296 PROCEEDINGS OF METROPOLITAN SOCIETIES. 



been formed ; but the Council are confident that, with the valuable 

 scientific services of the Curator, Mr. Blyth, a sufficiency of speci- 

 mens to illustrate the monthly lectures would shortly be obtained. 

 It was hoped that the monthly meetings would continue to prove 

 equally instructive and entertaining, and that the less scientific mem- 

 bers of the Society would continue to take part in the conversations 

 which generally succeed the lectures and observations of a more sci- 

 entific character. 



At the conclusion of their Report, the Council begged to recom- 

 mend to the members and friends of the Society the expediency of 

 enlisting new supporters in its ranks, to enable it to carry out the 

 numerous and important objects of public utility which its prospectuses 

 held out for accomplishment. The Society's operations had hitherto 

 been of necessity conducted on a very limited scale, and a considera- 

 ble accession of new subscribers was required to empower it to under- 

 fake those general projects which would render its existence more 

 extensively advantageous to the community. 



His Grace the Duke of Buccleugh was then elected President, in 

 room of the Earl of Liverpool, and the five new members of the 

 Council in place of five that retired from office. 



Some admirably-mounted specimens of rare birds were afterwards 

 exhibited by Mr.'Blyth, which had been obtained, a few days before, 

 in the London markets. Among them was an exquisitely beautiful 

 specimen of the elegant Squacco Heron ( Ardea ralloides), in fully 

 adult plumage, which had been shot in Suffolk ; and the little Hazel 

 Grouse of continental Europe, the Old World analogue of the well- 

 known Ruffed Grouse of North America, forming with it a distinctly 

 characterized sub-genus, with partly naked legs. The flesh of the 

 latter was stated to be as white as that of a chicken ; whereas, in the 

 true Grouse and Ptarmigan, the pectoral muscle was well known to 

 be dark-coloured. Mr. Blyth then discoursed for some time on the 

 general structure of the class Aves, and exhibited analogous portions 

 of the skeletons of various groups, to illustrate the differences which 

 they presented. He dwelt especially on the importance of studying 

 all parts of an animal's structure, in order to attain a just idea of its 

 systematic relations ; and expressed a wish that the museum of the 

 Society should be select rather than extensive, affirming that a com- 

 paratively small number of species, illustrative of the principal types 

 or models of structure, would amply suffice for scientific purposes, if 

 exhibited in all the progressive stages of their outward covering, and 

 also in the various differential details of their anatomy. N. A. Vigors, 



