liii 
[Vol. X. 
the breeding-plumage of the species, with the tufts of white 
filamentous plumes above the eyes. The young birds had 
formerly been described as Phalacrocorax glaums, but 
specimens in intermediate stages of plumage in the Tring 
Museum showed that P. glaucus and P. chalconotus were 
identical. 
Mr. Rothschild exhibited specimens of the Balkan Shore- 
Lark {Otocorys balcanica) . 
He also exhibited a specimen of a young bird of Urubi- 
tinga urubitinga, which had been captured by Mr. Andre at a 
distance of 200 yards inside the great cave of the Steatornis, 
at Caripe in Venezuela. 
Mr. Ernst Hartert described a new Spine-tailed Swift 
as follows : — 
ChjEtura thomensis, sp. n. 
This remarkable new species of Chatura is smaller than 
all the other African species, and the wings, though fully as 
long as those of Ch(etura sabinei, are much narrower, softer, 
and weaker. It is doubtless the bird mentioned by Mr. 
Newton, of Lisbon, as Ch. cassini, but no specimen appears 
to have been procured by him. Ch. cassini is much larger, 
and has a much shorter and stiffer tail than Ch. Ihomensis, 
and Ch. sabinei has a much bi’oader wing, and its under 
and upper tail-coverts are so much elongated as to 
cover the rectrices above and below, while in Ch. thomensis 
they leave nearly 2 cm. above and about 1 cm. below 
uncovered. 
Ch. thomensis is black above, including the wings and tail, 
with greenish and steel-blue reflections. Throat and breast 
dull greyish black, without gloss. Abdomen white, with dull 
black shaft-lines to the feathers. Upper and under tail- 
coverts white, with broad black shaft-streaks ; the longest 
upper tail-coverts almost entirely brownish black. Under wing- 
coverts black. Total length about 105 mm. (from tip of bill 
