PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
35 
the Insessores , and the Cormorants on the other, which were hatched quite naked, 
not being Insessores. —In the first case, the reason why the Caprimulgidce were 
excluded covered with down was sufficiently obvious, when we remember that 
these birds were hatched on the bare ground, without any preparation or nest, 
in consequence of which no care of the parents could suffice to prevent them 
from perishing, were they excluded otherwise. Mr. Vigors thought that the 
Caprimulgidce scarcely constituted any exception at all, as they stood at the 
extreme limit of the Insessores. 
The second General Meeting of this Society for the present session was held at 
the rooms on Friday, Dec. 1 , Harry Chester, Esq., in the Chair. 
The Report of the Council announced that the Hon. W. T. T. Fiennes had 
most liberally offered to place in the custody of the Society during his life, and 
at his own risk, the whole of his very valuable collection of stuffed birds, 500 speci¬ 
mens, mounted in cases. The Council had accepted this most liberal offer, and 
hoped that the collection would shortly be exhibited in the rooms of the society, 
where it cannot fail to prove highly valuable, by furnishing it with the means 
of promoting efficiently many of its important objects.—Since the last meeting 
Viscount Boyne, T. B. Lennard, Esq., Frederick Beckford Long, Esq., the 
Rev. John Jennings, and several other members, have been elected.—During 
the last month the Council have not been able to obtain any new specimens 
for the collection of live birds in St. James’s Park.—The society has already a 
valuable collection of British Anatidce. —The birds are generally in a very 
healthy condition, and the extent of the water on which they are located enables 
them to be seen in a natural state.—All the more ordinary Anatidce having been 
already procured, the Council are anxious to make exertions for obtaining 
additions to their stock of rare and unique specimens, trusting that the support 
of the public will enable them to meet the expenses necessary for this purpose.— 
Mr. Bartlett made some interesting observations on the various species of 
Gulls, and Mr. Blyth on the close affinity of particular species of the Mealy 
Linnet, and the meeting adjourned. 
MEDICO-BOTANICAL SOCIETY. 
Earl Stanhope, Pres., took the chair on Wednesday, Nov. 22.—After the 
routine business Prof. Johnson read a desultory paper, regretting that the Society 
had not met with the support nor reached the high station it deserved. Though 
known and recognized, the labours of the Society were little appreciated by the 
larger proportion of the metropolitan literati. Whence is this ? Why is not 
the importance of the branch of science the object of their pursuits more felt by 
the majority of the men in practice? Because physicians are too much the 
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