Vol. xxxi.] 26 



were utilized as foster-mothers, or the eggs were placed in 

 an incubator, the variation in time was even greater. All 

 records of this kind were, nevertheless, of great value if it 

 was clearly stated under what conditions the young had 

 been hatched. 



After several other Members had taken part in the dis- 

 cussion, Mr. Seth-Smith in reply said that he Avas in the 

 habit of keeping records of the incubation-periods at the 

 Zoological Gardens as far as possible, but it was often by no 

 means easy to ascertain even approximately the length of 

 time occupied. It was generally extremely inadvisable to 

 disturb birds nesting in the outdoor aviaries, and it was 

 often impossible to tell hoAV many days they had been 

 sitting before they actually came under observation; in 

 many instances, especially in the case of species breeding 

 on the ground among long herbage, nothing was known 

 of the nesting until the young were observed with their 

 parents. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild exhibited a new Weaver- 

 Finch from Madagascar, which he described as follows : — 



FoUDiA OMissA, sp. n. 



Adult male. Entire head^ throat, and chest crimson, eyelid 

 and streak behind the eye black. Back and upper wing- 

 coverts olive-green, striped with black ; rump orange- 

 scarlet ; upper wing-coverts dull olive ; quills and greater 

 upper wing-coverts brownish-black, with olive-green edges ; 

 rectrices blackish-brown with dull olivaceous edges ; abdo- 

 men olivaceous, greyish along the middle, and sometimes 

 with I'cddish spots; under tail-coverts olivaceous, with whitish- 

 olivaceoTis borders. Wing 77-79 mm. ; tail 52'5-55'5. 



Hab. Madagascar. 



l^pe in the Tring Museum : J" . Tamatave, 21. viii. 91. 



Obs. We have three specimens of this hitherto unnamed 

 bird from Tamatave and Ankoraka. It is closely allied to 

 Foudia emrnentissima from the Comoro Islands, but differs 





