246 NA.TUBAL HISTOKY SOCIETY OF DUBLIN. 



Captain Hutton said, he was very much pleased that so high an au- 

 thority as Dr. Haughton should have sanctioned his numerical calcu- 

 lations. They were not very deep, but still Dr. Haughton's concur- 

 rence was a satisfactory guarantee against mistakes. The question as to 

 whether the birds of the Northern and the Southern Hemispheres were 

 distinct species or not was an open one to naturalists, since what a 

 " species" was had not been defined — whichever view might be taken 

 of it did not affect his statement that the birds crossed over from the 

 southern to the northern seas. Moreover, there were differences 

 sufficient to enable a person looking at them to say whether they had 

 come from the Arctic or the Antarctic Seas. Mr. Andrews had said 

 that the Puffinus cinereus was related to the Procellaria hcesitata 

 (Licht. ), and he was quite right ; the differences between them, however 

 were sufficient to place them in different genera. The genus of these 

 birds was mainly determined by the form of their nostril. The Pro- 

 cellaria hcesitata had the long tubular nostril of a Procellaria, while the 

 Puffinus cinereus had it much less developed, and the opening slanting 

 upwards — in fact, a real Puffinus beak. 



Mr. Andrews said, tbe difference is very slight. 



Captain Hutton admitted it to be slight, but still it constituted a dis- 

 tinction between the two. You can always tell the Procellaria hcesitata 

 from the Puffinus cinereus by the look of the nostril. The Puffinus fuligi- 

 nosa is a Northern, and not a Southern Petrel, and is the young of the 

 Puffinus major. Captain Hutton also remarked that this Petrel (P. 

 hcesitata) is a sea-going one. It is a Procellaria, having the habits of 

 that genus, and is found thousands of miles from land, like the Alba- 

 tross. In the Southern Ocean the Shearwaters are never found far 

 from land. The Puffinus obscurus is a northern species, found in New- 

 foundland ; it is also one of the birds that fly up and down the Bospho- 

 rus, and are never seen to settle, the other being the Puffinus Anglorum. 

 In reply to Mr. Montgomery, the Lestris catarrhactes breeds always 

 on low flat grounds, amongst grass two or three feet high; it makes no 

 nest, and lays two or three eggs. With respect to an observation of Dr. 

 Bennett, Captain Hutton said, he did not remember having read Darwin's 

 description of the flight of the Condor until after he had written his 

 paper. 



Pursuant to notice given at last General Meeting, Mr. Brownrigg 

 proposed, and Professor Jukes seconded, the following motion : — 



" That the Keserve Fund of the Society be invested in Government 

 Securities." 



It was proposed by the Bight Hon. the Lord Mayor, as an amend- 

 ment thereto, and seconded by Mr. Yickers, 



" That the question of investing the Beserve Fund of the Society in 

 the Government Funds be referred to the Council for its consideration, 

 with a request that it report to the next meeting on tbe subject." 



