1890.] Annual AJJress. 27 



thus obtained are of uurivalled scientific value and that tliey are in 

 great measure due to the efforts of our Secretary, Major Alcock, who 

 ranks among the first living authorites on this subject 



The rest of the papers in the past year's Journal have been short 

 ones ; Mr. L. de Niceville has continued his work on the Oriental Butter- 

 flies by publisliing two papers dealing with the geographical distribu- 

 tion of those insects ; some new plants frotn the North- Western Frontier 

 of India have been described, by Sir George King and Major D. Prain, 

 I. M.S., and from Singapore and Borneo by Mr. A. N. Ridley, Director 

 of the Bofanic Gardens of Singapore. Another paper, by Chandra 

 Bhushan Bliaduri, B.A., and Jyoti Bhushan Bhaduri, M.A., deals with 

 Double Thiusnlphites of Copper and Sodium. Finally the Seci'etary for 

 this Part has himself published two brief notes on the change of 

 plumage in certain birds and on an instance of aggressive behaviour in 

 the Wliip-Siiake. 



Some short papers of interest to Naturalists have been published 

 in the Proceedings. Among them are ( 1 ) several Notes on Onu'/ZtoZogy 

 by Mr. F. Finn ; (2) a paper on the Geographical Distribution of certain 

 Deep-Sea Animals by Major Aleock, I.M.S., in which zoological 

 evidence is addiiced in support of the well-known geological theory 

 that, in past times, the Mediterranean extended westwards to the 

 Caribbean Sea, and eastwards far into the present limits of Asia; and 

 (3) an Account, by Mr. F. Finn, of the rediscovery by Major C. R. M. 

 Gi'een, I. M.S., in the Afridi country, of the I'are Scincoid Lizard Eumeces 

 Blylhianus. 



In Ethnology and the cognate subjects dealt witli in Vart III of the 

 Journal the record of the year's work is better than it has ever been 

 before. Fourteen papers, dealing chiefly with Indian Folk-lore, have been 

 published iu the Journal, and we are now attempting to collect the data 

 for a comparative study of this subject on a larger scale. In 1891-92 a 

 scheme for promoting the systematic study of ethnography in India, 

 which had been prepared by me in consultation with the late Professor 

 Robertson Smith and Mr. J. G. Frazer, (the author of The Golden Bouf^h 

 and of the magnificent edition of Pausanias which has appeared recently) 

 was circulated by the Government of India, and the suggestion was 

 made that Societies formed for scientific inquiries might undertake to 

 collate information sent to them. In connexion with this scheme the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal added to their Journal a third section dealing 

 with Anthro|)ology, Ethnology and Folk-lore and undertook to edit and 

 publish suitable papers on these subjects. The number of papers received 

 has, howevei', not been very large, and experience has shown that furtlier 

 organization is needed if any real progress is to be made towards the 



