1824.] Linneau Society. 387 



Affinities that connect the Orders and Families of Birds : by 

 N. A. Vigors, Esq. MA. FLS. Communicated by the Zoological 

 Club of the Linnean Society." 



Feb. 3. — Among the presents received at this meeting was a 

 Collection of Plants, made by Lieut. Col. Wright, of the Royal 

 Engineers ; during a journey through Circassia, Persia, and 

 Georgia. 



A notice by Mr. John Hogg, of Norton, Durham, was read, 

 stating that a fine specimen of Falco chrysa'etos, or Golden 

 Eagle, was lately shot near the mouth of the Tees ; being the 

 fifth known to have been killed in England. 



The reading of Mr. Vigors' extended paper was then resumed 

 and continued ; and it likewise occupied the attention of the 

 Society on Feb. 17 and March 2. 



March 16. — The reading of Mr. Vigors' paper was also con- 

 tinued at this meeting ; and the following other communications 

 were read. 



" Description of Erythrina Secundifiura. By Don Felix Avellar 

 Brotero, Emeritus Professor of Botany in the University of 

 Coimbra; For. Mem. of the Society." 



"On the insect called Oistros by the ancient Greeks, and Asilus 

 by the Romans. By W. S. MacLeay, Esq. FLS. Communi- 

 cated by the Zoological Club of the Linnean Society." In this 

 paper, which may interest the lovers of classical antiquity as 

 well as of natural history, Mr. MacLeay has produced many 

 interesting proofs that the (Estrus of the ancients, 



cui nomen Asilo 



Romanian est, (Estron tiraii vertere vocantes." (VlltG. Geor. II.) 



was not the insect to which the name is now given; but a 

 Tabanus. Olivier first observed that it was different from the 

 (Estrum of the moderns. Pliny uses the name Tabanusox the 

 MuojvJ/, which Aristotle says is nearly related to (Estrus, both 

 being atTrpoj-tfEvxcvrpa ; it cannot therefore be the modern (Estrus : 

 he also says that both are bloodsuckers, which agrees with the 

 Linnean Tabard, but is wholly inapplicable to the modern 

 (Estrus. As the insect is too well known for its name to have 

 been forgotten or misapplied, there can be little doubt that the. 

 Latin Tabauus, the Italian Tuba/to, Spanish Tavano, and French 

 Tuon are identical, which latter name Mouffet gives us the same 

 with the English Breese, Clegg and Clinger, mentioned by 

 Shakspeare, who, speaking of Cleopatra, says : 



" The Brize upon her, like a cow in June, 

 Hoists sail and flics." 



Some elucidation is also brought from Homer, and the Prome- 

 theus of iEschylus, and it is observed that Virgil describes the 

 Asilus or (Estrus as abundant and accrba sonans, whereas our 

 (Estrus bovis is a rare and silent insect. They were first con- 

 founded by Valisnieri, who has been followed by Martyn and 

 others. It is inferred that Aristotle did not even know the 



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