1884.] THE SECRETARY ON ADDITIONS TO THE MENAGERIE. 389 



1 883. (5 specimens and one incomplete, preserved in the University 

 Museum, Christiania, one in the British Museum.) 



Note. — Two of the specimens are young, scarcely half grown, but 

 thev show no essential difference in colour from the other specimens. 



June 3, 1884. 

 Prof. A. Newton, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the 

 Society's Menagerie during the month of May 1884 : — 



The total number of registered additions to the Society's Mena- 

 gerie during the month of May was 213, of which 77 were by 

 presentation, 88 by purchase, 19 by birth, 22 by exchange, and 7 

 were received on deposit. The total number of departures during 

 the same period, by death and removals, was 213. 



The most noticeable additions during the mouth of May were as 

 follows : — 



1. A Tree-Porcupine, purchased May 1st, but which unfortunately 

 died in a few days. 



The specimen belongs to a species remarkable for its brightly 

 coloured spines and short hair, as shown in Mr. Smit's drawing 

 (Plate XXXIII.), and is probably referable to Sphingurus spinosus 

 of F. Cuvier, which is new to the Society's Collection \ 



2. Four Soft-billed Ducks (Hymenolcerniis malacorhynchiis), 

 received May 17th from the Acclimatization Society of Canterbury, 

 New Zealand. Of this fine species we have previously received 

 but one living specimen (see P. Z. S. 1876, p. 4G3). The present 

 birds are in excellent condition, and will, it is hoped, serve to 

 establish this species in Europe. 



3. Two pairs of Francolins, obtained by Mr. E. Lort Phillips, 

 F.Z.S., near Berberah, on the Somali Coast, and presented by him 

 May 23rd. The larger pair of these birds are referable to the Red- 

 throated Francolin (FrancoUmts rubricollis, Riippell), of which a 

 single specimen has been previously in the Society's collection. The 

 smaller pair seem to belong to the rare Kirk's Francolin (Francolinus 

 hirki), described by Hartlaub and Finsch in their ' Ornithology of 

 East Africa' (Vbgel Ostafrikas, p. 588) from a specimen trans- 

 mitted by Dr. Kirk. 



1 The species was founded by F. Cuvier in 1822 (Mem. Mus. d'H. N. 

 ix. p. 433) upon a specimen in the Paris Museum, which he refers to the 

 " Cuii/" of Azara (Apunt. ii. p. 55). Mr. Waterhouse, with whose description 

 (N. H. Mamm. ii. p. 421) the present specimen accords very fairly, well points 

 out that M. I. Geoffroy St.-Hilaire's suggestion (Diet. Class. d'H. N. xiv. p. 216) 

 that S. spinosus is merely a seasonal variety of S. villosus, is hardly tenable. 

 With this view I quite agree. S. spinosus seems to me to be a distinct 

 species recognizable by bright tricolour spines of the upper surface, and the 

 entire absence of hairs amongst them. The total length of the body of the pre- 

 sent specimen (which has been acquired by the British Museum) is 15 in. and of 

 the tail 11 in.— P. L. S. 



