Vol. xv.] 48 



Mr. W. P. Pycraft, who had made a careful examination 

 of the Snake, said that while there was no superficial injury 

 beyond one small puncture in the skin, the skull and first 

 two vertebrae were crushed and broken. 



Mr. Witherby also exhibited a pair of Blackbirds [Tardus 

 merula algirus Madarasz) from Algeria. The Algerian 

 Blackbird had bsen pronounced to be distinct from the 

 Madeira Blackbird (Turdus merula cabrerce) by Madarasz, 

 and Mr. "Witherby remarked that it was also distinct from the 

 Marocco Blackbird (Turdus merula mauritanicus, Hartert). 

 He also showed for the sake of comparison examples of 

 Turdus merula merula and Turdus merula syriacus, and 

 remarked that the various geographical forms of the Black- 

 bird were good examples of the value of trinomials. 

 Everyone would agree that the birds he exhibited were all 

 Blackbirds, yet they were distinct forms. To refer to these 

 forms as Turdus syriacus, Turdus algirus, &c. indicated that 

 they were species of Thrushes, while to call them Turdus 

 merula syriacus, Turdus merula algirus, &c. gave a much 

 truer indication of their relationships. 



Dr. Sclater, on behalf of Mr. Rupert Vallentin, exhibited 

 a slab of scratched rock taken from a ' ' rookery " of the 

 Bockhopper-Penguin (Catarrhactes ckrysocome) in the Falk- 

 land Islands. Dr. Sclater read the following extracts from 

 a letter addressed to him by Mr. Vallentin on this subject, 

 and exhibited the photographs alluded to: — 



" It has long been known to several of the more observant 

 settlers on the Falkland Islands that many of the rocks 

 over which these Penguins are constantly travelling when 

 passing to and from these ' rookeries/ as the breeding- 

 places are called, become in time scratched by the nails at 

 the ends of these birds' feet. Moseley and other naturalists 

 have recorded that the rocks in a Penguin-pathway become 

 in time polished ; but, so far as I have been able to discover, 

 no one has placed on record the fact that the birds actually 

 scratch the rocks over which they travel. 



