25G 



The President bore testimony to the great value of the 

 bequest of Mr. Brown. 



A committee, consisting of Dr. C. T. Jackson, C. K. 

 Dillaway, Esq., and Prof. J. Wyman, was appointed to 

 report appropriate resolutions at the next meeting of the 

 Society. 



The Corresponding Secretary announced the reception 

 of a letter from the Royal Academy of Sciences, at Berlin, 

 August 27, 1855, returning thanks for numbers of the 

 Journal and Proceedings, and for the Address by Dr. 

 Warren. 



The Corresponding Secretary also presented, at the re- 

 quest of Mrs. James Brown, of Watertown, a portrait of 

 Mr. Thomas Nuttall, the Naturalist. 



Dr. Kneeland presented eight rare birds, from the Phil- 

 ippine Islands, among them a Supercilious Ani, (JDactylo- 

 phus super ciliosus.) 



The Secretary presented, in the name of Mr. G, S. 

 Shaw, of Cambridge, a collection of birds, also from the 

 Philippine Islands, and Australia; among them a specimen 

 of Cuming's Ani, {Dasylophus Cumingii, Fras.) 



The two Anis comprise all the described species of the genus 

 Dasylophus, which is peculiar to the Philippine Islands. These 

 birds, in addition to the beauty of their plumage, are interesting 

 for the examples they furnish of remarkable changes in the 

 epidermic covering of birds, the feathers in the first species being 

 tipped with shining spangles, and in the latter with hair-like 

 appendages. In Dasylophus Cumingii,) the feathers of the crest, 

 breast, and throat, are changed at their extremity into ovoid 

 horny lamellce of a shining black color — expansions of the true 

 horny structure of the shaft. In D. superciliosus^ the feathers 

 forming a crest over each eye are changed, for three fourths of 

 their extent, into red silky hairs or bristles, the base of the feather 



