Jan. 29, 1874J 



NATURE 



255 



Rickards, of Oaxaca, Mexico. The receipt of these specimens 

 proved that this Tapir extended from Panama through Central 

 America into Southern Mexico, and was probably the only spe- 

 cies of this genus to be met with in America, north of the Pana- 

 manic Isthmus. — Mr. Sclater also exhibited and made remarks 

 on skulls of Ovis arkar, from tlie Altai Mountains, and the 

 stuffed skin of a specimen of the Wild Ibex of Crete. — Mr. E. 

 Ward exhibited two feet of a Fawn, the mother of which had 

 had double hind feet, and had for several years brought forth 

 fawns having the same malformation. — A communication was 

 read from Dr. O. Finsch containing a description of an appa- 

 rently new species of Parrot from Western Peru, which was 

 ]iroposed to be called Psiitaciila aiidicola. — A second paper by 

 Dr. Finsch contained the description of a new species of Fruit 

 Pigeon from the Pacific Island of Rapa or Opara. This unit|ue 

 specimen had been sent to the author by Mr. F. W. Hutton, of 

 Otago, New .Zealand, after whom it was proposed to name the 

 bird rtilonoj'us hnltoiii. — A note was read by Major O. B. C 

 St. John, on the locality of the Beatrix Antelope (Oryx heatri.x], 

 which was believed to be the south of Muscat. — Mr. Edward 

 R. Alston read the description of a new Bat of the genus Pkro- 

 puSy which had been sent to him from Samoa for identification 

 by the Rev. S. J. Whitmee. Mr. Alton proposed to call this 

 species P/nopiis whitmeci. — A communication was read from 

 Mr. A. G. Butler, containing a list of the species of Fidgora, 

 with descriptions of three new species in the collection of the 

 British Museum. — A communication was read from Mr. Herbert 

 Dnice, containing an account of the Lepidopterous Insects col- 

 lected by Mr. E. Layard, at Chentaboon and Mahconchaisee, 

 Siam, «ith descriptions of new species. 



Meteorological Society, Jan. 21. — Dr. R. J. Mann, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — The date of the annual meeting having been 

 altered in June last to January, the report of the Council was 

 shorter than usual. The Council have been making efforts to 

 render the operations of the .Society more extended. They took 

 advantage of the presence of their foreign secretary, Mr. Scott, 

 as one of the delegates from this country, at the Meteorological 

 Congress at \'ienna, to request him to represent the Society, 

 The congress was duly held from .September ist to i6th, when Mt. 

 Scott presented a report on the replies received in answer to a 

 series of questions which the Council issued to the Fellows on 

 several important points in connection with the hours of observa- 

 tion, instruments, &c., and which has been printed in the report 

 of the Congress. The report concluded by stating that the 

 Council have to mark, with some measure of satisfaction, the 

 maintenance of the numbers of the Society during a somewhat 

 critical and transitional period in its history, when changes of de- 

 tail have been entered upon with a view to increased energy of 

 action, and when the beneficial results of the alterations have not 

 yet had time to be practically felt. The president then delivered 

 his address. After alluding to the loss which the .Society had 

 recently sustained in the death of Mr. Beardmore, and marking 

 the place that gentleman had filled as president at the transition 

 era of the Society's history, the president drew attention to a 

 misconception that is largely entertained of the primary aims of 

 meteorological science, and pointed out that desirable as a com- 

 prehensive and reliable theory i.s, the immediate object of ob- 

 servational work is none the less certainly the determination of 

 climate in different regions of the earth, and the investigation of 

 the method by which the action of the great natural forces that 

 determine temperature, direction and force of wind, and rainfall, 

 is influenced by physical conditions. Tliis argument was sup- 

 ported by evidence of the valuable practical results that are 

 secured in these particulars by the labours of meteorologists. 

 The address then proceeded to note briefly the chief landmarks 

 that had marked the yearly progress of meteorological science 

 since the period <il Mr. Bt.Trdmore's presidency, when the 

 Society, in its remodelled form, had just reached the half-way 

 stage of its history. F'rom this review it appeared that the pho- 

 tographic methoil of record has been largely extended ; that the 

 discussion of the Greenwich observa'ions from 184S to 1S68 is 

 being steadily pursued ; that the influence of meteorological con- 

 ditions upon the public health is carefully investigated in the 

 metropolitan district ; that telegraphic intercommunication of 

 meteorological aspects is now regularly made throughout the 

 United States of America ; and from the Meteorological 

 Office of London through England, and through France to 

 the shores of the North Sea and Baltic in one direction, 

 and to Corunna in the other ; and that storm-waniings are 

 displayed and fishermen's barometers maintained at 129 



coast stations. The methodical investigation of Ihe connection 

 of sun-spot periods with atmospheric phenomena, such as rain. 

 fall, aurors, and magnetic storms and earth-currents was also 

 alluded to. Among other topics of special interest connected 

 with the recent progress of meteorological science, the president 

 dwelt with special favour and affection upon the discovery and 

 establishment of Buys Ballot's law and Mr. T. Stevenson's 

 barometric gradient ; the extension of the influence which indi- 

 cates this law to the great vertical circulation of the oceans, 

 traced out by Dr. Carpenter and Prof. Wyville Thomson ; the 

 marine charts, .and especially the mapping out of the mid- Atlantis 

 area of the Doldrum calms, by Capt. Toynbee ; Mr. Meldrum's 

 Mauritius investigations of the movements of the cyclones of the 

 Indian Ocean ; the daily weather charts of the Meteorological 

 Office ; the deleterious physiological influence of the recent 

 heavy fog in London ; Mr. Symond's examination of the rainfall 

 of the British Islands, with a volunteer staff of 1,700 observers 

 systematically distributed ; Mr. Draper's deductions as to the 

 invariability of the climate of the United States, and to the 

 orderly progress of storms across the entire breadth of the 

 Atlantic ; the establishment and work of International Meteoro- 

 logical conferences ; and the barometric compensation of clock- 

 rates for altering pressure and resistance of the atm.osphere. — The 

 following gentlemen were elected officers and council for the en- 

 suingyear: — President — R.J.Mann, M.D., F.R.A.S. Vice-Pre- 

 sidents— C. Brooke, M.A., F.R.S. ; G. Dines; II. S. Eaton, 

 M.A. ; Lieut. -Col. A. Strange, F.R.S. Treasurer — H. Perigal, 

 F.R.A.S. Trustees— Sir Antonio Brady, F.G.S. ; S. W. 

 Silver, F.R.G.S. Secretaries — G. J. Symons ; J. W. Tripe, 

 M D. ForeignSecretary— Robert H. Scott, F.R.S. Council- 

 Percy Bicknell ; A. Brewin, F.R.A.S. ; C. O. F. Cator, M.A. ; 

 R. Field, B.A., Assoc. Inst. C.E. ; F. Gaster ; J. K. Laughton, 

 F.R.A.S. ; R. J. Lecky, F.R.A.S. ; W. C. Nash ; Rev. S. J. 

 Perry, F.R.A.S. ; Capt. M. Toynbee, F.R.A.S. ; C. V. Walker, 

 F.R.S. ; E. O. Wildman Whitehouse, Assoc. Inst. C.E. 



Entomological Society, Jan. 5. — Prof. Westwood, presi- 

 dent, in the chair. — Mr. Meldola exhibited some photographs 

 of minute insects taken with the camera-obscura and microscope. 

 — Mr. McLaclilan called attention to a paper in the last part of 

 the " Annales de la Soc. Ent. de France," by M.< Bar and Dr. 

 Laboulbene on a species of moth belonging to the Bombycida:, 

 described and figured by M. Bar as Palustra lahoulbcnciy and of 

 very extraordinary habits, the larva being aquatic, living in the 

 canals of the sugar plantations in Cayenne, and feeding upon an 

 aquatic plant. The hairy larva breathed by means of sma 11 

 spiracles, a supply of air being apparently entangled in its hairs. 

 — I\Ir. Butler remarked that Mr. J. V. Riley, in the Joitnial of 

 the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, had alluded to Apatura 

 lycaon Fab. and A. hyrsc Fab. as distinct species, whereas he 

 believed them to be identical with the A. alicia Edwards. — A 

 letter from M. Ernest Olivier stated that he had recently come 

 into possession of a portion of the collection of his grandfather, 

 the celebrated French coleopterist, and that he would be happy 

 to show it to any entomologist who might desire to examine the 

 types. — Mr. Smith communicated a paper on the hymenopterous 

 genus Xylocopa ; and Mr. D. Sharp a paper on the Pselaphidce 

 and Scydmanidii: of Japan, from the collections of Mr. George 

 Lewis. 



Edinburgh 



Royal Society, Jan. 19. — Principal Sir Alex. Grant, vice- 

 president, in the chair. — The following communications were 

 read : — Additional remarks on the fossil trees of Craigleith 

 quarry, by Sir Robert Christison, Bart. — On a method of de- 

 monstrating the relations of the convolutions of the brain to the 

 surface of the head, by Prof. Turner. — On some peculiarities in 

 the embryogeny of TropizoUiin spiriosum, Endl. and Poepp., and 

 7; pcrcgriimin, L., by Prof Alex. Dickson. — Notes on Mr. 

 Sang's communication of April 7, 1873, on a singular property 

 possessed by the fluid enclosed in crystal cavities. (l) By Prof. 

 Tait ; (2) By Prof. .Swan. — Preliminary note on the sense of 

 rotation, and the function of the semicircular canals of the in- 

 ternal ear, by Prof. Crum-Erown. 



Dublin 

 Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, Jan. 13. — His 

 Excellency, Earl Spencer, president, in the chair. — The report 

 was read by the Rev. Prof. Haughton, M.D., secretary, wlio 

 referred, among other matters, to the loss by death of an old 

 pelican {Pelicaiius onocrotabis') "who had been domiciled in the 

 Gardens for forty-two years. He was supposed to have been 



