Vol. xxxi.] 



34 



j)articularly as regards the measurement of the wing, but 

 with the culmen conspicuously longer and the tarsus more 

 slender. The basal portion of the inner webs of the primaries 

 is white, for mi g a large patch, partially concealed by the 

 under wing-coverts. In H. niger there is scarcely any white 

 at the base of the quills, though the primaries become 

 lighter towards the base. 



Iftematopus niger. H. n, meade-waldoi. 



Wing $ , . . . . . 285 mm. Wing 259 mm. 



„ $ 275 mm. £ 250,257 mm. 



Culmen 69-71 mm. Culmen 77-81 mm.* 



Hab. Eastern Canary Islands : Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, 

 and Graciosa. 



Type in the British Museum: ? . Jandia, Fuerteventura, 

 7. iv. 88. Presented by E. G. B. Meade-Waldo. 



Obs. Mr. Meade- Waldo has recorded the specimens 

 obtained by Tristram and himself in his papers published in 

 the ' Ibis ' and quoted above. Those from Graciosa were a 

 breeding pair : the female from Fuerteventura was also a 

 breeding bird and contained well-developed eggs. 



Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker exhibited a series of eggs of 

 Asiatic parasitic Cuckoos, from an examination of which he 

 maintained that certain definite conclusions could be drawn, 

 the principal amongst these being : — 



(1) That parasitic Cuckoos, as a group, nearly always 

 laid very small eggs in proportion to the size of the parent, 

 and it was therefore probable that a small egg was gradually 

 being evolved by the elimination of those which were most 

 strikingly disproportionate in size when compared with eggs 

 of the foster-parent. 



The adoption and incubation of the large eggs of Cu cuius 

 canorus bakeri by small birds of the genera Cisticolch, Suya, 

 Orthotomus, &c, showed, however, that evolution in this 

 direction must be exceedingly slow. 



* The male has the culmen somewhat shorter than the female, as in 

 other species of Oyster-catcher. 



