Royal Society. 287 



Melithreptes hetior, sp. n. 



Head and nape black, as well as the lores and ear-coverts ; 

 the cheeks and a band of feathers round the occiput pure 

 white ; back greenish yellow, brighter on the rump and shading 

 off into bright lemon-yellow on the hind neck and sides of the 

 latter ; tail brown, with a narrow whitish edging at the tip, all 

 but the outer feathers margined with greenish yellow ; wings 

 ashy brown, externally washed with grey, the primaries nar- 

 rowly margined with Avhitish ; under surface of body white, 

 the breast and flanks shaded with ashy, and the chin black, 

 fading into ashy brown on the throat and producing a distinct 

 chin-stripe ; under wing-coverts white, shaded with ashy. 



Total length 5'5 inches, culmen 0*6, wing 3'4, tail 2*7, 

 tarsus 0*75. 



Although very closely allied to M. gularis, Gould, this 

 species is altogether a much more finely coloured bird. In 

 size it is slightly larger, and is at once to be distinguished 

 by its white under surface and the beautiful lemon-yellow of 

 the neck. The ashy shade which pervades the entire lower 

 surface of M. gularis is not seen in M. Icetior. 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 

 ROYAL SOCIETY. 



April 8, 1875. — Joseph Dalton Hooker, C.B., President, in 

 the Chair. 



" First Report of the Naturalist attached to the Transit-of- Venus 

 Expedition to Kerguelen's Island, December 1874." By the Rev. 

 A. E. Eaton. 



To the Secretary of the Royal Society. 



Royal Sound, Kerguelen's Island, 

 31st December, 1874. 



Dear Sir, — It is difficult, owing to the inexactness of the charts, 

 to inform you of the positions of the Astronomical Stations in whose 

 neighbourhood I have been able to work in this island. The German 

 Station is in Betsy Cove, the American at Molloy Point, Royal 

 Sound. The English Stations also are in this Sound, the second 

 being situated about three miles N. by W. of Swain's Haul oyer. 

 The first English Station is between these last two on the main- 

 land, six or seven miles N.W. of Three-Island Harbour, in what 

 will be called Observatory Bay. Two days before the Transit of 

 Venus, a partv under Lieut. Goodridge, R.N., was detached from 



20* 



