146 Dr Lauder Lindsay on Natural History. 
capercailzie, ptarmigan, and other of our game birds on your 
ranges; of our common British insectivorous birds generally. 
b, The desirability of the establishment of an Acclimatisation 
Society, similar to those of Melbourne and Sydney, of Paris 
and London.* 
III. Under the head of the Meteorology of Otago— 
a. The importance of establishing throughout the pro- 
vince a chain of Meteorological Stations, in connection with a 
central Provincial Observatory at Dunedin, with a view to 
the collection of precise data, whereon to base conclusions as 
to the true character of the climate of Otago. 
Contributions to Ornithology. By Sir W. Jarpinz, Bart. 
7 No. Ve 
Acanthylis sabim (Gray). A specimen of this spine-tailed swift 
was procured by Captain Sabine (now Major-General Sabine) 
when upon duty on the west coast of Africa; and the first notice 
of if as a new species appeared in Griffith’s edition of Baron 
Cuvier’s “ Animal Kingdom,” part xvii., 1828, as Chetura sabini, 
Gray, MSS.—*« Bluish black, belly and rump white; Africa, 
Captain Sabine.” The specimen thus referred to is now in the 
British Museum. 
It was afterwards more fully described, and the dimensions 
given (1831), in Gray’s “ Zoological Miscellany,” under the name 
of Whate-Rumped Chetura, Ch. bicolor. Why the change of name 
we do not know. 
When M. Duchaillu returned to America from his first expe- 
dition in Western Africa, his ornithological collections were 
described, and a list of all the species was given, by John Cassin 
in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila- 
delphia, and Chetura sabini (Gray), with the synonyms applied to 
that bird, was printed with the list. 
At a later period M. Duchaillu came to Europe, and his speci- 
mens of gorilla and other animals and birds were exhibited in 
the rooms of the Geographical Society of London. On visiting 
this collection, we saw that the swift named by Cassin as Ch, 
sabini was not identical with that bird, but had not at that time 
an opportunity of comparing them, On leaving Europe to resume 
his explorations in Africa, the remains of his collections were sent 
to Mr Stevens for disposal, and we then procured a specimen of 
the bird we had before partially seen. 
From the first description in Griffith’s “ Animal Kingdom,” the 
* An excellent example has been set by the recent establishment of one 
in Auckland, New Zealand. 
