4870 Birds. 



crepuscularia and Anticlea rubidata ; all from the neighbourhood of Coomb Hurst, 

 Croydon. 



Mr. Edwin Shepherd exhibited a specimen of Leucania musculosa (L. nervosa, 

 Haw.), captured near Brighton by Mr. J. N. Winter. 



Mr. Westwood said that during a recent visit to Plymouth he had captured Aepus 

 marinus on the shore ; and under some sea-weed he saw, but could not catch, a 

 minute Dipteron,jvvhich he had little doubt belonged to the genus Clunio. 



Mr. Westwood called the attention of the meeting to three new works by Dr. Bur- 

 meister, which he had just received. The first, intituled ' Uebersicht der Brasilian- 

 ischen Mutillen,' a monograph of the Mutillidae, would include, besides the species 

 described by Dr. King in the 'Nova Acta,' all those discovered by Dr. Burmeister 

 himself in Brazil. The second, ' Untersuchung iiber die Fliigeltypen der Coleopteren,' 

 treated of the venation of the wings in Coleoptera, an Order hitherto very partially 

 investigated in this respect. The third, • Kritische Bemerkungen iiber M. S. Merian's 

 Metamorphoses Insectorum Surinamensuim,' which would be enriched in its progress 

 by the author's researches into the natural history of insects made during his residence 

 in Brazil. 



The President said that during a recent tour on the Continent he had learned 

 that the third volume of Professor Lacordaire's 'Suites a Buffon' was nearly ready; 

 also that M. Candeze had collected a large amount of material for his monograph or 

 the Elateridae, and still hoped to receive from English entomologists the assistance he 

 had asked, and that they were so well able to afford. 



Mr. Haliday, at the request of the President, gave some account of the matters ol 

 entomological interest that had come under his notice during the Continental tour he 

 had recently made in his company. That which had especially attracted his attentioi 

 was an adaptation of a microscope to a camera obscura by Herr Weinnertz, o 

 Crefeld, whereby the image of an object was thrown upwards on to a horizonta 

 surface of glass, and a drawing on tracing-paper was made with great facility 

 For copying the venation of wings it was especially useful, and had been extensively 

 employed by Herr Weinnertz ; Mr. Haliday esteemed it a preferable and far more easj 

 method than the camera lucida. — J. W. D. 



Birds killed by Cold. — I have this year, for the first time in twenty years, missec 

 the nightingale from my grounds. I generally have two nests at least, and three 

 weeks' beautiful song ; but this year I have had neither, and I should be glad to hear 

 from your correspondents if they have had like misfortune, and if we are to attribute 

 this loss to the cold weather. I did not observe any deaths among the swallows; but 

 I think most of our tenderer birds suffered severely. I picked up a male and female 

 bullfinch in my shrubbery at the point of death about pairing time. — C. R. Bree ; 

 Stricklands, StuwmarJcet, September 8, 1855. 



Occurrence of the Bee-eater (Merops apiastei) in the Isle of Wight. — Lieutenant 

 E. J. B. Edwards, of the Royal Engineers, shot in June last, at Weston, Freshwater, 

 a splendid specimen of the bee-eater. This was communicated to me by Mr. JVIurrow, 

 of the Royal Albion Hotel, Freshwater Gate, at whose house Lieutenant Edwards, 

 was staying at the time, and who saw it in the flesh. I also saw the person who 

 skinned it, viz. Mr. Rogers, bootmaker and naturalist, Freshwater, Isle of Wight. — 

 John Dutlon ; St. Peter\ Place, Hammersmith, September 15, 1855. 



