lxiv PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1 895, 



Fellow of the Geological Society in 1850, and died at his seat, 

 ' Park Wern,' Swansea, November 29th, 1894. He sat in the 

 House of Commons as member for Truro, 1852-57 ; for Glamorgan- 

 shire, 1857-85 ; and for the Swansea district from 1885-93, when 

 he was raised to the peerage. 



The only work of which he was the author is entitled ' Notes on 

 a Tour in America.' 



James Adet Birds was descended from an old Derbyshire family, 

 the Birds of Locko, Stanton Hall, and Bakewell, Derbyshire. He 

 was the son of the Bev. W. T. Birds, and was born November 9th, 

 1831, at Preston Bectory, Salop. He was educated at Bugby, and 

 graduated at Christ Church, Oxford. He took a deep interest in 

 geology, was a careful observer of geological facts, and communi- 

 cated several papers to the Geological Magazine between 1866 

 and 1881, notably on ' A bed of Chalk-flints near Spa, Belgium ' 

 (1866), on the ' Post-Pliocene formations of the Isle of Man 

 (1875), and on the ' Geology of the Channel Islands ' (1878), etc. 



Mr. Birds was elected a Bellow of the Geological Society in 1878. 

 He was a good classical scholar and linguist, and prepared an English 

 rendering of Goethe's ' Paust ' (published by Longmans in two volumes 

 in 1880). 



He formed an excellent geological collection, which he bequeathed 

 to the borough of Derby, the chief town of the county where his 

 ancestors had so long resided. He died at West Bournemouth, 

 on December 15th, 1894, in his 63rd year. 



The year which has just ended has given us a special subject for 

 congratulation. It has witnessed the issue of the 200th Number 

 and the completion of the 50th Volume of the Quarterly Journal 

 of the Society. 



The Council have resolved to celebrate the Jubilee of this im- 

 portant publication — so rich in papers on geological, petrological, 

 and palaeontological subjects — by the issue of that most valuable 

 and useful of all accessories to a long series of volumes — an Index 

 for Fifty years. 



It is pleasant to notice the steady onward tendency in our Journal 

 for the last year, and to mark its increase, by 158 pages, over 

 its predecessor, together with 16 more plates, and still as many 

 illustrations in the text as appeared in the volume for 1893. 



