1843.] Asiatic Society, 67 



It is moreover injurious to such, of our specimens as are under cover, to crowd them 

 one upon another, as I have hitherto been obliged to do, to bring as many of them as 

 possible within the protection of the two small glazed cases which alone can now be 

 allotted to them ; and the proper display of our collection of Mammalia to visitors is 

 altogether impracticable under existing circumstances. 



I may also be permitted to add, that it is evidently felt as discouraging by our 

 taxidermists, that the specimens upon which they have bestowed so much pains in 

 getting up, should be suffered to receive injury %r want of the needful protection of 

 glazed cases. 



It is now some months since the admeasurements were taken for two large cases, 

 such as would amply supply our present wants, to be placed outside the Society's 

 meeting-room, and opposite each branch of the staircase ; but I have understood that 

 the order for these has been, for the present, countermanded ; and in the mean while it 

 devolves on me to remind you that the perishable specimens intended to fill them are 

 in constant jeopardy, certain of them having already suffered injury as hereinbefore 

 mentioned. Yours obediently, 



Ed. Blyth. 



Ordered — That the estimate be prepared, and referred to the Committee of 

 Papers for approval. 



Read note from R. C. Gatfield, Esq. presenting Bows and Arrows used 

 by the Hill people about Rajmahl, for which the thanks of the Society were 

 ordered. 



Read letter from Mr. Jas. Dearden, Serampore, for whose curious Dona- 

 tion the thanks of the Society were voted. 



To the Secretary of the Asiatic Society. 

 Sir, — If the enclosed Nest or Bag, * which I found on a tree in the Garden of the late 

 Dr. Carey, at Serampore, be deemed by you worthy of preservation, 1 beg your ac- 

 ceptance of it for deposition among the Society's collection of curiosities. It contained 

 at the time of finding, two or three solitary, common red Ants, (these I imagine, 

 were not the framers) and was disposed between two unfaded leaves which were firmly 

 united round the edges by some adhesive matter, and so compressed, that they expanded 

 at the centre, taking the form of a mango fruit stone. The opening was at the tips 

 of the leaves. During the last six years, I have never observed any change in it. 



I remain, Sir, 

 Serampore, 18th December, 1842. Yours obediently, 



Jas. Dearden. 



Read the following letter from Major Boileau, of the Magnetic Ob- 

 servatory, Simla: — 



Simla, 8th December, 1842. 



My dear Sir, — I have the pleasure of sending, through my brother, two more Sets 

 of Tables, one a transformation of Mr. Oltmann's Barometrical Tables, which will be 

 very useful, in enabling the labourers in this department of Physics to reduce all these 



Note.— This Nest was probably the production of a silk weaving spider, but nothing farther could 

 be ascertained.— Ed. 



