670 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, LONDON. 
broods of two eggs each : the eggs were 
placed under turkeys and common hens. 
Respecting one of them no notes were made ; 
but the other five were all of the red colour 
of the female parent. Two of these, which 
were at two or three weeks old very strong, 
being still in the flower-garden, were killed 
in the night by a rat that had eaten its way 
into the coop in which they were. Two 
others were sent to the Earl of Derby, who 
wanted hens. The remaining one is now 
nearly, if not quite, full growm ; and Sir R. 
Heron proposes to place it with the old pair. 
“There is one great peculiarity, Sir R. 
Heron remarks, “ attending the old pair. 
Their principal food is Indian corn and 
greens, both which they eat in common : 
but whenever any biscuit is given to them, 
as an occasional treat when visitors are here, 
the male breaks it and takes it in his mouth ; 
waiting, however long, until the hen takes 
it out of his bill, which she does without 
the slightest mark of civility, although on 
excellent terms with him. This proceeding 
is invariable.-^ 
Mr.Yarrell, on behalf of T. C. Heysham, 
Esq., of Carlisle, exhibited the egg, the 
young bird of a week old, one of a month 
old, and the adult female of the Dottrell, 
Charadrius Morinellus, Linn., obtained on 
Skiddaw in the summer of 1835. Several 
pairs were breeding in the same locality. 
He also stated that a specimen of the 
grey Snipe, Maeroramphus griseus, Leach, 
a young bird of the year, has been obtained 
near Carlisle in the past year. This is the 
third recorded instance of the occurrence of 
the species in England. 
Some notes by Mr. Martin of a dissection 
of a Vulpine Opossum., Phalangista Vulpina, 
Cuv., were read, and are given in the “ Pro- 
ceedings. 
A notice by Dr. Riippell, For. Memb. 
Z. S., of the existence of canine teeth in an 
Abyssinian Antelope, Antilope montana, 
Riipp., was read. It was accompanied by 
drawings of the structure desci-ibed in it, 
which were exhibited. 
The following is a translation of Dr. 
Ruppell’s communication. 
In several Mammalia of the order 
Ruminantia the adult males, and even some 
females, possess canine teeth, which are 
more or less developed; to these teeth, 
no other use has been attributed than that 
of a weapon of defence. The Camels 
{Camelus), the Musk Deer {Moschus), and 
the Muntjak of India {Cervus Muntjak), 
possess these canine teeth in both sexes. 
J.rL ihG red Deer (Census Elaphus), and in 
the rein Deer {Cerv. Tarandus), the adult 
males alone are provided with them. 
I have just ascertained that there is a 
species of Antelope which possesses these 
canine teeth ; but in which, by a singular 
anomaly, it is only the young males that 
are furnished with them. In these too they 
can only be considered in the light of half- 
developed germs; for the cartilaginous part 
which covers the palate and the upper jaw 
entirely conceals them. • 
It is the ant. montana, which I discovered 
in 1824 in the neighbourhood of Sennaar, 
and of which I published in my ‘ Zoological 
Atlas’ the figure of an adult male, that is 
provided, in its youth, with these anomalous 
canine teeth; the adults of both sexes, and 
the young females, are destitute of them. 
I observed, in my last journey in Abyssinia, 
many individuals of this species in the val- 
leys in the neighbourhood of Gondar : it is 
far from rare in that locality, but the jun- 
gles mingled wuth thorns, which are its 
favourite retreat, render the chase of it 
extremely difficult. 
At the time of the publication of my de- 
scription of this new species, in 1826, 1 was 
possessed of only a single adult male, and 
there were consequently many deficiencies 
in my account of it. I am now enabled to 
add to this notice that the females of this 
species are alw^ays destitute of horns : that 
both sexes have, in the [groins] two rather 
deep pits covered by a stiff bundle of white 
hairs , and finally that the species live in 
pairs in the valleys of the western part of 
Abyssinia, where it takes the place of Ant. 
Saltiana, an animal which it exceeds in size 
by nearly one half. These twm species are 
called by the natives Madoqua, by which 
name the Abyssiuians also designate the 
Ant. Grimmia, which equally constitutes a 
part of the game of that country, so rich 
in different forms of the Ruminant order 
— E. R. 
A note by Mr. Martin was subsequently, 
read, in which it was stated that it had once 
occurred to him to observe a rudimentary 
canine tooth in the female of a species of 
Deer from South America, the body of 
which had been sent to the Society’s house 
by Sir P. Grey Egerton for examination. 
Having noticed an enlargement of the gum 
of the upper jaw, in the situation in which 
a canine tooth might possibly be supposed 
to exist, he cut into it, and found the germ 
of a canine tooth, about 3 lines in length, 
imbedded in the gum, and destitute of 
fang. 
Jan. 26. — Specimens were exhibited of 
numerous Birds, chiefly from the Society’s 
