1890.] MR. BOULENGER ON MOLGE VITTATA. 591 



graph of this bird, which I have the pleasure of submitting. I am 

 not aware that a similar individual variety of Pastor roseus has been 

 described before. It differs from tiie typical bird in having the 

 head and neck red, with the exception of a few feathers on the 

 crown and forehead and an irregular band round the neck, which 

 are black, whereas in the normal bird the black extends from the 

 red breast to the mandible." 



Mr. Boulenger drew attention to an early reference to the Syrian 

 Newt, Molge vittaia, Gray, and made the following remarks : — 



On recently perusing Thomas Shaw's ' Travels in Barbary and the 

 Levant' (Oxford, 1738), I came across a figure of a Newt which, 

 though of very unsatisfactory execution, is so far recognizable that 

 I at once identified it as Molge vittata ; and this determination is 

 confirmed by reference to the text, which runs thus : — " The Skin- 

 kore" (p. 3/5) . . . "found in great numbers in a fountain near 

 Bellmont [a few miles south of Tripoly], being of the Lizard kind, 

 all over spotted, and differ from the common Water Efts in the 

 extent and fashion of their fins. These, in the males, commence 

 from the tip of the nose, and running the whole length of the neck 

 and back to the very extremity of the tail, are continued afterwards 

 along the under part of the tail quite to the navel ; whereas the 

 tails only of the female are finned. The body and tail of this 

 animal are accounted to be great provocatives, and are therefore 

 bought up by the Turks at an extravagant price." 



Except that the anus is taken for the navel, Shaw's description is 

 perfectly correct, and it is interesting to find a record of this rare 

 Newt a century prior to its first scientific description. 



It will be remembered thu.t Molge vittata v/as regarded as a British 

 animal up to the year 1877, when M. Lataste demonstrated in a 

 remarkable paper that its habitat is Syria and Asia Minor. The 

 locality where the Newt was found by Shaw affords no addition of 

 importance to our knowledge of its distribution, it having been 

 already recorded in Syria from the Lebanon Coast (Lataste) aud 

 Beyrut (F. Midler, Boettger). 



Mr. J. J. Lister, F.Z.S., gave an account of his visit to the 

 Phoenix Islands, South Pacific, in June and July 1889, during a 

 cruise of H.M.S. ' Egeria,' and exhibited specimens of the birds and 

 eggs obtained there. 



The following papers were read : — 



40* 



