1900.] ME. SCLATER OK A NEW SPECIES OF REEDBUCK. 420 



May 8, 1900. 



W. T. Blanford, Esq., LL.D., E.E.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



The Secretary read the following report on the additions to the 

 Society's Menagerie during the month of April 1900 : — 



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

 gerie during the month of April was 120, of which 41 were by 

 presentation, 52 by purchase, 15 were received on deposit, and 

 12 were born in the Menagerie. The total number of departures 

 during the same period, by death and removals, was 103. 



Amongst the additions attention may be called to : — 



1. A young Lyre-bird (Menura superba), presented by Messrs. 

 Carrick and Fry on April 12th. Of this well-known Australian 

 type no specimen has been received by the Society since 1876. 

 The present example is immature, and may be either a female or a 

 young male, the tail-feathers being not yet developed. 



2. A Ural Owl (Syrnium uralense) obtained by purchase April 

 24th. This fine Owl of North-eastern Europe has not been 

 previously represented in the Society's collection. 



' Mr. Sclater exhibited a specimen of a male Eeedbuck (Cervi- 

 capra), which had been mounted by Messrs. Rowland Ward & Co., 

 for Mr. Ewart S. Grogan, F.Z.S. It had been already exhibited 

 as a skin to the Society by Mr. E. Lydekker, on May 2nd, 1899 '. 

 The specimen was of about the same size and dimensions as the 

 Common Eeedbuck (C. arundinum) 2 , but differed entirely in its pale 

 grizzled grey colour above and white under surface, the anterior 

 surface of all four limbs being of a dark rich brown. It had 

 been supposed by Mr. Lydekker, and other good authorities who 

 had examined this specimen, that the animal might be an albino 

 or pale-coloured variety of the Common Eeedbuck ; but, after 

 studying the specimen carefully, Mr. Sclater had come to a 

 different conclusion, and considered it to be referable to a new 

 species, which, at the request of Mr. Grogan, he proposed to call 

 Cervicapra thomasince, with the following characters : — 



Certicapra thomasinve, sp. nov. (Plate XXVI.) 



C. quoad formam C. arundinum fere similis, sed colore albo, in 

 dorso cineraceo et pedibus antice fulvo-brunneis, ut videtur, satis 

 diversa : alt. ad humeros 35 poll. 



Hab. in ripis Laci Nyasae, Afr. or. 



The specimen exhibited had been obtained by Mr. Grogan on 

 the Songwe Eiver, about six miles from its entrance into Lake 



1 See P. Z. S. 1899, p. 555. 



2 Book of Ant. vol. ii. p. 157, pi. xliii. 

 Proc. Zoot. Soc— 1900, No. XXIX. 29 



