Vol. xv.] 22 



Mr. W. P. Pycraft exhibited wings of Cosmetornis 

 vexillarius and Macrodipteryx macrodipterus, which he had 

 prepared to show the peculiar modifications they had 

 "undergone. 



He pointed out that in Cosmetornis several of the pri- 

 maries had become enormously elongate, and no appreciable 

 structural change in the feathers was noticeable; but that 

 in Macrodipteryx only one primary, the second reckoning 

 from the wrist, had become modified, and this presented 

 several very remarkable features. The most obvious of 

 these was the curious reduction of the vane to a small 

 racquet-shaped blade at the end of the long shaft. When 

 more closely examined, however, the shaft was found to 

 have become peculiarly modified. The calamus or quill 

 was reduced to an exceedingly small size, and had become 

 much thickened and curved so as to displace its major 

 covert and the covert of the quill next in front of it. The 

 upper umbilicus of the under surface of the quill remained 

 permanently open. 



The contention that these quills could be raised by the 

 sitting birds so as to simulate the surrounding grass-stems 

 {cf. Newton, Diet. B. p. 611) was completely disproved by 

 the rigid way in which this quill, like the rest of the 

 primaries, was bound to the skeleton. Mr. Pycraft said 

 that his remarks confirmed the observations of Lord Lovat 

 {cf Grant, Ibis, 1900, p. 312). 



Mr. D. Seth-Smith exhibited a living specimen of the rare 

 Weaver Munia flaviprymna from North-west Australia, and 

 made the following remarks: — " This species was described 

 by Gould in 1845, from a single specimen obtained by 

 Dr. Bynoe during the surveying- voyage of the ' Beagle ' in 

 1839. What became of the type specimen is uncertain ; but 

 an example obtained by Mr. J. R. Elsey in 1856 is now in 

 the British Museum, and appears to be the only skin in 

 this country at the present time. 



" Gould was unable to give any particulars as to the habits 

 of this species ; and Mr. A. J. Campbell states, in his ' Nests 



