BRISTOL NATURALISTS' SOCIETY. 
From the Bristol Daily Post of October 9thy 1865. 
] The evening meetings of this society having been lately 
j resumed, the first general monthly meeting for this session 
I took place on Thatdday last, October 5th, at the Philo- 
I sophical Institution, and was attended by a considerable 
i number of members and friends, amongst whom we noticed 
several ladies. 
Mr. W. Sanders, F.R.S., F.G.S., the much-respected 
President of the Society, occupied the chair, and in opening 
the proceedings referred to the excursion meetings of the 
society and of its sections which had taken place since the 
i spring. He hoped that this session would be as successful 
as the last, and it would be so if everyone would do his 
share. The council were not, as yet, well provided with papers, 
and he callei upon the younger members to promote the 
society, not merely by their presence, but by their contribu- 
tions of papers or short notes (which could be put into shape 
by the secretaries) on those branches of science to which 
they devoted themselves, Mr. Sanders then alluded to the 
loss the society had sustained in the death of a gentleman 
who was known to a wide circle of acquaintance, and who, 
in addition to rendering valuable aid in its formation, had 
presided at the inaugural meeting, and filled the post of 
vice-president of the society for the first year. He referred to 
I the Rev. Canon Guthrie, whose death they would all lament, 
as also that of Mr, C. G. Heaven, who for a long period had 
been attached to the various societies connected with the 
institution. 
The hon. secretary, Mr. A. L=iipner, announced the election 
of three new members, Mr. G. E. Wright, Mr. E. Bright- 
man, and Mr. C. Desprez, He then stated that the desira- 
bility of holding a soire'e during the winter had been 
discussed by the Council, who wished to have the opinion of 
the members also. It was proposed to illustrate it with, as 
far as possible, local specimens of natural history and 
objects of general scientific interest. A favourable reception 
was given to the project, and the Council was requested to 
make inquiries and provisional arrangements, subject to 
confirmation at the November meeting. 
Mr. Hugh Owen, who had kindly come from London to 
attend this meeting, then read two short papers of great 
interest. The first was a description of the habits of the 
Periopthalmus Papilio— literally, the "look-all-round but- 
terfly fish," which spent the greater part of its life out of the 
water. It belonged to the Goby family, and was tolerably 
numerous in the river Gambia, on the West Coast of 
Africa, where it was frequently seen lying with its mouth 
above the water, or hopping along the surface of the mud in 
the mangrove swamps. Its eyes were so placed that it could 
examine its own tail with the greatest facility, and its 
great activity enabled it readily to seize any insect behind 
it as well as in front, and also to escape from its pursuers. 
From these two causes its capture was a very difficult 
matter; only six specimens had reached the author, and one 
of these he presented to the society. If it were prevented 
from returning to the water this curious little fish, which 
seldom exceeded six inches in length, would bound np the 
mangrove trees. One very atriking peculiaritv was the great 
size f^i the otolith, the malleus being larger than in fishes a 
hundred times its size. 
The second communication was upon the instability of 
colour in certain feathers. Dr. Benjamin Hinde, a son-ia- 
law of the author, had seat a pair of plantain eaters— 
