832 OX BONES OF A MACACUS PROM MAURITIUS. r ~DeC. 4, 



December 4, 1900. 

 Dr. Henry Woodward, F.E.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The Secretary read an extract from a letter which had been 

 addressed to the Colonial Office by the West India Committee, 

 and sent by the Colonial Office to the Society for information, 

 concerning the proposed introduction of the English Starling 

 (Sturrvus vulgaris) or the Indian Mynah (Acridotheres tristis) into 

 St. Kitts, West Indies, in order to check the increase of Grass- 

 hoppers, which were causing great damage to the growing crops 

 in that island. 



Mr. Lydekker exhibited the mounted skin of a female Musk-ox, 

 which Mr. Eowland Ward, F.Z.S., was about to present to the 

 British Museum. It had been obtained from East Greenland, 

 together with the skin of a male, which had also been set up by 

 Mr. Ward's firm. Both specimens differed from the Musk-ox of 

 Arctic America (and probably West Greenland) by the presence 

 of a large patch of long whitish hair in the middle line of the face 

 between the horns and the muzzle, and also by the hair on the 

 rest of the front of the face being grizzled, instead of uniformly 

 dark brown. In the female the hair between the bases of the 

 horns was also white, and a little white hair was observable 

 between the closely approximated horns of the bull. 



Both Mr. Thomas and Mr. Lydekker had previously been struck 

 with the presence of the white on the face of the young East-Green- 

 land Musk-oxen at Woburn Abbey (see the figure in P. Z. S. 1899, 

 p. 886), but had not been satisfied that the feature might not be due 

 to immaturity alone. Now, however, it was demonstrated to occur in 

 the adult of the East-Greenland race, which Mr. Lydekker proposed 

 to name Ovibos moschatus wardi, taking the above-mentioned female 

 specimen as the type of the subspecies. The race would be sufficiently 

 characterized by the presence of the light grey tuft in the middle 

 of the face of both sexes of the adult. But not improbably the 

 still larger amount of greyish white, or white, on the face of the 

 calves was also a distinction ; for Mr. Lydekker had been informed 

 by the manager to Mr. Eowland AYard that in young American 

 Musk-oxen the face (to the best of his belief) was uniformly brown. 



It was also suggested that in future the fossil Asiatic and 

 European Musk-ox, which was doubtless subspecifically distinct 

 from both the living American races, might be designated Ovibos 

 moschatus pallantis (De Kay), the name maximus being available 

 for the fossil American form if considered desirable. 



Dr. Forsyth Major exhibited a few bones of a species of Macacus 

 found associated with the remains of the Dodo in the Mare aux 

 Songes (Mauritius), and made the following remarks : — 



The bones here exhibited, two radii, right and left, are preserved 



