522 Roijal Society. 



In illustration of his paper Mr. Waterhouse exhibited the skin, 

 together with drawings of the animal, of its skull, and of its dentar^ 

 characters. 



Some notes of the dissection of a specimen of the Chilian Bush Rat, 

 Octodon Cumhigii, Benn., by Mr. Martin, were read, and are given in 

 No. xliii. of the Society's " Proceedings." 



July 26. — At the request of the Chairman, Mr. Gould exhibited 

 specimens of two new species of Bi7-ds from the Friendly Islands 

 and New Holland, of which he proposed to form a genus. He 

 stated them to approximate, in his opinion, in nearly an equal 

 degree to the genera Lanius, Turdus, and Lamprotornis ; but be- 

 lieved that they might with propriety be arranged among the 

 Thrushes. 'I'heir characters were given as follows : 



Aplonis. 



Rostrum capite paulo brevius, robustum, subcompressum ; man- 

 dibvila arcuata, ad apicem emarginata. 



Nares basales, ovales, patulse. 



Alee breves ; remigibus 2do et 3tio longissimis, Imo et 4to Eequali- 

 bus. 



Cauda brevis, lata, quadrata vel sub-bifurca. 



Tarsi robusti ; digitis magnis; unguibus magnis curvatis, hallucis 

 prsecipue valido. 



In both species the feathers of the head are lanceolate ; and the 

 general plumage above has a slight glossy hue, especially on the 

 head and back of the neck. The species were characterized as 

 Aplonis marginata and Aplon. /wsca. 



nOYAL SOCIETY. 



June 2, 1836. — A paper was read, entitled " Note relative to the 

 supposed origin of the deficient rays in the Solar Spectrum ; being an 

 account of an experiment made at Edinburgh during the Annular 

 Eclipse of May 15, 1836." By James D. Forbes, Esq., Professor 

 of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. 



The observation that some of the rays of light, artificially produced, 

 are absorbed by transmission through nitrous acid gas, had suggested 

 to Sir David Brewster the idea that the dark spaces in the solar pris- 

 matic spectrum may, in like manner, be occasioned by the absorption 

 of the deficientrays during their passage through the sun's atmosphere*. 

 It occurred to the author that the annular eclipse of the sun of the 

 present year would afford him an opportunity of ascertaining whether 

 any difference in the appearance of the spectrum could be detected 

 when the light came from difli'erent parts of the solar disc, and 'nad 



* See Lond. and Edinb. Pliil. Mag., vol. viii. p. 392. The same expla- 

 nation had been previously suggested by Sir John F. \V. Herschel ; see his 

 Essay on Light, Eticyc. Metrop., Art. 505; also his Treatise on Astronomy, 

 in the Cabinet Cyclopaedia, p. 212, note; and L. and E. Phil. Mag., vol. iii. 

 p. 406.— Edit. 



