308 Obituary. 
up, and the specimens are of the most perfect plumage, and in excellent preser- 
vation. 
NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, BELFAST The eighth public meeting of the So- 
ciety was held in the museum on the 25th May, when the annual report of 
the council was read. The prospects of this Society are advancing ; a debt of 
L. 800, with which it has been encumbered, has been nearly cleared off. The 
number of members are increasing, and considerable additions have been made 
during the past year to the museum and library. The zoological and botanical 
papers during the last session read were, " On the various contrivances for diffus- 
ing seeds observable in cryptogamic plants," by the president " On the insects 
mentioned in Shakspeare's Plays," by Mr Paterson ; " On some proofs of de- 
sign observable in the animal kingdom," by Dr Thomas Henry Purdon. The 
season was closed by an address from Mr James M' Adam reviewing the recent 
progress of science in Belfast The officers and council for the ensuing year, are 
James L. Drummond, M. D. President Rev. Dr Hincks, M. R. I. A. Hon. V.-P. 
William Thomson, 1 v p . , Jas. M'Adam, Corresponding Secretary. 
George C. Hyndman, i v cs ' John Grattan, Librarian. 
Secretaries - william 
D. 
Thomas Andrews, M. D. William Patterson. 
James Bryce, Jun. A. M. F. G. S. James Sanders, M. D. 
Edmund Getty. Rev. Isaiah Steen. 
Robert Patterson. Professor Stevelly. 
OBITUARY. 
We announce with much regret the death of Mr Edward Turner Bennet, Se- 
cretary to the Zoological Society, who died on Sunday, 21st August, after a 
short illness. By his decease the Society has lost one of its most efficient office- 
bearers, and one whose province it was to detail the interesting additions which 
were acquired to the Mammalia of the collection. In this department he ranked de- 
servedly high; perhaps, so far as Britain is concerned, higher than any one- This 
will be borne out by the papers he has published in the Transactions of the Zoo- 
logical Society, a work, of which he took the principal superintendence, and 
which for general execution, stands unrivalled. He is also known as the author 
of the Tower Menagerie, and the Gardens and Menagerie of the -Zoological So- 
ciety. His name will stand recorded by the Antelope Bennetii, Orthotomus Ben- 
netii, &c. &c. 
EDINBURGH : 
PRINTED BY JOHN STARK, ' 
OI,D ASSEMBLY CLOSE. 
