PROCEEDINGS OP SOCIETIES. 
483 
means of “ cordage,” mentioning several instances to the contrary from his own 
observation. I have not any specimens of the nest at hand to refer to ; and 
perhaps I ought not to speak too positively from recollection, but, if my memory 
does not greatly deceive me, I am strongly inclined to think that the bird does 
employ cordage wherewith to fasten its nest. Indeed I have seen instances of 
the nest hanging underneath a fir branch in which this must necessarily have 
been the case. But I rather send this with a view of eliciting further remarks 
on the subject than in order to communicate a matter of fact. 
If this trifle is deemed worthy of a place in the pages of T^e Naturalist^ its 
insertion will oblige. 
Thine respectfully, 
James Dillon. 
PROCEEDINGS OF NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETIES. 
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
Mr. Richard Owen, F.R.S., in the chair.— Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of 
Musignano, exhibited the drawing of a new species of Salamander, differing 
both from the Triton and the Menobranchus, which he characterised as a new 
genus. The ' same distinguished naturalist likewise characterised several new 
birds from Mexico, from a collection which he had received for examination from 
that country, many of which had before been considered to be confined exclu- 
sively to the United States. Full descriptions of several of the new varieties 
were promised by him for publication in the Transactions of the society. Co¬ 
lonel Sykes, F.R.S., read some observations on the identity of the Wild Ass of 
Thibet, which principally inhabits Kutch, on the Indus, with the Jikta, or Equus 
hemiones of Pallas. Although known to Aristotle, Pliny, A^lian, and 
other early writers on Natural History, this interesting animal appears to have 
been scarcely known in Europe until Pallas described it in the Memoirs of the 
Russian Academy, This animal has, it appears, a very wide geographical range, 
being found in Mongolia, Arabia, the Himalayan Mountains, and many other 
parts of the continent of India. The learned author also mentioned that the 
ordinary distribution of Asses according to size was not correct, it being imagined 
that the largest species were found at the tropics, and that they diminished in 
size according as they approached towards the north, as the reverse was in many 
instances the fact, in some parts of India even the Asses, which are used as beasts 
