Ixviii Proceed inijs. 



Vice-Presidenfs (consisting of all past ProsiJeuts), a Treasurer, 

 an Honorary. Secretai-y, and nine other members." The altera- 

 tion was in the clause concerning the Vice-Presidents,- which 

 had previously been "four Vice-Presidents to be elected from 

 Past Presidents." 



A cordial vote of thanks was then unanimously accorded to 

 the Water Committee of the Corporation, for inviting the Club to 

 inspect the new well at Addington, and to Messrs. Morland, 

 Walker, and Topley, for receiving the members and describing 

 the characteristics of the well. 



Previous to the reading of the paper of the evening, Mr. J. H. 

 Drage exhibited several barnacle geese which had been shot at 

 Piowcliffe, about five miles north of Carlisle. He stated that the 

 barnacle goose frequented that neighbourhood in the winter, and 

 it was believed had done so for nearly 300 years, to the almost 

 total exclusion of other localities in England. 



The paper on this occasion was on " Domestic Birds, and the 

 Probable Causes of their Domestication," by Mr. J. Jenner 

 Weir, F.L.S., F.Z.S. The author stated that of the ten or 

 eleven thousand species of birds known only eleven were 

 domestic, or twelve if the ostrich were included. These were 

 the canary, pigeon, dove, peacock, turkey, fowl, guinea-fowl, 

 swan, goose, duck, musk-duck, and ostrich. The conditions of 

 domesticity in a bird were defined to be : — unimpaired fertility in 

 captivity ; plasticity of constitution, enabling it to live under 

 widely different conditions of environment ; attachment to lo-. 

 cality ; attachment to persons, or tameness ; and finally, useful- 

 ness. Mr. Weir showed that their migratory habits were a bar 

 to the domestication of many species of birds. The eider duck 

 was a bird on the verge of domestication, being comparatively 

 tame during the breeding-season, but at other tiuies it was a 

 rover. The author then referred to the habits of the various 

 birds specified in his list, dwelling particularly on the swan and 

 the goose. On the question of birds as food Mr. Weir expressed 

 his personal aversion to pigeons, which he considered no better 

 than swallows, wrens and robins. Finally, he gave it as his 

 belief that no truly domestic birds other than he had specified 

 would ever be obtained. 



On the 9th March Mr. W. August Carter, of the National 

 Fish Culture Association, and of the Icthyological Section of the 

 late Exhibitions at South Kensington, read a paper upon "Marine 

 and Freshwater Fishes." At the outset Mr. Carter referred to 

 the paucity of available data concerning the fauna of the 

 Aqueous Kingdom. This he considered partly due to the great 

 diificulty and expense involved in striving to " pluck out the 

 heart " of the ocean's mysteries. He considered that one of the 



