470 ON THE BRAIN OF EXTINCT LEMURS. [Maj 28, 



In every othei' respect this wood is an ideal one for Pheasants, but 

 it would appear that the grit was not hard enough for them, and 

 they would not stay in it. 



It is curious that in all these 47 gizzards, and in many more 

 that I examined, I fovxnd only one shot, while amongst the Grouse 

 I found 1 in every 3. 



Partridges. — I am exceedingly sorry that I did not begin to 

 examine Partridges till too late in the season to get more specimens 

 than I did. I examined only 11 gizzards from Ross-shire, N. 

 "Wales, Middlesex, Norfolk, and Essex. But these give the most 

 surprising results I have yet obtained, for in every specimen the 

 proponderating grit is quartz. Mr. Rastall makes a note : 

 " Owing to the small size of the individual grains in the Partridges, 

 it is impossible to work them out in such detail as in the case of 

 the other species, but I have been unable to detect any real 

 difference, except in size, between the different species of bird in 

 the same locality." Where do the Essex, Norfolk, and Middlesex 

 Partridges get their quartz from ? But they do get it, and it is 

 difficult to tell the gi-it found in the gizzard of a Middlesex 

 Partridge from that found in the gizzard of a Scotch one from 

 Ross-shire, except that in the latter you might find a garnet or 

 two ; I have one in this collection containing 1 1 garnets. 



I was able the othei- day in Scotland to fi.nd out at what an 

 early age the game chick begins to pick up grit ; for on 

 examining the gizzard of a grouse chick two days old I found 

 quartz. 



It is common knowledge that birds kept in captivity require 

 grit to keep them in health, but it is most important to know 

 what is the best grit for them : pei'sonally 1 think the game-birds 

 prefer quartz; the next most common stone is flint, 16 of my 

 specimens containing this stone. 



A paper by Dr. G. Elliot Smith, of the School of Medicine, Cairo, 

 entitled " On the Form of the Brain in the extinct Lemurs of 

 Madagascar, with some remarks on the affinities of the Indrisince" 

 was read. It formed a supplement to the paper on recently- 

 discovered subfossil Prosimipe fi'om Madagascar, read before the 

 Society by Mr. H. F. Standing on March 19th. From an 

 examination of cranial casts of an extinct species of Lemur and 

 of Mesopropithecus and Pcdceopropithecus^ and of brain-casts of 

 Nesojnthecus and Megaladapis, in conjunction with information 

 derived from the study of recent Lemurs, the Author had arrived 

 at the conclusion that Propithecus, Avahis, hidris, Mesopropithecus, 

 Nesopithecits, Paloiopropithecus, Chiromys, and Megaladapis must 

 be regarded as the diversely specialised members of one family, 

 all of which exhibited in greater or less degree distinct evidence 

 of retrogressive changes from a more primitive and also more 

 pithecoid type. 



This paper will be published entire in the ' Transactions.' 



