62 The Irish Naturalist. 



species it belonged. The American bird has the back greyer 

 and head blacker than the European, and the feathers of the 

 breast and flanks are irregularly marked where, in the 

 European bird, they are distinctly barred. Birds found west 

 of the Rocky Mountains are very dark- coloured, and are 

 usually considered as deserving recognition as a sub-species 

 (striatulusj . 



PROCEEDINGS OF IRISH SOCIETIES. 



Royae Zooeogicae Society. 



Recent donations to the Gardens include a monkey from S. Cunning- 

 hame, Esq. ; six Demoiselle Cranes from Dr. C. B. Ball ; a Muscovy Duck 

 from Mr. Evans ; and a pair of Chilian Pintails from H. M. Barton, Esq. 



The )'oung female Chimpanzee, mentioned by Dr. V. Ball in his 

 article in our January number (p. 3), did not long survive "Johnnie." 

 Another female specimen has been acquired by purchase ; she is named 

 "Bella," and appears to be of a different race to her predecessors in 

 Dublin, having a more hairy head. 



Other recent purchases comprise a genet, a pair of silver-grey Rabbits, 

 a pair of wild Turkej-s, three Magellan Geese, and a male Yak. 



2,320 persons visited the Gardens in January. 



The Annual Meeting of the vSociety was held at Leinster House on 

 January 30th. The Report then presented shows that the past year has 

 been a successful one, having shown a considerable increase in the 

 number of visitors, though there has been a falling off in the number of 

 members. A most satisfactory addition to the buildings during the year 

 has been the new outdoor aviary, which affords much pleasure to the 

 birds by its spacious proportions, as well as to the visitors, who can 

 watch their flight. The monkey-house is now undergoing improve- 

 ments. Appended to the report are notices by Dr. V. Ball on lion- 

 breeding in the Gardens and on lion-tiger hybrids. 



Dubinin Microscopical Club. 



December 21st.— The Club met at Dr. M'WEENEY'S, who showed 

 plate aud tube cultivations (on obliquely solidified gelatine) of a micro- 

 organism, the colonies of which possessed a most brilliant red colour, 

 brighter even than that of Bacillus prodigiosus, the classic example of 

 bacterial chromogenesis. The organism had been obtained from cultures 

 of the pus of a large hepatic abscess. The patient was a young girl 

 who had died of pyemia in the Mater Misericordue Hospital. There 

 was also found in the pus a second organism, the colonies of which were 

 of a deep yellow colour. Neither the red nor the yellow organism liqui- 

 fied the gelatine ; both grew much better at 37 C. than at 20^ C. The 

 development of pigment however was not observed at the higher tempera- 

 ture, nor in the absence of a large supply of air ; but attained its optimum 

 on gelatine plates that had been kept at room temperature nearly a month- 

 The red organism refused to develop on potato. It consisted of excessively 

 minute cocci, often in pairs The individuals were decidedly smaller 

 than Streptococcus pyogenes. Minute abscesses in the lungs and spleen of 



