1899.] ON THE T£M;P£IJ,ATURE Of THE KATITE BIRDS. 787 



the Gardens it would go straight to a pond, plunge boldly into the 

 water and commence swimming ; it swam slowly, but with facility 

 and determination. 



Colour. Iris dark brown ; naked portion of face — $ flesh- 

 coloured; S flesh-coloured, except the space between the eyes 

 and the proboscis, which are purplish brown. Ears particoloured, 

 black and flesh-coloured. Hands, feet, and ischial callosities 

 black. 



Hair, § , Reddish brown, bright chestnut on the top of the head, 

 neck, and shoulders ; underneath of head, neck, and body pale 

 buff ; a conspicuous white patch on the lower part of the back, 

 forming a transverse diamond-shaped mark ; tail white, the extreme 

 tip being reddish buff. 



Hair, d (ji'O- Much brighter coloured than the adult 5 . The 

 upper parts are very bright yellowish chestnut, darkest on the 

 top of the head ; the lower parts are silver_y buff ; an irregular grey 

 patch on the lower part of the back ; tail silvery white at the base, 

 gradually turning to brownish grey towards the tip. 



Eyebrows, basal third red-brown, remainder black. 



Hairs on the lips white. 



Measurements. 



?• d juv. 



iu. mm. in. mm. 



Length, head and body 22 559 19 482 



tail (without end hair) 24^ 616 18 4.^)7 



„ (with „ „ ) 25| 648 18^ 470 



Fore limb 19^ 489 14^ 368 



Hind limb 21^ 540 16.i 419 



Girth beneath arms 13 330 8 203 



Ear l-l- 32 1^ 32 



Projecting portion of nose 1 25 J 20 



Hind foot 7| 184 6 152 



3. On the Temperature of the Ratite Birds. 

 By Alexander Sutherland^ M.A. 



[Eeceived May 17, 1899.] 



There is a large and fascinating chapter in the history of animal 

 development which remains to be written, and lies as yet 

 practically untouched. It is the story of the process by which 

 the cold-blooded animals grew to be warm-blooded : or, to speak 

 more definitely, it is the story of that adaption of the vaso-motor 

 nerves and their centre in the medulla whereby, from a simple 

 apparatus to regulate the flow of blood in the body to the parts 

 where it happened to be needed, the whole system took on the 

 more complicated function of regulating the temperatm-e and 

 keeping it at a high level most favourable to the animal's activity. 



Before the story of that process can be written, many preliminary 



