126 Reports and Proceedings. 
of Paleontology and Zoology. This little handbook has five chap- 
ters, four of which consist of well-selected and usefully arranged 
notices of the characters, habits, and structure of the chief kinds of 
Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, and Fishes, and the distribution of the 
fossil species representing them in Geological Time. The fifth 
chapter, new to this edition, and drawn up with the assistance of 
Dr. Lankester, treats of the structure and composition of tooth and 
bone, showing the distinctive features of bones in different animals. 
Based on the ‘ Vertebrate’ portion of Owen’s ‘ Palzontology,’ 
illustrated by notes from the works of many travellers and observers, 
and referring, for living, preserved, and fossil specimens, to the 
Zoological Gardens and British Museum, ‘Old Bones’ may be 
recommended as a good introduction to the study of Vertebrate 
Life, past and present. The student will find the Geological range 
of the fossil species fairly indicated. We may notice, in particular, 
that the first chapter has been enriched with facts respecting the 
Antiquity of Man, and his co-existence with extinct mammalia, evi- 
dence of which is supported by the researches and publications of 
Boucher de Perthes, Prestwich, Falconer, Lyell, and others. 
REPORTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 
ee ee 
GEOLOGICAL Society oF Lonpon.—I. January 25, 1865.—W. J. 
Hamilton, Esq., President, in the Chair. ‘The following communica- 
tions were read :-— 
1. ‘Notes on the Climate of the Pleistocene Epoch of New Zea- 
land.” By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.G.S.—The main feature in this 
communication was a notice of the occurrence of bones of the 
Dinornis in the moraines of the extinct glaciers of New Zealand. 
In support of the author’s opinion that the extinction of that bird 
was due to the agency of man at a somewhat recent date, it was 
observed that the present Alpine flora furnished a large quantity of 
nutritious food quite capable of sustaining the life even of so large 
a creature; and as the fruits of these plants were at present applied 
to no apparent purpose in the economy of nature, the author argued 
the former existence of an adequate amount of animal life to prevent 
an excessive development of vegetation. ‘This part, he considered, 
was played by the Dinornis. 
2. ‘On the Order of Succession in the Drift-beds in the Island 
of Arran.’ By James Bryce, M.A., LL.D., F.G.S.—In a paper. 
read last year before the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Rey. R. 
B. Watson described all these beds as Boulder-clay, and did not 
assign the Shells which he had discovered in them to any par- 
ticular part of the deposit. Dr. Bryce dissented from this view, 
and in this paper pointed out the various causes of error likely to 
mislead an observer in examining such accumulations. He then 
described the various sections of the deposits, and showed that the 
lowest bed is a hard, tough, unstratified clay, full of striated, smoothed, 
