1886, ] _ Loblogy. 821 
The eggs of the above wood-duck and the mandarin are from 
two inches to two and one-eighth in length, and one and a-half 
inches in depth. They vary some, and at first I thought I could 
distinguish the egg of the wood-duck from the mandarin’s by its 
ing more pointed, but the variation has been such that I do not 
feel at all confident of this. 
Next season I shall enlarge my range, and make every effort 
to obtain other species, and to breed them.—Fred Mather. 
ZooLocicaL News.—Mammals.—Mr. Carter, of the London 
Colonial Exhibition, states that mice are among the enemies of 
fogs. He was a witness to an attack made by mice upon some 
frogs which infested a barn. They pursued and bit the batrach- 
ians, which had sufficient strength and alacrity to escape, but 
were again pursued and caught, until they were helpless from the 
Severity of the bites, when the mice ate a portion of them.—— 
M. F. Lataste describes (Ann. d. Mus. Civ. d. St. Nat. Gen., 
1882-83) a new species of Jerboa (Dipus darricarreret) from Al- 
geria. Two other species, D. egyptus and D. hirtipes, occur in 
the same region, 
Birds.—Sr. T. Salvadori enumerates fourteen species of Mega- 
podes in Papua and the Moluccas. These constitute a majority of 
the Gallinæ, the remaining forms consisting only of four Perdicidz 
and Turnix melanonota. The Grallatores of the same region 
humber seventy, viz: Rallide, 17; Glareolidez, 2; Hzmato- 
» 2; Œdicnemidæ, 1; Charadriade, 8; Parride, 1; 
Scolopacidze, 19; Ardeide, 17; Ciconiidæ, 1; Ibide, 2. Though 
most of these waders are widely spread, thirteen are peculiar to 
the region, or to parts only of the region, The Natatores of the 
same islands are forty-one, viz: Anatide, 6; Pelecanide, 11; 
region.— Sr, T. Salvadori (Ann. d. Mus. Civ. d. St. Nat. s 
1884) occupies 276 pages with an account of the birds of Shoa 
collected by Antinori. They include 307 species: Rapaces, 42; 
Sittaces, 3; Picariæ, 52; Passeres, 130; Colombæ, ọ; Gallin- 
» 53 Grallatores, 44 ; Natatores, 22. The proximity of Shoa 
A Abyssinia, the bird-fauna of which has been so well explored 
by Ruppell, Heuglin and others, did not give hope of many nov- 
elties, yet at leasť five are new: Caprimulgus, 1; Psalido- 
pocne, r; Euplectes, 1; Textor, 1; Podiceps, 1, and possibly 
two or three more. A few of the species belong to the fauna of 
the south of Africa, and have now first been met with north of 
the Squator, while two species (Platystira albifrons, Cryptospiza 
WAC ') have previously been considered peculiar to the west 
ca. 
Reptiles — Proteus anguineus is not, it appears from the state- 
Ments of Dr. Marchesetti, confined to Carniola, but occurs also 
: "o 
YOL. XX.—wo. rx. 
