382 Miscellaneous. 



which he had in preparation. (See Bibliographical Notices, p. 357.) At 

 the same time he made some observations on the habits of the Tro- 

 gonida?, which elicited from various members their opinions of their 

 proper station in the system, which most of the ornithologists present 

 considered to be among the Fissirostres. Mr Macleay made some 

 interesting observations on the T. temnurus (forming the genus Tem- 

 nurus of Swain.) which is remarkably abundant in the island of 

 Cuba. This species feeds principally on caterpillars which it seizes 

 on the bark and branches of trees ; and it was thought that this man- 

 ner of feeding indicated the propriety of the views held by Mr Swain - 

 son, that it exhibited the scansorial type of the genus. The berry- 

 eating species of the Trogons have been found principally, if not en- 

 tirely, among the Caluri. 



Mr Sandbatch exhibited specimens of an undescribed Prionites and 

 a Parus from the collection of the Royal Institution : for the Motmot 

 he proposed the specific name of" superciliaris," from a stripe of ultra- 

 marine feathers which stretch over each eye. Jt is one of the most beau, 

 tiful of a limited genus, and appeared to be intermediate in the form 

 of the bill between the Pr. platyrhynchus, Jard. and Selby, and the or- 

 dinary forms, the bill very much depressed, and very finely serrated. 



Mr E. Forbes read a notice of several new forms of British ani- 

 mals and plants, making observations on two Mollusca, one allied to 

 Doris pinnatifida, the other to the genus Montagua of Dr Fleming. 

 He exhibited also Asterias rubens of Johnston. The plants mention- 

 ed were a new Polygala, which was described in the report of the Bo- 

 tanical Society of Edinburgh, and a new Euphrasia, distinguished from 



E. officinalis, by being hairy throughout, and having its fruit placed 

 in an alternate and opposite manner, so as to form four vertical lines, 

 and to give a square appearance to the spike. 



Friday, 1 5th September. 



Mr R. Mallet read a communication on the power of aged trees, 

 under certain circumstances, to reproduce themselves from the centre 

 of the trunk. The trees which have been observed to become most 

 generally hollow are the oak, elm, chestnut, beech, cherry, and yew ; 

 numerous sketches of remarkable instances of this operation of 

 time and the seasons were exhibited. The meeting did not seem to 

 agree generally with Mr Mallet in his opinions. Professor Henslow 

 and Mr Duncan made observations on the subject. 



Mr Smith, of Jordan Hill exhibited two new shells dredged 

 from Rothesay Bay, and which had been named Fusus Boothii, and 



F. umbilicatus. He also produced fourteen species of fossil shells, 



