968 MR. H. SEEBOHM ON THE RUSTY GRACKLE. [DcC. 13, 



October last. But few of them long survived their birth ; but the 

 large number of young produced on one occasion by this venomous 

 Snake is remarkable, and worthy of record. 



2. A Vinaceous Amazon {Chrysotis vinacea), purchased Novem- 

 ber 30, being of a species new to the Society's collection. 



Mr. Sclater exhibited two skins of a Rail obtained from Macquarie 

 Island, south of New Zealand, and transmitted to him by Sir Greorge 

 Grey, K.C.B., F.Z.S. The skins were in bad condition and hardly 

 suitable for exact determination, but appeared to belong to the 

 species lately described by Captain Hutton as Sallus macquariensis 

 (Ibis, 1879, p. 454). 



Mr. Sclater proposed to deposit these specimens in the British 

 Museum. 



Mr. Henry Seebohm, T.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of the Rusty 

 Grackle {Scolecophagus ferriigineus) , which had been shot on the 

 4th of October last, by a workman engaged as a wheelwright, within 

 a mile of Cardiff, on the grassy flats between the sea and the moun- 

 tains which are known there as " moors." It had been brought a few 

 hours after being killed to Mr. Robert Drane, F.L.S., by the man who 

 shot it, and who was in the habit of bringing to that gentleman any 

 rare bird that he happened to meet with. It had been shot on the wing ; 

 and the plumage was in such a perfect condition, that the idea of its 

 having escaped from a cage seemed untenable. Mr. Drane had known 

 the man some time as an intelligent though uninformed workman, 

 fond of birds, and believed perfectly in his bona fides. This bird had 

 never before been recorded as a British one. It was said to breed 

 in the arctic regions of the American continent up to the limit of 

 forest-growth from Labrador to Alaska. The example obtained at 

 Cardiff appeared to be an adult male in autumn plumage. 



Mr. Seebohm also exhibited a specimen of Pallas's Great Grey 

 Shrike {Lanius major), which had been shot in the April of the 

 present year, by a gamekeeper, twenty miles west of Cardiff, and 

 sent in the flesh to a bird-preserver in that town, who bad shown it 

 to Mr. Drane before skinning it, and in whose possession it had 

 remained. This species was known to breed from North Scandi- 

 navia eastwards throughout Siberia, but had not been recorded before 

 from the British Islands, 



The following papers were read : — 



