1886.] MR. O. THOMAS ON CRANIAL VARIATION. 125 



took refuge amongst the leaves of a fresh plant. Although they have 

 not fed, they seem to be lively and doing well \ 



Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of the new Paradise Bird, 

 Paradisornis rudolphi, lately discovered in the Owen Stanley 

 Mountains of New Guinea by Mr. Hunstein, and described and 

 figured by Drs. Finsch and Meyer in a recent number of the 

 •Zeitschrift fiir die Gresammte Ornithologie ' (1885, p. 385), and 

 pointed out the characters in which it differs from typical Paradisea. 



The Secretary exhibited on behalf of Mr. L. Taczanowski, C.M.Z.S., 

 the skin of an Owl from the south-east of the Ussuri country, on the 

 frontiers of Corea, which appeared to be referable to Bubo blakistoni, 

 Seebohm, P. Z.S. 1883, p. 466, and Ibis, 1884, p. 42 et p. 183, 

 pi. vi. 



Two adult females of this Owl had been obtained by Mr. J. 

 Kalinowsky, during his recent stay in Kamtschatka, from the 

 environs of the river Sidemi in Russian Mantchuria, on the frontiers 

 of Corea, where they were collected in the latter part of May 1885. 

 They appeared to agree with Japanese specimens of B. blakistoni iu 

 the National Collection, where Mr. Sharpe had kindly made the 

 comparisons. 



Mr. Edward Gerrard, Jun., exhibited specimens of the heads and 

 skulls of two African Rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros bicornis and R. simus), 

 obtained by Mr. Selons in Mashuna-land, and mounted for the 

 South-African Museum, Capetown. 



Prof. Ray Lankester exhibited and made remarks on a drawing 

 of a restoration of ArchcBopteryx. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. Notes on a striking instance of Cranial Variation due to 



Age. By Oldfield Thomas, Natural History Museum. 



[Eeceived February 16, 1886.] 



(Plate XI.) 



Dr. Gulliver, of St. Thomas's Hospital, has recently submitted to 

 me for determination three skulls from Canada, collected by Mr. 

 Hayden. The skulls turn out to be referable to the fairly common 

 Canadian Marten or Pekan (Mustela pennanti, Erxl.), but they 

 show to such a remarkable extent the cranial changes that occur in 



^ See Miss Hopley's account of this event in ' Nature,' vol. xxxiii. p. 295. 



