Vol. xxi.] 32 



chestnut on the vent and under tail-coverts ; the tail-feathers 

 hoary cream-colour, more ferruginous on the inner webs 

 and on the under surface, which was light chestnut. 



As several similarly-coloured specimens had been obtained 

 in the Lydenburg district, Dr. Sharpe considered that the 

 Coly was of a distinct species, and he proposed to name it 



COLIUS KIRBYI, Sp. U. 



Mr. W. P. Pycrapt exhibited an interesting example of 

 meristic variation in the quill-feather of an Ostrich, in which 

 the shaft had bifurcated for more than half its length, each 

 branch developing a more or less perfect vane. 



He also exhibited the skull of a young Penguin {Pygo- 

 scelis papud) in which each parietal was made up, not of a 

 single plate, but of two unequal, but symmetrical, quad- 

 rangular segments. The right and left median plates, 

 caused by this segmentation, he regarded as representing 

 the true parietals, while the outermost portion of each side 

 of the skull, articulating with the squamosal, he contended, 

 answered to the supra-temporal of reptiles. 



So far, he remarked, no other similar case had been 

 recorded among birds; and he further pointed out that it 

 was to be regarded rather as an instance of "reversion'' 

 than of meristic variation. 



Mr. P. H. Bahr exhibited two well-mounted examples of 

 the Common Peregrine {Falco peregrinus). The birds had 

 been set up by Lehrer Precht, of Moorhausen, Lilienthal, 

 Bremen, who was anxious to dispose of his collection of 

 mounted birds and skins at comparatively low prices. 

 Mr. Bahr thought that any Members of the Club who 

 wished to acquire well-mounted specimens of European 

 birds might be glad to avail themselves of this opportunity. 



