EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 319 



has with great liberality presented a series of casts which form a com- 

 plete skeleton of the gigantic extinct marsupial, Diprotodon australis. 

 The original specimens, from which the casts were prepared under 

 Dr. Stirling's supervision in the South Australian Museum at Adelaide, 

 have been for some time the subject of his special study, which has 

 resulted in the discovery of much additional information with regard 

 to the structure of this remarkable type. Dr. Stirling's gift has already 

 been announced in a letter to the Vice-Chancellor (' C. U. Keporter,' 

 1906-7, p. 594). Through the kindness of Mr. E. C. Haldane, the 

 Museum has acquired a skull, with the complete set of baleen, of 

 Eudolphi's Whale [Balcenoptera borealis). 



Shortly before this Report was prepared, His Grace the Duke of 

 Bedford, K.G., sent from his collection in the park at Woburn Abbey 

 two specimens of Przewalsky's Horse (Equus przewalshii), which has 

 been regarded as the ancestral form from which the domestic Horse 

 has been derived. The older of these specimens was one of the small 

 herd originally imported from Mongolia by Hagenbeck, and purchased 

 by the Duke of Bedford, while the younger individual was born at 

 Woburn. The opportunity of obtaining this rare and interesting 

 species was thus unique, and the gift must be regarded as one of the 

 most important additions which has been made for some time. 



Mrs. Wyndham Somerset has given tbe frontlet and horns of the 

 rare Takin (Budorcas taxicolor) from the Mishmi Country, between 

 Assam and Tibet. 



The collection of Antelopes has been largely increased, principally 

 through the donations of specimens from Tropical Africa made by 

 C. B. C. Storey, M.A., Clare College, A. L. Butler, Esq., Capt. E. 

 Mackenzie Murray, and Major W. B. Emery. The receipt of Mr. 

 Storey's large and admirably collected series has been announced in a 

 letter to the Vice-Chancellor (' C. U. Reporter,' 1906-7, pp. 594, 595). 

 The collection included nine skeletons and about forty skulls, with the 

 corresponding skins. Although a certain proportion of the species 

 were previously represented in the Museum, the gift is important not 

 only in increasing our series of specimens of species hitherto in- 

 adequately represented, but in particular in containing a considerable 

 proportion of young specimens which illustrate stages in the growth of 

 the horns, and of female individuals of species in which the horns are 

 restricted to the male sex. The Museum, like most other Museums, 

 is deficient with regard to immature and female specimens of many 

 common species, owing to the natural propensity of sportsmen to 

 select as trophies specimens which show a large development of the 



