Linnccan Society. 73 



large scale, withheld them all by resisting fusion in the most intense 

 heat of our wind furnaces. Alloyed, indeed, with arsenic, it becomes 

 susceptible of receiving ornamental forms ; but a continued heat ex- 

 pels the volatile metal, and leaves the other in a state wholly unfit for 

 use. Dr. Wollaston, instead of alloying, purified the platinum from 

 every admixture by solution, consolidated its precipitate by pressure, 

 by heating, and by percussion, so as to effect a complete welding of 

 the mass, thus made capable of being rolled into leaf, or drawn into 

 wire of a tenacity intermediate between those of iron and gold. To 

 these scientific and beautiful contrivances we owe the use of a mate- 

 rial, not only of high importance to refined chemistry, but now actu- 

 ally employed in the largest manufactories for distilling an article of 

 commerce so abundant and so cheap as sulphuric acid. And, above 

 all, we owe to them the material which, in the skilful hands of some 

 members of this Society, has mainly contributed to their producing a 

 new species of glass, which promises to form an epoch in the history 

 of optics. Your Council have therefore deemed themselves bound to 

 express their strong approbation of this interesting Memoir, (inde- 

 pendently of all extraneous circumstances,) by awarding a royal 

 medal to its author. And they anticipate with confidence a general 

 approbation, in both these instances, of what they have done. 



The Copley Medal for the present year has not been given. 



The following is the list of officers for the ensuing year : — 



President: Davies Gilbert, Esq. M.P. — Treasurer: Captain Henry 

 Kater. — Secretaries : Dr. Roget and Captain Sabine, R.A. 



Council. — Francis Baily, Esq. ; Charles Bell, Esq. ; Robert Brown, 

 Esq.; Francis Chantrey, Esq. R.A. ; Right Hon, Sir George Cock- 

 burn ; Michael Faraday, Esq. ; Dr. Fitton ; Charles Hatchett, Esq. ; 

 John F. W. Herschel, Esq. M.A. ; Sir Everard Home, Bart, ; Captain 

 Kater ; Henry, Marquess of Lansdowne ; Right Hon. Robert Peel ; 

 John Pond, Esq. A.R. ; Dr. Roget, Captain Sabine; Rev. Adam 

 Sedgwickj Henry Warburton, Esq. M.P. j Dr. Wollaston 3 Dr. Young. 



LTNN^AN SOCIETY. 



Dec. 16.— Read Observations on some species of the Genera Tetrao 

 and Ortyx, natives of North America, with descriptions of four new 

 species of the former, and two of the latter genus. B3' David 

 Douglas, F.L.S., &c. &c. 



Tetrao. 



1. Tetr. Urophasianus : Mas. Brunnescenti-griseus, fcrrugineo 

 nigroque undulatus, collo anteriorc abdomineque imo nigris, pec- 

 tore albo plumis superioribus rhachidibus rigidis, infcrioribus in 

 medio nigro lineatis, plumis colli lateralibus elongatis, linearibus : 

 Cauda cuneata rectricibus subrigidis acuta. 



Focm. Brunnescenti grisea albo nigroque parce undulafa, abdo- 

 niine imo nigro, pectore albo nigrofasciato, caudu subcuncata, rec- 

 tricibus subacutis. 



T. Urophasianus : C. L. Bonaparte in Zool. Journ. No. 10. 

 p. 212. 



Interior of the River Columbia and New California. 

 New Scries. Vol.5. No. 25. Ja«. 1829. L 2. T. Uro- 



