iSgi.] 



THE BRITISH NATURALIST. 



27 



ship, and what, from a geological point of view, must be regarded as 

 a comparatively recent descent from a common ancestor. 



As is the case in some other gromps, the red corpuscles of the 

 embryo bird are distinctly larger than than those of the adult, and this 

 fact surely looks the same way as those previously quoted. 



All Sauropsidans reproduce by eggs. There are a few apparent 

 exceptions, in which the eggs are retained within the body of the 

 mother ; but the exceptions are only apparent and not real ; and in 

 several groups of reptiles the eggs are protected by shell, similar to 

 the egg of a bird. 



Again, in watching the development of the chick in an egg, we 

 find that it passes through what may be called a reptilian stage — i.e., 

 the tail is precisely like that of a lizard ; but we shall refer to this 

 point later on. 



(To be continued.) 



Reports of Societies. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



January 21st, 1891 — The 58th Annual Meeting. The Right Honourable Lord 

 Walsingham, M.A., F.R.S., President, in the chair. An abstract of the Treasurer's 

 accounts having been read by Mr. Herbert Druce, one of the Auditors, the Secretary, 

 Mr. H. Goss, read the Report of the Council. It was then announced that the 

 following gentlemen had been elected as Officers and Council for iSgi : — -President, 

 Mr. Frederick DuCane Godman, M.A., F.R.S. ; Treasurer, Mr. Robert M'Lachlan, 

 F.R.S. ; Secretaries, Mr. Herbert Goss, F.L.S., and the Rev. Canon Fowler, M.A., 

 F.L.S.; Librarian, Mr. Ferdinand Grut, F.L.S. ; and as other Members of the 

 Council, Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., Mr. Edward Saunders, F.L.S,, Dr. David Sharp. 

 F.R.S., Mr. Richard South, Mr. H. T. Stainton, F.R.S., Colonel Charles Swinhoe, 

 F.L.S., Mr. George H. Verrall, and the Right Honble. Lord Walsingham, M.A., 

 F.R.S. It was also announced that the new President had appointed Lord 

 Walsingham, Prof. Meldola, and Dr. Sharp, Vice-Presidents for the Session, iSgi- 

 1892. Lord Walsingham, the retiring President, then delivered an address. After 

 alluding to some of the more important Entomological publications of the past year, 

 and making special mention of those of Edwards and Scudder in America, of 

 Romanhoff in Russia, of the Oberthiirs in France, and of Godman and Sah in in 

 England, the I'resident referred to Mr. Moore's courageous undertaking in com- 

 mencing his " Lepidoptera Indica," on the lines adopted in his " Lepidoptera of 

 Ceylon." Attention was then called to the unusual de\-elopment during the past year 

 of the study of those problems which have been the object of the researches of 



