120 PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 
begins to fail us.’’ Many years have passed since those words were spoken, 
and Bulwer Lytton writes :—“ Year by year I find the same charm gains 
sway over myself, There was one period of my life when I considered every 
hour spent out of capitals as time wasted ; but now I love the country, as I 
did when a little child. Is it, partly, that those trees never remind us that 
we are growing old? Older than we are, their hollow stems are covered 
with rejoicing leayes, The birds build amidst the bowering branches, rather 
than in the brighter shade of the sapling. Nature has no voice that wounds 
the self-loye; her coldest wind nips no credulous affection. She alone has 
the same face as in our youth. Those wild flowers under the hedgerow— 
those sparkles in the happy waters—no friendship has gone from them !— 
their beauty has no simulated freshness—their smile has no fraudulent 
deceit.” 
At the conclusion, tea and coffee, kindly provided by some of the lady- 
members, were handed round ; we may note here the decided improvement 
which this plan manifested over that adopted last year, when the tea took 
place at the commencement of the meeting. At 9 p.m. Mr. Sharpe read a 
valuable paper, which was listened to with great attention, ‘“‘ On the Geo- 
graphical Distribution of the Alcedinide or Kingfishers,’ of which we regret 
that we ean only give the following brief abstract. He proposed to divide 
the family Alcedinide into three sub-families, 1. Alcedinine. containing 
those species whose food consists chiefly of fish and who seldom or never eat 
insects or other food; 2, Haleyonine, containing those species whose food is 
mixed, and who subsist equaliy on insects, crustacea, &c. as well as on fish, 
8. Dacelonine, containing those species who feed almost entirely on lizards; 
crustacea, &c and who seldom or never touch fish. The Kingfishers of the 
sub-family <Alcedinine possess a long, thin, narrow, bill, and in general a 
very short tail, characteristics admirably adapted to their piscivorous pro- 
pensities. They were found distributed over the whole of the Nearctic, 
Neotropical, and Palearctic regions, being more sparingly represented in the 
ZEthiopean, Indian, and Australian regions. In these two latter regions the 
Haleyonine were predominant, being sparingly represented in the Palearctic 
and Australian. ‘The bill which in the Alcedinine is thin and compressed 
was shown to be in the 7alcyonine considerably depressed, while in the 
sub-family Dacelonine or lizard-eating Kingfishers it was still more depressed, 
until in the genus Jelidora it reached its extreme developement, being in 
this genus strongly grooved and hooked. The Dacelonine were found to be 
peculiar to the Australian region. Mr, Sharpe exhibited specimens and 
pictures of some of the more remarkable Kingfishers, and illustrated on the 
map the geographical distribution of each species. After this the President’s 
microscope was brought into use, and the various objects were inspected, 
The meeting separated at 11 p.m., about 140 persons haying been present, 
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