Lake Tchad, Senegambia, the Niger, Gaboon, as 

 well as South Africa, as its habitat. Pollen and Van Dam state that 

 the Indian, not the African, species is found in Madagascar. Schlegel 

 mentions a specimen at Leydeu from Sennaar, which is the nearest 

 point to Antioch where I can trace it. Altogether, us Dr. Sclater 

 and Mr. Forbes have pointed out to me, its occurrence in North- 

 western Syria is most extraordinary." 



Prof. Newton, V.P., exhibited the specimen oi Emberisa riistica, 

 recorded by Mr. .William Eagle Clarke in the current number of 

 'The Zoologist' (p. 465) as having been shot at Easington, on the 

 coast of Yorkshire, on the 1 7th of September last, remarking that 

 it was only tbe second example of the species reported to have occurred 

 in this country, and also that on the very same day another specimen 

 was obtained in Heligoland by Herr Gatke, C.M.Z.S. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of the Glossy Ibis {Plegadis 

 falcinellus), belonging to Sir Henry Mildmay, Bart. The specimen 

 in question had been shot on one of the lakes of Dogmersfield Park, 

 Hampshire, on the 5th of September, 1881, by one of the under 

 keepers, and had been mounted by Mr. G. Clothier, of Odiham. 

 Mr. Sclater had examined the specimen, which had been ascertained 

 to be of the male sex, in the flesh. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Notice sur la Locldigesia mirabilis (Bourc). 

 Par L. Taczanowski et J. Stolzmann. 



[Eeceived Septembei- 9, 1881.] 



Une belle serie d'exemplaires de ce magnifique oiseau-raouche 

 nous permet de donner la description de cette espece, beaucoup plus 

 complete qu'elle ne I'etait jusqu'a ce temps. Le male adulte est 

 connu depuis plus de quarante ans, sa description cependant n'etait 

 pas satisfaisante, les couleurs a ce qu'il nous parait ne sont pas ex- 

 actement definies, de meme que plusieurs details, ce qui nous a 

 decide a commencer par la description du male dans son plumage le 

 plus parfait. On ne connaissait rien sur les habitudes de cet oiseau ; 

 nous presentons done tous les details qui nous sont conaus et qui 

 paraissent etre interessants. 



Trochilus mirabilis, Bourc. P. Z. S. 1847, p. 42; Rev. Zool. 

 1847, p. 253. 



