Vol. xxxi.] 



74 



At the termination of the conjoint dinner of the B. O. U. 

 and B. O. C, at which Mr. Edward Bidwell presided, 

 Colonel B,. G. Wardlaw Ramsay, the newly elected President 

 of the British Ornithologists' Union, proposed the health of 

 His Majesty the King and that of " Absent Ibises," as is 

 customary at the Annual Dinner. 



He said that, in proposing the latter toast, he expressed 

 a hope that several Members of the Union who were at 

 present engaged in carrying on the work of exploration in 

 unknown parts of the globe would soon be safely back in 

 England, and would be able to entertain their less adventurous 

 Brother " Ibises 33 with details of their experiences in the 

 field in New Guinea, Africa, and elsewhere. 



Mr. Bidwell then vacated the Chair in favour of Dr. P. L. 

 Sclater, who, as Chairman of the B. O. C, conducted the 

 business during the remainder of the evening. 



Mr. H. F. Witherby exhibited a hybrid vVigeon and 

 Teal. The bird was a male in nearly full plumage, and had 

 been lent for exhibition by Mr. J. Beddall Smith, who 

 obtained it from a decoy in Essex in November 1912. The 

 specimen had been fully described in ' British Birds ' (vol. vi« 

 pp. 345-7). 



Mr. Witherby also exhibited specimens of a Bunting 

 collected by Captain H. Lynes, R.N., in China, and remarked 

 that they appeared to belong to an undescribed subspecies, 

 which he proposed to call 



Emberiza yessoensis continentalis, subsp. n. 

 Adult. Similar to E. y. yessoensis (Swinhoe) from Japan, 

 but with less chestnut-buff on the upperparts, which are 

 paler and more pink, especially on the hind-neck, rump, 

 and upper tail-coverts, as also on the edgings of the feathers 

 of the mantle and wings. The crown of the female and of 

 the male in winter-plumage is less rufous and more distinctly 

 striped with greyish-white. The underparts are whiter and 

 much less heavily washed with buff than in Japanese speci- 

 mens. The wing-measurement is about the same as in the 



