78 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 



The meetings of the Committee of Science and Correspon- 

 dence were held periodically till December 11, 1832. On 

 January 3, 1833, new bye-laws were passed, by which the 

 General Meetings for the transaction of scientific business were 

 instituted. These were open to the Fellows and their friends. 

 The first was held on January 8, when Mr. Joseph Sabine was in 

 the chair, and papers were read by Messrs. Bennett, Broderip, 

 Grant, and Yarrell. At the Anniversary Meeting in April the 

 bye-laws were confirmed, and the first Publication Committee 

 appointed. The Proceedings were carried on ; and in August, 

 1833, the first part of the first volume of the Transactions was 

 published. 



Numerous interesting communications were made at the 

 scientific meetings by the foremost zoologists of the time. The 

 following were the chief contributors : T. Bell, E. T. Bennett (61) 

 Blyth, Broderip, Joshua Brookes, J. E. Gray (59), John Gould 

 (74), Marshall Hall, Bryan Hodgson, Rev. W. Kirby, W. Martin 

 (44), W. Ogilby (29), Owen (78), John Richardson, Andrew 

 Smith, W. H. Sykes, N. A. Yigors (20), G. R. Waterhouse (29), 

 and Yarrell (46). The figures in parentheses show the number 

 of communications made during the decade. Owen heads the 

 list, with anatomical work at that time unrivalled ; Martin's 

 papers dealt chiefly with morbid anatomy; Gould's were con- 

 cerned with birds, and included valuable field notes ; Gray's were 

 systematic ; while those of Bennett, Vigors, and Yarrell were 

 more general in scope. Some papers by the last-named author 

 are worth recalling — notably those on Change of Plumage (1833, 

 pp. 9, 54) — in that the}^ are based on observations on the animals 

 in the Society's Menagerie. Darwin contributed some notes on 

 ground-finches of the Galapagos Islands (1833, p. 49); and in 

 1839 (pp. 2-4) A. D. Bartlett put in his first paper, which dealt 

 with the pink-footed goose and nearly allied species. 



The first volume of Transactions, issued in 1835, contained 

 forty- three memoirs, the most important being by Bell, E. T. 

 Bennett, G. Bennett, Broderip, Gould, Lowe, MacLeay, Owen, 

 and Rtippell. In a notice that appeared in the Annales des 

 Sciences for June, 1835, this volume was characterised as " un 

 recueil egalement remarquable par I'interet des memoires qui 

 s'y publient et par le luxe avec lequel il est imprim6." 



