9/ 
MEETINGS OF SECTIONS. 
ENTOMOLOGICAL SECTION. 
Tuesday, November 12th. — Mr. Stephen Barton, President of 
the Section, in the chair. 
Mr. Clarke exhibited a fine specimen of a species of Heliothis. The 
specimen when first captured was supposed to be a dark variety of H. 
armigera, an insect very abundant in the Southern States of America, and 
often very destructive to the cotton crops, but of comparatively rare 
occurrence in this country. The ground colour of the wings of Mr. 
Clarke's specimen being so much darker than that of armigera generally, 
several members of the section expressed an opinion that perhaps Mr. 
Clarke's insect would eventually prove to be some other species of 
Heliothis. 
Mr. Clarke also exhibited specimens of Colias edusa, captured at Ashley 
Hill, in September, and a very pretty variety of Orthosia lota, taken on 
ivy blossom. 
A long conversation then took place with respect to the introduction of 
foreign specimens into British collections, and the President remarked 
how much better it would be if collections were made more general, so as 
to include all European species, instead of being confined to species 
occurring in the United Kingdom; and several members spoke of the 
great temptation (to dealers in natural history specimens especially) to 
introduce foreign specimens and palm them off on collectors as genuine 
British specimens, since many insects which might, if well authenticated 
as British, be worth from one to three or four pounds, could be purchased 
for a few pence on the Continent. 
CHEMICAL AND PHOTOGRAPHIC SECTION. 
Thursday, November 14th. — The Editor regrets to have to 
announce that this Section has ceased to exist, since no one but the Re- 
porting Secretary attended the meeting summoned for this evening, to 
which special attention was drawn at pp. 87 and 88, as well as on the 
Notice-page, of the last number of the Proceedings. 
ZOOLOGICAL SECTION. 
Thursday, Nov. 14th. — Mr. W. L. Carpenter in the chair. The 
attendance was very limited. 
A Paper on the Solitaire of Rodriguez, by Mr. C. O. Groome-Napier, 
F.G.S., &c, was read by the sectional hon. Secretary, Mr. S. H. Swayne. 
The Solitaire, (Didus solitarius, Gmelin), now extinct, had formerly inhabited 
the island of Rodriguez, but there were fewer notices of it than of the 
Dodo. The first account was published in London, in 1708, having 
been written by Francois Leguat, who, in company with several 
French Protestant refugees, visited the island in 1699, and remained ther e 
