253 
Transactions of Bombay Geographical Society. Vol. XIV. 8vo. 
— From the Society . 
Aanteekeningen van het Verhandelde in de Sectie-Vergaderingen 
van het Provinciaal Utrechtsche Genootschap van Kunsten en 
Wetenschappen. 1855-1859. Utrecht. 8vo. — From the 
Verslag van het Verhandelde in de Algemeene Vergadering van 
het Provinciaal Utrechtsche Genootschap van Kunsten en 
Wetenschappen. 1856-59. 8vo. — From the Society. 
Annales de 1’Observatoire physique centrale de Russie. 1856. 
4to. — From the Observatory. 
Compte Rendu Annuel. 1857- 4to. — From the Academy of 
Sciences. 
Report on Canadian Graptolites. By James Hall, Esq. Montreal, 
1858. 8vo. — From the Author. 
Tuesday , 3d January 1860. 
Professor MORE in the Chair. 
The following Communications were read - 
1. Some Miscellaneous Observations on the Growth of Birds, 
their Specific Gravity, and on the Stomach of Fishes in 
Relation to Digestion. By John Davy, M.D., F.R.S. Lond. 
and Edin. 
On the Growth of Birds. — -The author’s observations on this 
subject are chiefly confined to the martin, the common fowl, the 
turkey, and goose. They all tend to show a rapid growth, varyino- 
in degree according to the habits of the species. The young mar- 
tin was found on leaving its nest heavier than the parent bird ; 
and this the growth, as to time, of about twenty days, reckoning 
from the hatching of the egg. A turkey poult, the day it quitted 
the egg, weighed one ounce and three quarters ; in five months it 
had increased to ten pounds. A gosling, in thirty-four days, had 
increased in weight from six ounces to six pounds. A chick of the 
Dorking breed, in three months, had increased from an ounce and a 
half to three pounds. This rapidity of growth — a rapidity in the 
instance of nestlings fed by the parent birds essential to their ex- 
istence — is referred to two principal causes, an active digestion and 
