ON EPIDERMAL SHEATHS FROM BILL OF THE KING PENGUIN. 671 



EXHIBITIONS AND NOTICES. 



April 23, 1912. 



Dr. S. F. Harmer, F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



The Secretary exhibited a living specimen of a young female 

 Dorsal Hyrax {Dendrohyrax dorsalis) from Nigeria, recently 

 presented to the Society by Mr. J. L, McKellar. 



The Secretary exhibited a number of photographs of an 

 Elephant Kraal in Siam which had been presented to the 

 Society by the Rt. Hon. Sir Cecil Clementi Smith, P.C, 

 G.C.M.G. 



May 7, 1912. 



Prof. E. A. MiNCHiN, F.R.S., Vice-President, 

 in the Chair. 



Mr. R. I. PococK, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S., Superintendent of 

 the Gardens, exhibited a skin and a living specimen of a fawn 

 variety of the Brown Rat {Epimys norvegicus), which had been 

 caught on an island in the middle of Loch Corrib, Co. Galway, 

 and presented to the Society by Lord Headley. Mr. Pocock 

 remarked that although similarly coloured varieties of this rat 

 had been caught now and again in different parts of England, it 

 was especially interesting to put on record Lord Headiey's state- 

 ment that it was quite common on the island, no fewer than 

 eleven having been trapped while others had been seen ; and that 

 it did not occur, so far as was known, on the mainland. Typically 

 coloured brown rats lived on the island as well. 



Mr. D. Seth -Smith, Curator of Birds, exhibited two horn-like 

 sheaths which had been shed from the orange-coloured patch at 

 the base of the lower mandible of the King Penguin {Aptenodytes 

 pennanti) living in the Society's Gardens. Mr. W. E. de Winton 

 had observed the shedding of this epidermal sheath in a bird living 

 in the Gardens in 1898 (P. Z. S. 1898, p. 900) ; but although the 

 present specimen had been carefully watched during two suc- 

 cessive moults in March and October 1911 (P. Z. S. 1912, p. 60), 

 no sign of this process was observed. The bird, however, went 

 through another complete moult in March to April of the present 

 year (1912), and shortly after this was completed the epidermal 

 covering of the orange-coloured patches became loose and finally 



