55 [ Vol. xxxviil. 
section of a Snipe’s bill, showing the corpuscles of Herbst 
which form the principal sensory nerve-endings in that 
organ. ‘These bodies were discovered by Herbst about 1848, 
aud described twenty years later by Leydig (Archiv. f. mik. 
Anat. 1868). They are supplied by the superior maxillary 
branch of the trigeminal (5th cranial) nerve, and lie in pits 
in the bone at the tip of the bill. They consist of a central 
core of two parallel rows of square-shaped nuclei, between 
which runs the axon of the nerve, and of an outer coat or 
capsule of numerous lamine. The older histologists, in- 
cluding Leydig, believed the whole structure to be nervous, 
but the work of Symonovicz (Ibid. 1897) has shown that 
the capsule is of connective-tissue origin. The whole organ 
is morphologically allied to the Paccinian Corpuscle of 
mammals. 
Slides were then shown of the Great Black-backed, 
Herring, and Black-headed Gulls, Black- and Red-throated 
Divers, Terns, Plover, etc. 
Mr. Atrrep Ezra exhibited a most interesting series of 
slides illustrating a hunting trip in Assam, the photographs 
of Vultures assembled on and around the carcasses of the 
game that had been shot being especially noteworthy. 
Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker showed a number of slides of 
the nests and eggs of rare Indian birds. 
Mr. J. H. Owen, who was unable to attend, kindly sent a 
collection of slides, mostly taken in 1917, illustrating the 
nest of a Sparrow-Hawk, and showing various attitudes of 
the hen bird and of her young. Some very interesting slides 
were also shown of the young Cuckoo in the act of ejecting 
the eggs and young of its foster-parents and of the latter 
feeding the young Cuckoo ; while another series showed the 
Greater Spotted Woodpecker at its nesting-hole and feeding 
its young. 
