TRANSACTIONS OP THE SECTIONS. 59 



Regent's Inlet, it was selected jn 1833 as the route to be followed in seeking Captain 

 Sir John Ross and his party. Ultimately, however, another river, now known as the 

 " Great Fish " River, was preferred, so that the " Fish " River was not explored. In 

 1836, the anthor proposed to Government that a small expedition should be sent out 

 to survey the portion of North-eastern America yet unknown, and that the Fish River 

 should be the line of route, but Captain Sir John Franklin, then, for the first time, 

 expressed a doubt with regard to the outlet of the river, which he thought to be in the 

 Atlantic Ocean, and not the Polar Sea. He also suggested that the features of the 

 river at its source were by no means the same as had been mentioned by the Indian 

 above alluded to. 



The author endeavoured to show, by adducing the evidence of the Chippewyan and 

 Copper Indians and the Fur Traders in support of Blackmeat, that sooner or later 

 this river will form a prominent feature in the survey of the unexplored Polar lands, as 

 affording the means of connecting the discoveries of Messrs. Dease and Simpson on 

 the one side, with those of Captain Sir E. Parry on the other. He considered that the 

 sea of Regent's Inlet could thus be traced upwards, and its boundaries on either side 

 explored, while a knowledge of Melville Peninsula, and the actual character of North 

 Somerset (whether insular or peninsular) would also be determined. The author 

 urged in conclusion, that being thus so near the crowning>-work of the labour of three 

 centuries, it would be unreasonable to stop, since one short summer would complete 

 the survey. 



ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY. 



A Catahgue of Birds observed in South-E astern Durham and in North- 

 Western Cleveland. By John Hogg, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., ^c. 

 Mr. John Hogg, in this catalogue, made some physiological observations on the 

 organization, and many remarks on the habits and geographical range of the birds 

 which have been noticed in the parts of Durham and of Yorkshire, to which he 

 limited himself. This district, comprising about 320 square miles, is so varied in the 

 nature of the soil and water, that no less than 210 species (namely, 109 land-hiTAs 

 and 101 wo^er-birds) are recorded as frequenting it, — a number indeed which is 

 found to amount to only seven species fewer than two-thirds of the entire number of 

 the British birds. 



The author has been induced to make a few changes in the nomenclature of cer- 

 tain birds where the names have either been erroneously given or misapplied. And 

 in respect to the arrangement adopted, he stated, that " it appeared to him to be 

 more advisable to incorporate Cuvier's system in his present memoir, with that clas- 

 sification subsequently instituted by some of our English ornithologists, making at 

 the same time certain modifications in both, than to use the latter alone as Mr. 

 Yarrell has done." Also the author introduced three families, viz. Upupidae, Re- 

 curvirostridae and Procellariadae, from the Prince of Musignano's " New Systematic 

 Arrangement of Vertebrated Animals," in the Linnaean Transactions, vol. xviii. And 

 the new tribes, Planicerirostres, Tecticerirostres, Cutinarirostres, Spathulirostres, Di- 

 versirostres, Cuspidirostres, Sulcirostres, Tubinarirostres, Medionarirostres, Subuli- 

 rostres, &c. that he himself has added, are characterized, according to the views of 

 Linnaeus, from variations in the hill ; and thus they tend to complete a Rostral clas- 

 sification. 



The following is a sketch of the classification which is necessarily here abstracted, 



for the purpose of showing the modifications in the author's arrangement. 



Division I.— AVES TERRESTRES, 



Order I. Raptores. 



Tribe 1. Planicerirostres. 



Subtribe 1. Diumi. 



Families. — 1, Falconidce; 2, ButeonidcBi 



Tribe 2. Tecticerirostres. 



Subtribe 2. Nocturni, 



Family Sirigidee. 



