1892.] ON BIRDS FROM PERU. 371 and Tarim rivers, which they frequent for the pools of hrackish water that are to be found here and there. But as soon as the snow falls they move off into the desert, as if then independent of the water-supply. They prefer the snow, I imagine, as being less salt than the water, although it also is impregnated to a certain extent soon after it falls. The Camel is very shy in its habits, and, so far as I could ascertain, has never been caught and domesticated. The natives told me that no horse in the country could catch the Camels in the deep sand of the region they frequent. They appear to me to be distinct from the Bactrian Camel ; they are less stumpy in build, the hair is finer, closer, and shorter. They vary in colour, like the domestic species, from dark brown to lightish dun. Their origin has yet to be traced. I take it that they have sprung from Camels which escaped when the district known as Takla Makan was buried in a great sand-storm some centuries ago. Tradition relates that no human beings survived, but it is likely enough that some of the Camels and Horses did so, and that this was the origin of the Wild Camels and Ponies which are found in this district." Mr. Blanford added that he had compared the skull of Major Cumberland's specimen with one of a Bactrian Camel in the British Museum. There was some difference, but without a much larger series it was impossible to say whether the difference was sufficient to indicate a distinction of race. In the rather small details in which G. bactrianus differs from G. dromedarius the Wild Camel skull agreed with the former, as it should doj for the skin was that of a two-humped Camel, although, as Major Cumberland had noticed, the humps were very small and represented by tufts of long hair. The following papers were read : — 1. Resultats des recherches ornithologiques faites au Perou par M. Jean Kalinowski. Par Hans von Berlepsch et Jean Stolzmann. [Received April 27, 1892.] Table des matibees. Page i. Liste des Oiseaux recueillis par M. Jean Kalinowski dans les environs de Lima et d'Ica (Cote Peruvienne) 371 ii. Apergu des ouvrages relatifs a la Faune Ornithologique de la cote du Perou 396 iii. Liste des Especes d'Oiseaux mentionnees des environs de Lima, qui ne sont pas trouvees la par M. Kalinowski 398 iv. Considerations g&ierales sur la Faune Ornithologique des environs de Lima 402 V. Postscriptum de Jean Stolzmann ; 410 i. Liste des Oiseaux recueillis par M. Jean Kalinowski dans les environs de Lima et d^Ica {Cote Peruvienne). M. Jean Kalinowski, explorateur intrepide du Kamtschatka et de la Coree, est parti en 1889 pour le Perou en qualite de correspon-
BioStor
