154 ON DAURlAN or bearded pardridges. 



Sir Edmund G. Loder, Bt., F.Z.S., exhibited the tanned skin 

 of a large Capybara (Hydrochoerus hydrochoerus), which he sug- 

 gested might be identical with the " pigskin " of commerce, and 

 the skull of a Walrus (Trichechus rosmarus) from Kamschatka, 

 with record tusks. The weight of the skull and tusks was about 

 40 lbs. The tusks alone weighed 21 1 lbs., and measured 

 36| inches in length, 29| inches from outside the gum, and 

 9|| inches in girth. 



Mr. Guy Aylmer, F.Z.S., exhibited some skins of mammals 

 from Sierra Leone, including those of a Serval (Felis capensis) 

 and of a Servaline Oat (P. servalina), and stated that a native 

 had brought him two kittens, almost certainly from the same 

 litter, one being spotted like the Serval and the other obscurely 

 speckled like the Servaline Cat. This he regarded as proof that 

 the differences between the Servals and Servaline Cats are of no 

 systematic importance. 



February 23, 1915. 



Prof. E. W. MacBride, D.Sc, F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Dr. P. Chalmers Mitchell, F.R.S., F.Z.S., Secretary to the 

 Society, exhibited mounted examples of three species of Cock- 

 roach, Perijilaneta americana, P. orientalis, and Phyllodromict 

 germanica, all of which had established themselves in different 

 houses in the Society's Gardens, and stated his wish that some 

 naturalist would endeavour to Work out the causes of the selective 

 distribution of these insects. 



Mr. R. I. Pocock, F.R.S., F.Z.S., Curator of Mammals, ex- 

 hibited, on behalf of Mr. Edward Gerrard, the mounted head 

 of a male Sitatunga Antelope (Limnotragus) shot by Capt. H. D. 

 Bentinck on the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Instead of being dark brown, 

 the colour characteristic of the males of this buck, the head was 

 whitish brown, suggesting that the individual was a partial albino. 



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

 behalf of Mr. Edward Gerrard, a pair of Daurian or Bearded 

 Partridges (Perdix daurica), which had recently been purchased 

 in the flesh at a poulterer's shop in London. Numbers of these 

 partridges arrive in London and other large European towns 

 every winter in a frozen state, and are sold under the name of 

 " Russian " or " Manchurian Partridges." The species inhabits 



