13 
2. Two white eyebrowed guans {Penelope super ciliaris), pur- 
chased on the 25th of March, from south-eastern Brazil. 
3. Two small parrots in immature plumage, from an un- 
known locality, but which appear to be the green conure 
(Coniirus pavua) from the West Indies. 
4. A pair of melodious finches [Phonipara canora) from 
Cuba. 
5. A female Indian antelope {Antilope cervicapra) imported 
to mate the fine male purchased in August, 1886. 
6. Perhaps the most extraordinary animal ever shown in 
the collection was the echidna {Tachyglossus hystrix) pur- 
chased on the 12th of April. As is well known, the lowest 
mammalian group, the monotremes, to which this animal 
belongs, possess structural peculiarities strongly indicating 
relationship to birds and reptiles, and additional evidence 
of the closeness of this connection, has lately been given by 
the apparent confirmation of the previously suspected fact 
that both the echidna and its relative, the ornithorhynchus, 
lay eggs from which the young are hatched outside of the 
body of the mother, as in birds and many reptiles. The 
rarity as well as the remarkable nature of this animal 
caused it to be of great interest to zoologists, and it received 
as much observation as its subterranean habits would per- 
mit. Its native food being altogether of ants, and the 
structure of its mouth preventing it from taking solid food 
in any quantity, it was necessary to feed it on milk and 
eggs, on which it survived only some six weeks. 
7. At the same time was received a black-footed penguin 
(Spheniscus demersus), from the south African coast. These 
birds, having altogether lost the power of flight, and being 
almost equally incapable of motion on land, have their 
swimming powers developed to a great degree. The speci- 
men in question was placed in the vacant hippopotamus 
tank, and afforded much amusement to visitors by the con- 
trast between its graceful and rapid motions in the water 
and its clumsy gait when on land. It steadily refused to 
eat, but was kept alive for some weeks by artificial feeding 
on the roe and finely shredded particles of fish. 
