164 MR. A. R.WALLACE ON BIRDS FROM NEW GUINEA. [Juiie 10, 



the " Ghour " or " Khur " of travellers in that country. The second 

 was from Syria, having been presented by the late W. Burkhardt 

 Barker, Esq., in 18.54, and was of much interest as being, doubtless, 

 of the same race as the " Wild Ass" of the Holy Scriptures. 



4. AsiNus T^Niopus, ex Abyssinia. 



The only "Wild Ass not represented in the Society's collection was 

 that of Eastern Africa. It was curious that the only species of this 

 section of the Asini which occurred in the African continent was 

 that which approached most nearly to the Zebras in possessing a di- 

 stinct dorsal cross, and in having the strongest indications of Zebra- 

 stripes. Dr. Sclater had examined the animal in the Jardin des 

 Plantes, which is mentioned in the ' Comptes Rendus' * by M. I. G. 

 St.-Hilaire as the Onagre d' Abyssinie, and had obtained, by the per- 

 mission of the authorities of that institution, an accurate drawing of 

 it. The example in question had been transmitted to the Jardin des 

 Plantes by M. Delaporte, French Consul at Cairo, and M. Degoutin, 

 French consular agent at Massouah. The fact of Wild Asses being 

 found in Eastern Abyssinia had long been well known. To the au- 

 thorities mentioned by Mr. Blyth in his article on Wild Asses, in 

 the twenty-eighth volume of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal (p. 229), might be added Leipsiusf, as quoted by Dr. 

 Wagner, and Mr. John Petherick, H. B. M. Consul at Khartoum, 

 who noticed these animals in herds of from five to eight on the elevated 

 sandy plains of Taka. But the animal now in the Jardin des Plantes 

 was believed to be the first of this species brought to Europe. 



This Wild Ass had also been obtained by Dr. Th. v. Heuglin during 

 his last expedition to Eastern Africa, and had been described and 

 figured in the twenty-eighth volume of the 'Acta Acad. Leopoldino- 

 Carolinse,' under the name Asinus tceniopus. There seemed every 

 reason to believe that our domestic Asses were descended from this 

 Abyssinian species. 



The following papers were read : — • 



1. On some New and Rare Birds from New Guinea. 

 By Alfred Russel Wallace. 



(Plates XIX., XX., XXI.) 



The birds now brought before the Society were collected by my 

 assistant, Mr. Allen, on his last voyage. They comprise several in- 



bray like the ordinary domestic Ass. Tour animal, while under my care, used to 

 emit short squeaks and sometimes snorts, not unlike those of a Deer ; but she 

 was so young at that time that her voice may not have acquired its mature into- 

 nation. I do not remember to have heard or read of this species braying, though 

 the animal is ft-equently spoken of by Taverner, Porter, and all our travellers in 

 Persia." — P. L. S. 



* Comptes Rendus, xli. p. 1221. 



t Briefen aus Aegypten, p. 154, 



