79 [Vol.xiii. 



The Hon. Walter Rothschild also sent for exhibition a 

 specimen of a supposed new species of Red start from Sardinia, 

 entrusted to him by Prof. H. H. Giglioli, who described it as 

 follows : — 



RUTICILLA NIGRA, n. Sp. 



<$ . Entirely of a sooty black, the tail-feathers alone 

 showing traces of the orange-brown colour characteristic of 

 the genus. Wing 83 mm., tail 62, culmen 10, tarsus 22. 



2 . Precisely similar to the male. Wing 83 mm., tail 6.2, 

 culmen 9^, tarsus 21|. 



The specimens had been captured alive in a haystack at 

 Loceri in Sardinia, and were now in the Central Collection of 

 Italian Vertebrates in the Royal Zoological Museum at 

 Florence. 



Mr. Rothschild was inclined to think that this supposed 

 new species might possibly be based on melanistic examples, 

 but the similarity of the male and female and their smaller 

 size were rather against this theory. 



Mr. Hartert said that he had not the slightest doubt that 

 the species was nothing but a melanistic variety. Melanism 

 was more or less pathological, and therefore a somewhat 

 smaller size was never surprising and, in fact, of very 

 common occurrence in melanistic aberrations. The differ- 

 ence, moreover, was trivial, and he had seen skins of R. titys 

 equally small. The supposed female, he felt sure, had been 

 incorrectly sexed, being equally as large as the male. 



Mr. Frank Finn exhibited a curious variety of the Gold- 

 finch ((.arduelis elegans), from Ireland, the specimen having 

 a small patch of crimson on each side of the neck behind the 

 black of the face. 



Mr. Howard Saunders made some remarks on the 

 results, so far, of the efforts of the Committee for the 

 preservation of the Kite in Great Britain. 



