233 Royal Institution. 



birds par excellence : they possess in perfection the essential charac- 

 ters of birds : in the habitual use of air for progression and of trees 

 for resting, in the want of abihties for terrestrial progression, in 

 strength and bulk of pectoral muscle, in monogamous habits, in the 

 fabrication of nests, in power of song, they are raised as birds, but 

 degraded as animals, since in all these characters they recede from 

 those animals which suckle their young. The di\-ision comprises the 

 following groups, in each of which exceptions to one or other of the 

 general characters occur : — 



1. Totipalmes (Ciwier), or the Pelicans. 



2. Longipennes (Cuvier), or the Gulls. 



3. Accipitres, or the Birds of Prey. 



4. Cultrirostres (Cuvier), or the Herons. 



5. Passeres, or the Sparrow order. 



6. Grimpeurs {Citvier), or the Climbing birds ; and 



7. Columbse, or the Pigeons. 



KOYAL INSTITUTION. 



Feb. 14, 185 1 . — " On Recent Researches into the Natural History 

 of the British Seas." By Professor Edward Forbes. 



The Natural History of the British Seas has for a long time been 

 a favourite subject of investigation. Within the last fifteen years, 

 however, fresh inquiries have been set on foot, and the details of their 

 zoology and botany worked out to an extent beyond that to which 

 the examination of any other marine province has been carried. Nu- 

 merous and beautifully illustrated monographs, treating of their fishes, 

 cetacea, portions of the articulata, the mollusca, radiaia, zoophytes, 

 sponges, and algae, have been published, either at private cost, or by 

 patriotic publishers, or by the Ray Society, such as the scientific 

 literature of no other country can show. As these have all been the 

 results of fresh and original research, they present a mass of valuable 

 data sufficient to form a secure basis for important generalizations. 



From these materials, and from the results of the inquiries into the 

 distribution of creatures in the depths of our seas, conducted by a 

 committee of the British Association, a clear notion may be formed 

 of the elements of which our submarine population is composed. 

 Extensive tables exhibiting the sublittoral distribution of marine 

 invertebrata, from the South of England along the western coasts of 

 Great Britain to Zetland, mainly constructed from the joint observa- 

 tions of Professor E. Forbes and* Mr. Mac Andrew, are now preparing 

 for publication as a first part of a general report from the committee 

 referred to. The data embodied in these tables are the produce of 

 researches conducted during the last eleven years, and registered 

 systematically at the time of observation. 



British marine animals and plants are distributed in depth (or 

 bathymetrically) in a series of zones or regions which belt our shores 

 from high-water mark down to the greatest depths explored. The 

 uppermost of these is the tract between tide-marks ; this is the Lit- 

 toral Zone. AVhatever be tlie extent of rise and fall of the tide. 



