43 



texture, but were much smaller ; Mr. Hagenbeck had informed 

 him that a pair of the Masai Ostrich bred by himself and sent out 

 to the Cape were regarded by expert ostrich farmers there as 

 unusually large birds. The eggs of the Somali Ostrich were 

 larger than those of the Cape Ostrich, but smaller than those of 

 the Masai species, and were markedly oval in shape with a rougher, 

 less polished surface. 



The Secretary remarked that on his recent visit to Mr. Hagen- 

 beck's Zoological Park at Stellingen, near Hamburg, he had the 

 pleasure of seeing a fine young pair of the common African 

 Rhinoceros, obtained from British East Afi-ica, the exact locality 

 being unknown. The male closely resembled the ordinary figures 

 and movinted examples of the species, in that the skin appeared 

 to be smoothly stretched over the sides of the body, but the ears 

 were fringed with long tufts of hair. The female, on the other 

 hand, had no hair on the margin of the ears, and the general 

 external appearance was very different. At first sight it seemed 

 as if it were in very poor condition, the ribs standing out through 

 the skin, but closer inspection showed that in reality the skin 

 of the flanks was disposed in thick, permanent folds, arranged 

 roughly like ribs. Thinking it possible that these differences 

 might indicate the existence of distinct races of the Rhinoceros, 

 on returning to London he had at once examined the Society's 

 own pair of examples of this species, both of which had come from 

 British East Africa, probably somewhere near Nairobi. The 

 female, purchased in 1906, had the ears unf ringed with hair, like 

 those of Mr. Hagenbeck's female, but the rib-folds on the skin 

 were no more than indicated, although thei^e were very heavy 

 permanent folds round the neck. In the male, obtained in the 

 current year from Nairobi as part of the King's African Collec- 

 tion, the ears were fringed with hair as in Mr. Hagenbeck's male, 

 whilst the rib-like folds on the skin were extremely strongly marked, 

 as in the case of Mr. Hagenbeck's female. The presence or 

 absence of the marginal fringe on the ears was therefore probably 

 either an individually variable or a sexual character. In the 

 absence of knowledge of the exact provenance of all the four 

 examples, nothing could be said as to whether or no the presence 

 of the rib-like permanent folds on the body were racial. Their 

 existence, however, as well as the presence of the heavy fold round 

 the neck, showed that it was not correct to distinguish the Asiatic 

 Rhinoceroses from those of Africa by the presence in the former 

 of permanent skin-folds. The neck-fold was almost identical in 

 both, whilst, although they were differently arranged, deep body- 

 folds occurred in both. 



Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., communicated a 

 paper by Dr. R. Broom, C.M.Z.S., entitled " On some new South 

 African Permian Reptiles.' 



