MR. D. SETH-SMITH ON A YOUNG CARIAMA. 557 



elementary in character, especially the terminal vertebrae of the 

 tail, the bones of either carpus and those of the tarsi, and the 

 epiphyses of the long bones, etc. The marsupial bones were well 

 formed in both sexes, and upon either side were nearly as long as 

 the corresponding ilium, and about one-fourth the size in bulk. 



According to Flower, the number of vertebrae in the spine of 

 the Virginia Opossum was 7 cervical, 13 thoracic, 6 lumbar, and 

 26 caudal. This was probably correct for the adult animal of 

 this species, while in subadults, of an age here considered, the last 

 three caudals were not developed, and the three or four anterior 

 to them were in the most rudimentary condition possible. 



In both these specimens the dentition in use was as follows : — 



• 5 1 , 5 J o 



* 4. « 1' ^m + m g = 42, 



the third of the cheek-teeth being the molar-like predecessor of 

 the one premolar which changes in Marsupials. Two further 

 molars would have come up in later life, making the adult 

 formula : — 



.51 3 4 KH 



* i' '^ i' V'^^ 3' '^^ 4 = ^^• 



The premolars were triangular, sharp-pointed, and flattened from 

 side to side ; the molars had numerous sharp cusps and the canines 

 were large and curved. 



Mr. D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S., Curator of Birds, exhibited, by 

 means of lantern-slides, photographs of the male Peacock Pheasant 

 {Polyplectron chinqiois) displaying to the female. 



The typical display, as depicted in the photographs, resembled 

 very closely that of the Argus Pheasant, the bird facing the 

 female while he lowered the breast to the ground and expanded 

 the wings and tail like a shield, the head being held sideways 

 against one wing. 



Mr. Seth-Smith also exhibited photographs (PI. LXIX. *) of 

 the young Cariama cristata hatched and reared in the Gardens in 

 1911, and remarked that although young of this species had been 

 hatched in the Menagerie on previous occasions, he believed that 

 this was the first occasion on which the young had been reared 

 to matuiity. 



The nest was formed of sticks and small twigs on a platform of 

 branches that had been specially erected at about eight feet from 

 the ground in the Eastern Aviary. Of the two eggs laid, one 

 was accidentally broken by the birds, but the other hatched on 

 June 6th, incubation, performed chiefly by the female, having 

 occupied twenty-nine or thirty days. The young bird was 

 covered with down of a pale brown colour mottled with darker 

 brown on the back, that on the head being extraordinarily long 

 and hairlike. It was fed by the parents with small pieces of meat, 



* For explanation of the Plate see p. 558. 



