926 Mr. BlytKs Report for December Meeting, 1842. [No. 143. 



sides and rump it exceeds twelve inches, the quantity on these parts 

 being truly enormous, and hanging in dense flakes more or less mat- 

 ted, which contain large felted masses of the cast inner poshm, that 

 it would not be possible to separate as now entangled (though, by at- 

 tention to combing these animals at the season of shedding the poshm, I 

 presume this might be removed, and the value of the fine long hair thus 

 enhanced, while the poshm would also be available for ceconomic pur- 

 poses). The true Shawl Goat, as is now well known, is not a long-haired 

 race, but has a rigid tubular coat resembling that of the wild CEgagrus, 

 or of the true Stags, &c, only of twice the ordinary length, beneath 

 which is the very abundant supply of poshm, or fine silky wool, of 

 which the Kashmir stuffs are manufactured ; while the Angora breed is 

 quite devoid of the poshm, having only silky hairs of one quality, 

 which hang in elegant ringlets to a remarkable length. 

 Also a recent Himalayan Chicore (Perdix chukar). 



2. From Mr. DeCruz, of the Botanic Garden, an unusually fine 

 specimen of Paradoxurus typus, which has been mounted. 



3. From Dr. McClelland, a recent example of lerax melanoleucos, 

 Nobis, ante, p. 179 (bis), from Assam. 



4. From Mr. F. Harris, a specimen of an Albatross pertaining to a 

 species new to the museum, being probably the Diomedea melanophris, 

 Tem. Col. 456, thus briefly described in Griffith's Work, VIII, 572, 

 which is the only account I can find of it in the library of the Society. 

 " Beak, wings, tail, and streak through the eye, black ; the rest dirty- 

 white." The specimen before me is under three feet in length, closed 

 wing twenty inches, tail nine inches, bill to forehead (in a straight 

 line) four inches and a half, and middle toe and claw nine inches. 

 Head, neck, and under-parts, with the rump, white, but little sullied, 

 and merely a faint trace of a dark streak through the eye : mantle, 

 wings, and tail, black, tinged with ashy; and some unmoulted brown 

 coverts on the wings : bill pale yellowish, the extremities of both 

 mandibles dusky, except the extreme tips, which are whitish ; and feet 

 apparently have been cinereous.* 



* Another specimen of this Albatross has lately been presented to the Society by Mr. 

 R. Macdonald Stephenson : it merely differs in having the beak suffused throughout 

 with dusky, and the hind-neck with smoky-grey ; being probably a female. 



