HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
ter, Charles Guiterman, Frederick Joseph 
Hodgson, Maurice Jenks, George P. Joseph, 
John Alfred V. Jordan, Samarendra Maulik, 
Alexander Lyle Samuel, Thomas Gilbert Scott, 
Gerald Wigan, Miss Agnes Dunn and Miss 
Florence Barrie Lambert, M.B., were duly elec- 
ted Fellows of the Society. 
Eleven candidates for the Fellowship were 
proposed, and it was ordered that they should 
be balloted for at the next monthly general 
meeting. 
The report of the Council for the month of 
December was then read by the Secretary, in 
which it was stated that seventeen additions had 
been made during that month to the Society's 
menagerie, viz., seven presented and ten de- 
posited. Among these, special attention was 
directed to a grey seal from the North Sea, 
presented by T. Witherwick on December 2!4th; 
a European flamingo from South Europe; two 
flamingoes from South America; two black- 
necked swans and two Coscoroba swans from 
South America. 
The report also stated that the number of 
visitors to the Society's gardens during the 
month of December had been 17,345, and that 
the total number of visitors during the year 
1919 had amounted to 898, 75&, being a decrease 
of 185,491 visitors as compared with the year 
1916. The receipts for admission at the gates 
during the year 1917 had amounted to 1 ^,'20,2|91, 
being a decrease of £4=, 308 as compared with 
1916. 
THAT "Nature," 31st January, discussing the 
recent find of Dwarf Elephants, states as fol- 
lows : — - 
It was stated in one of the morning papers 
a few days ago that "there have recently ar- 
rived in England evidences of the most import- 
ant zoological discovery that has come to light 
since the finding of that strange beast, the 
okapi. . . . This discovery proves very com- 
pletely the existence of a new and hitherto un- 
known species of elephant, a real dwarf ele- 
phant." All that has really happened is that 
two' skeletons have just arrived in this country 
of a "dwarf" race of elephant described in the 
"Revue Zoologique Africaine" in 1913. Thus 
the announcement of this "discovery" is some- 
what belated. The specimens just received are 
stated to be fully adult examples, but this is not 
yet certain, and will be determined by Dr. C. 
W. Andrews, of the British Museum of Natural 
History, to whom they have been submitted. 
But we have known of the existence of dwarf 
elephants in Africa since 1906, when the first 
of its kind was discovered. This came into the 
possession of Hagenbeck, the German dealer in 
live animals, who sold it to the Zoological Soc- 
iety of New Pork, in the gardens of which it is 
still living. This animal forms the type of the 
species Elephas africanus pumilio. The species 
referred to in 1913' was described under the 
name Elephas africanus frennseni. The speci- 
men obtained by Hagenbeck now stands about 
5ft. high, but whether this is its maximum 
height is open to question, since its growth 
may have been checked by a troublesome skin 
disease from which it has long suffered. The 
specimens described in 19 ! 13', from Lake Leo- 
pold II., measured some 6ft. in height, which is 
stated to be the height of the taller of the two 
animals the skeletons of which have just been 
received. These may not prove to be adult, so 
that the precise amount of dwarfness of these 
"dwarf" elephants has still to be determined, 
but it seems certain that they are far smaller 
than the typical African elephant, though they 
are giants compared with the extinct dwarf ele- 
phant of Malta. 
THAT the Vertebrate Zoology Section of the 
Yorkshire Naturalists' Union held afternoon and 
evening sessions at the Church Institute, Brad- 
ford, on Saturday, under the presidency of Mr. 
A. Haigh Lumby, of Shipley. The programme 
included the exhibition of slides and specimens 
by several members, also the reading of a few 
short papers. Amongst the specimens were a 
fine collection of feathers, a woodpecker (fe- 
male) highly coloured, and a curious antler. 
Mr. H. B. Booth called attention to the ab- 
sence this year of the fieldfare. He had seen 
some redwings but no fieldfares. Other mem- 
bers said that although they had seen a few 
fieldfares they were sure there had been nothing 
like the usual number. Mr. Booth thought the 
fact that last winter had been more severe even 
in Cornwall and the south-west of Ireland than 
had been known over many years might have 
had something to do with the matter. 
Mr. Rose Butterfield in a paper on the col- 
loquial names of Yorkshire, birds showed how 
ancient some of these names were and how 
often the name, for example, the raven, was the- 
same in many countries! 
Mr. H. Bollard dealt with his observations 
of birds in the Wakefield district, mentioning 
the appearance there of the black tern, the 
bittern, and the mallard, and stating as the 
result of his experience that the snipe perching 
was not so uncommon as was generally sup- 
posel. He gave as an early day for the cuckoo 
April 7 and for the fieldfare May 2. 
Other papers were by Mr. H. B. Booth on 
British seals and by Mr. Riley Fortune on the 
roseate tern. 
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Street, London Decks, E. 1. 
