150 Royal Society. — IVernerlan Natural History Society, 



monia is composed of nitrogen and hydrogen — -and it foU 

 lows, that either nit.ogen gas, or hydrogen gas, or both, 

 are composed of the amaioniacal metal held in a gaseous form 

 by caloric. 



A paper by Mr. Knight^ on the alburnum of trees, waa 

 also read ; alter which the Society adjourned till Thursday 

 the loih of November. 



WERNERIAN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



At the last meeting of the Wernerian Natural History 

 Society (July IC), the President laid bel'ure the Society three 

 communications from Col. George Montague, F. L S. of 

 Kuowie House, Devon. Two of these comniimications 

 were read at this meeting. The first part of the first com- 

 munication contained an interesting yicw of the natural 

 habits and more striking external appearances of the Gannct 

 or Suland Goose, Pelecanus Bussanus. The second part of 

 this communication contained an account of the internal 

 structure of this bird, particularly of the distribution of its 

 air-cells, which the ingenious author showed to be admi- 

 rably adapted to its mode of life, especially to its continued 

 residence on the water, even in the most turbulent seas 

 and during the most rigorous seasons. The second com- 

 munication was the description and drawing of a new genus 

 oi insect, which inhabits the cellular membrane of the gan- 

 net ; and to which Cul. Montague gives the name of Q-llu^ 

 lariu Bassati!. — At the same meeting, Mr. P. Neill laid be- 

 fore the Sv)ciety a list of such fishes belonging to the four 

 Linnean orders Apodes, Jugulares, Thoracici, and Abdomi- 

 nales, as he had ascertained to be natives of the waters in 

 the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, accompanied with valuable 

 remarks, and illustrated by specimens of some of the rarer 

 species. Of the Apodes he enumerated four species, be- 

 longing to three genera : 2 to Murrena; 1 Anarhichas ; and 

 1 Auimodytes. Oi the Jiigulares he mentioned 13 species, 

 belonging to three genera : 1 Callionymus, the gemmeous 

 dragonet ; (For, from examining many specimens, the au- 

 thor had concluded that the sordid dragonet of Mr. Pennant 

 and Dr. Shaw if. not a distinct species, but merely the fe- 



mals 



