132 Zoological Society. 



hoops or rings, about nine inches diameter, representing a globe 

 mounted on an axis which forms its poles, and to which a rapid mo. 

 tion is given, (being the same construction as is usually employed to 

 show the enlargement of the equatorial diameter by the centrifugal 

 force.) The axis of these hoops centres in a brass meridian, which 

 is also mounted in delicate vertical centres in a wooden frame, to 

 which the axis of the hoops is inclined at an angle of 23^°, a clock- 

 spring movement is attached to the axis of the hoops, and the whole 

 is carefully balanced, and stripped of friction as far as possible. 



The clock-movement being wound up and restrained from action 

 by a small click or trigger, on the removal of this click a very rapid 

 motion, from west to east, is given to the inclined axis and flexible 

 hoops, the upper pole of which becomes gradually depressed, by which 

 depression the flexible hoops assume the figure of an oblate spheroid, 

 in the usual manner. When this is acquired, the brass meridian re- 

 ceives a very slow movement from east to west, and it is the retro- 

 grade motion of this meridian which is charged with representing the 

 precession of the equinoxes. 



Baron de Drais also exhibited two instruments ; one for converting 

 mechanically the area of any figure of a regular form into the cor- 

 responding area of a triangle, square, or parallelogram : and the 

 other for clearing the distance in lunar observations, without the aid 

 of computation. 

 Stars observed with the Moon, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. 



1831.NOV. 13 .... 2) 1 L 22 1^9 22-86 



70 Aquarii 22 40 45-60 



K Aquarii 22 4.5 4380 



15 1} Piscium 23 40 27-84 



2't Piscium 23 45 27-32 



P Piscium 23 51 13-92 



]) 1 L 3 55-90 



19 5 2 L 3 58 29-40"l 



48 Tauri 4 7 3330 | 



yTauri 4 11 33-16 >Sky hazy. 



71- Tauri 4 18 2610 



Aldebaran. . 4 27 36-14J 



26 D 2L 11 10 11-24 



/3 Virginis. . . . 11 43 2359 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Committee of Science and Correspondence *. 

 November 22, 1831 :— A letter from Sir R. Ker Porter, Corr. Memb. 

 Z.S., dated City of Caracas, Sept. 10, 1831, was read. It contained 

 a detailed description of the Myrmecophaga jubata, Linn., under the 



name 



• In the printing of our last Number, the Proceedings of theCommittee 

 on Sept. 27th were inadvertently omitted : we now subjoin a brief abstract 

 of them to supply the deficiency. 



An extensive collection of skins o( Birds from the northern regions of 



North 



