PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 39 



that this subfamily is in a very unsatisfactory state, and the tendency of 

 recent authors has been to class the majority of the species under the 

 three genera, Smicra, Halticella, and Chalcis, ignoring the divisions which 

 former writers have prepared, partly on the ground that several genera run 

 into each other, and partly because it is usually considered that characters 

 taken from one sex only are not sufficient to establish a genus. But in 

 the order Hymenoptera, where the females frequently far outnumber the 

 males, forming, in fact, the bulk of the species, it seems that the latter 

 objection will hardly hold good. The author thereafter gives a revision of 

 the groups in question, and defines several new genera. — J. Murie. 



Zoological Society of London. 



November 28, 188-2.— Prof. W. H. Flower, LL.D., F.R.S., President, 

 in the chair. 



Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier exhibited and made remarks upon the skull of a 

 Rhinoceros from Borneo ; also the horns of a Buffalo and Deer from the 

 same country. 



Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited a specimen of the Eagle Owl, Bubo 

 mctculosus, said to have been obtained many years ago near Waterford, and 

 preserved in the collection of Dr. Burkitt. 



Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe exhibited and made remarks on some specimens 

 of Swifts from the Congo, and on a specimen of Maclmrhamphus alcinus 

 which had been obtained in Borneo by Mr. Everett. 



A communication was read from Prof. Owen, C.B., on the sternum of 

 Notornis, and on sternal characters. 



A communication was read from Dr. A. B. Meyer, in relation to the 

 adoption by naturalists of an international colour-scale in describing the 

 colours of natural objects. 



A communication was read from Dr. W. Blasius, of Brunswick, con- 

 taining the description of a small collection of birds made by Dr. Platen 

 in the island of Ceram. The collection contained forty-nine specimens, 

 referable to twenty-one different species, one of which was new to the fauna 



of Coram. 



A communication was read from Mr. E. P. Ramsay, containing the 

 description of a new species of Monarcha from the Solomon Islands, 

 proposed to be called Monarcha (Piezorhynchus) Browni. 



Mr. W. Bancroft Espent read a paper on the acclimatization of the 

 Indian Mungoos, Herpcstes griseus, in Jamaica. The author explained that 

 the object in introducing the Mungoos into Jamaica was the destruction of 

 the rats, which had committed serious ravages among the sugar and coffee 

 crops. The first Mungooses were introduced in 1871, and so beneficial 



