a view to elucidate this subject. With regard to the destination of our summer birds in winter, a large series of direct experiments was necessary to the proper comprehension of the length and direction of the lines which they followed.

Some Observations on the Fishes of the Lake District.
By J. DAVY, M.D., F.R.S.

In this paper the author referred, -1st. To the species of fish hitherto known in the district. 2nd. To their habitats, remarking that one of them, the vendace, till recently supposed to be peculiar to Scotland, had been found in Derwent water. 3rd. On the causes of the distribution of fishes; taking the vendace in its limited range as an example, two theories in explanation were offered as most probable, one, the transportation of its ova by birds, the other by floating ice, their vitality not being destroyed at the freezing-point of water. 4th. The growth of fish, of which remarkable instances were recorded, under the influence of unstinted and fitting food. 5th. Of variations in the species, occasioned by different agencies. The paper concluded by pointing out the necessity of legislative interference to prevent the destruction of fish. They are now taken in largest quantities at the season when they are about to deposit their ova, and when least fit for food. A closed season should be instituted throughout the country, and parr and smolts should never be taken.

On the Cause of the Instinctive Tendency of Bees to form Hexagonal Cells. By R. L. ELLIS.

The author supposed that bees were led to the exercise of this instinct by the use of their organs of sight. It was well known that, in addition to their facetted eyes, they had three single eyes; and he supposed that these eyes were placed in such a position as to enable them to work within a range sufficient to give the walls of their cells dihedral angles of 120 degrees.

On the Arrangement of Birds. By T. C. EYTON, F.L.S.

The mode in which birds obtain their prey is subject to considerable variation: adapted to this variation are the various members and organs of the class. The principal modes in which birds obtain their prey are the following:-By the power of flight or direct chase; by the power of approaching their prey unobserved; by the power of climbing; by the power of scratching and running; by the power of wading, and by the power of swimming. If a division of birds is made strictly according to the above qualities, there will be many that will not conform strictly to the greatest perfection of development adapted to each mode of living, but are endowed with a modification or mixture of two or more of them. Mr. Eyton proposes to divide birds into the following orders :-1. Raptores, or birds of prey, containing the families Vulturidæ, Falconidæ, and Strigidæ; 2. Noctivores, or nightfeeding birds, containing the Caprimulgidæ, Trogonidæ, and Coracinidæ; 3. Volitores, or flyers, containing the Trochilidæ and Cypsilidæ ; 4. Lapsatores, or gliders, containing the Alcedinidæ, Buceridæ, and Upupidæ.

Prehensores or Parrots.
Scansores or Woodpeckers.
Erucivores or Cuckoos.

Insessores or Perchers.

Bipositores or Pigeons.

Cursores or Runners.
Rasores or Scratchers.
Littoreals or Shore-birds.
Grallatores or Waders.
Natatores or Swimmers.

Mr. Eyton called the attention of the meeting to the peculiar mode in which the coracoid bone is articulated to the sternum among the humming-birds, and exhibited a drawing and specimens of those parts.

On the Oyster. By T. C. EΥΤΟΝ, F.L.S.

At the Cheltenham meeting the author exhibited the young oyster taken from the beard of the parent. He now traced the young oyster from the embryo state in the ovary to its perfection at five years old; and exhibited a series of drawings on the history of the oyster, the mode of preserving the beds and increasing their productiveness.

On the Anatomy of the Brain in some small Quadrupeds.
By ROBERT GARNER, F.L.S.

The comparative anatomy of the brain, little studied in Great Britain (Professor Owen having been one of the few labourers in the field), has on the continent met with more attention, witness the accurate researches of Tiedemann, Desmoulins, and Leuret. As the importance of the subject in regard to zoology and physiology cannot be doubted, the writer offers the description of the brain in a few small but interesting quadrupeds dissected by himself.

The two genera constituting the great family of quadrupeds, called Monotremata, similar in some respects, as far as the brain is concerned, are in others remarkably different. The Echidna Histrix has well-developed convolutions to its brain, that of the Ornithorhynchus paradoxus is only marked by the rather deep grooves of its vessels; it has, too, a bony lamina between the hemispheres, which is wanting in the other. The former has the olfactory bulbs very large, the latter much less. The Echidna has not the little side lobules of the cerebellum, which in the Ornithorhynchus are remarkable, occupying cavities in the temporal bone, and encircled by the three semicircular auditory canals; in the Echidna these last also exist, but deep in the solid bone. The Ornithorhynchus has the two posterior prominences of the corpora quadrigemina very little developed, less than in any other quadruped, if we are not mistaken, making therefore a gradation to their disposition in birds. Both have the peculiarity (general, it would appear, in the Marsupialia and Monotremata) of the absence of the corpus callosum. The two principal commissures are the anterior and the fornix, both well-developed, the latter being continuous behind with the hippocampus major; itself very large in such animals as have large olfactory bulbs and tracts, with which it is connected. The remaining parts do not much differ from other quadrupeds.

With respect to the organs of sense, and the cerebral nerves supplying them, we may commence (having already noticed that the olfactory organs are enormously developed in the Echidna) by observing that the eye of the aquatic species, the Ornithorhynchus, has a supplementary valvular lid, the lens also being more convex than in the Echidna. There is a lacrymal apparatus and duct in the usual place. The cerebral nerves generally are upon the normal plan, but the duck-billed creature has the fifth nerve very greatly developed to supply its curious mandible, which must possess extraordinary sensibility, though of a subdued kind, from its leathery covering; similar to that of a hand with fine touch enveloped in a closely-fitting glove. The large nasal branch of the first or ophthalmic division of this fifth nerve, running in a peculiar canal, and the second division, of course, supply the upper mandible, and the third the lower. Six fasciæ of nerves, generally very large, are distributed to the former, and four to the latter, on each side. The author is not sure whether mention is made in authors of the little saccular organs with papillæ, situated on the front of the palate, immediately under the nostrils, the latter situated, of course, above, on the upper surface of the bill. Home does mention four rudimentary anterior teeth in addition to those commonly enumerated. The origin of the great fifth nerve is evidently below the pons from the medulla oblongata. The external ear-canal is long and sinuous in the Ornithorhynchus, with a wider opening and more regularly curved in the Echidna. The drum of the ear looks downwards in this last, a little forwards and outwards in the first, and here too it is smaller and longer. In both, the membrane is stretched on a separate rim of bone like a tambourin. Home and Blainville give only two bones, but there is a loose quadrate bone attached to the malleus, and on which the trumpet-shaped stapes rests; this must be the incus. The malleus is large and connected with the bony circle, and also, as usual, with the membrane. In the Echidna the narrow Eusta

chian tube opens just within the posterior extremity of the nares, whence a bristle may be passed into the cavity of the tympanum. In the Ornithorhynchus it appears to be wider. In the Echidna the Vidian nerve, with another twig or two, is seen in the roof of the cavity, and may be traced to the portio dura; there is also a very distinct tensor tympani muscle. The cochlea only makes one imperfect turn in both animals, but the semicircular canals are completely formed. In the Ornithorhynchus one surrounds the opening of the side cavity in the cranium, and gives origin to one end of another which descends just outside the condyle, the third lying horizontally round the floor of the said cavity. In this animal there is one large opening for the passage of the eighth and ninth nerves, partly closed by a membrane and situated before the large occipital foramen; the Echidna has openings for them in the temporal bone.

Whilst the Ornithorhynchus is a sort of quadrupedic wingless duck, the Echidna is, as is well known, an ant-eater, having a very extensible tongue, without teeth, and its mouth situated at the end of a callous tubular muzzle. Of course, however, such a muzzle must present a great difference in its nerves. In this animal the nasal portion of the ophthalmic, for instance, is small (this nerve being scarcely related to the nose as an organ of smell), and the other branches of the fifth are also moderate in size. The two specimens of Echidna examined by the author had evidently been amongst the ants, and the friend who forwarded them observed that the animal's strength is enormous, that it burrowed in banks, and could roll itself up into a ball. How beautifully the Ornithorhynchus or Platypus is adapted to obtain its food, insects and mollusks found at the bottom of rivers, must strike any observer.

In three or four species of marsupial animals, Phalangista and Petauri, the brain was principally remarkable for the peculiarity mentioned above, the absence of the corpus callosum, the fornix taking its place somewhat, and having in front four prolongations, two going forwards above the anterior commissure, and two downwards behind it. The cerebrum in all was perfectly smooth, whilst the cerebellum in all the animals described in this paper is divided into lamellæ. There are moderate olfactory bulbs in front, the cerebellum has the "flocks" or small side lobules, the corpora quadrigemina are well-marked and their tubercles equal, a little exposed, and the hippocampus large. Indeed, with the exception of the peculiar absence of the corpus callosum, leaving the third ventricle exposed between the hemispheres, the brain in all these animals may well be compared to that of a hare or rabbit.

These remarks were closed with a few words on the encephalon of those curious animals the moles, two or three species of which have been examined, including the Condylura with a curious star-like snout, to supply which enigmatical part, the supermaxillary nerves are greatly developed. Generally there was no difference between the brains of foreign species and that of the common European species. This creature, admirably furnished with an acute organ of smell, and a very perfect internal ear (opening by a very wide orifice on the shoulder in the Condylura), has, as is well known, a very small rudimentary eye, a mere dot in fact. Nevertheless this eye has undoubtedly a true optic nerve, as was maintained by Treviranus and Carus; in fact, the figure given by the latter appears to me to be correct; at any rate, an optic nerve may be seen (by the lens) to whiten by the action of spirit, when examined at its commissure. The brain of this little creature, in some respects like that of the Echidna, has nevertheless a well-marked corpus callosum. The olfactory bulbs and tracts are ample, and connected through the hippocampus campus with the fornix, disposed as mentioned above. The anterior commissure is bifurcate on each side, with extensive connexions. The optic lobes, or corpora quadrigemina, are fairly developed, though the posterior one is certainly not so well marked; but still both are more so than could be the case if the sole relation of these parts were to the organs of vision, so rudimentary in the mole. The circle of Willis and other vessels are as regular and complicated as in the largest of the Mammalia.

On the Death of the Common Hive Bee, supposed to be occasioned by a
Parasitic Fungus. By the Rev. H. H. HIGGINS.

On the 18th of March last a gentleman of Liverpool communicated to me some

i

circumstances respecting the death of a hive of bees in his possession, which induced me to request from him a full statement of particulars. He gave me the following account:-"In October last I had three hives of bees, which I received into my house. The doorway of each hive was closed, and the hive was placed upon a piece of calico; the corners were brought over the top, leaving a loop, by which the hive was suspended from the ceiling. The hives were taken down about the 14th of March; two were healthy, but all the bees in the third were dead. There was a gallon of bees. The two hives containing live bees were much smaller; but in each there were dead ones. Under whatever circumstances you preserve bees through the winter, dead ones are found at the bottom of the hive in the spring. The room, an attic, was dry; and I had preserved the same hives in the same way during the winter of 1856. In what I may call the dead hive there was abundance of honey when it was opened; and it is clear that its inmates did not die from want. It is not a frequent occurrence for bees so to die; but I have known another instance. In that case the hive was left out in the ordinary way, and probably cold was the cause of death. I think it probable that my bees died about a month before the 14th of March, merely from the circumstance that some one remarked about that time that there was no noise in the hive. They might have died earlier, but there were certainly live bees in the hive in January. I understand there was an appearance of mould on some of the comb. There was, I think, ample ventilation; indeed, as the hives were suspended, they had more air than through the summer when placed on a stand. When the occurrence was first made known to me, I suggested that the bees might probably have died from the growth of a fungus, and requested some of the dead bees might be sent to me for examination. They were transmitted to me in a very dry state, and a careful inspection with a lens afforded no indication of vegetable growth. I then broke up a specimen and examined the portions with a compound microscope, using a Nachet, No. 4. The head and thorax were clean, but on a portion of the sternum were innumerable very minute linear slightly curved bodies, which, when immersed in water, showed the well-known oscillating or swarming motion. Notwithstanding the agreement of these minute bodies with the characters of the genus Bacterium of the Vibrionia, I regarded them as spermatia, having frequently seen others indistinguishable from them under circumstances inconsistent with the presence of confervæ, as in the immature peridia and sporangia of fungi. In the specimen first examined were no other indications of the growth of any parasite; but from the interior of the abdomen of another bee I obtained an abundance of well-defined globular bodies resembling the spores of a fungus, 00012*00016 inch in diameter. Three out of four specimens, subsequently examined, contained within the abdomen similar spores. No traces of mycelium were visible; the plants apparently had come to maturity and withered, leaving only the spores. The chief question then remaining to be solved was, as to the time when the spores were developed, whether before or after the death of the bees. In order, if possible, to determine this, I placed four of the dead bees in circumstances favourable for the germination of the spores, and in about ten days I submitted them again to examination. They were covered with mould consisting chiefly of a species of Mucor, and one also of Botrytis or Botryosporium. These fungi were clearly extraneous, covering indifferently all parts of the insects, and spreading on the wood on which they were lying. On the abdomen of all the specimens, and on the clypeus of one of them, grew a fungus wholly unlike the surrounding mould. It was white and very short, and apparently consisted wholly of spores arranged in a moniliform manner like the filaments of a penicillum. These spores resembled those first found in the abdomen of the bees, and did, I think, proceed from them. The filaments were most numerous at the junction of the segments of the abdomen. The spores did not resemble the globules in Sporendonema muscæ. The Rev. M. T. Berkeley, to whom I sent some of the bees, found, by scraping the interior of the abdomen with a lancet, very minute curved linear bodies which he compared to vibriones. He found mixed with them globular bodies, but no visible stratum of mould. From the peculiar position of the spores within the abdomen of the bees, and from the growth of a fungus from them unlike any of our common forms of Mucedines, I think it probable that the death of the bees was occasioned by the presence of a parasitic fungus."

On a New Species of Laomedea; with Remarks on the Genera Campanularia and Laomedea. By the Rev. T. HINCKS, B.A.

A new British species of Laomedea was described under the name of L. angulata, which is remarkable as being the only member of this genus yet discovered, in which the reproductive capsules are not axillary, but originate from the creeping fibres. Mr. Hincks also described a remarkable variety of Campanularia Johnstoni (Alder), which is branched, and bears capsules on the pedicle as well as on the fibre. In these two forms, the supposed distinctive characters of Laomedea and Campanularia are intermingled. There was not, indeed, a single constant character that could be relied upon for the separation of the two genera, and he therefore proposed, with Van Beneden, to range both branched and simple forms under Campanularia, abandoning the genus Laomedea. One section, however, of Campanularia seemed to him entitled to distinct generic rank; that which includes the small and (for the most part) sessile species, and for this he proposed the name Calicella.

On three New Species of Sertularian Zoophytes. By JOSHUA ALDER, of Newcastle-on-Tyne. Communicated by the Rev. THOMAS HINCKS. The first was a Plumularia of well-marked characters, discovered by Mr. Alder, near low-water mark, at Cullercoats, on the Northumberland coast: in habit it very much resembled a Halecium, but with ovicapsules similar to those of Campanularia Johnstoni. It was named Plumularia halecioides. The second species described was a Halecium from deep water on the same coast, for which the name of H. labrosum was proposed. The third, a foreign species, was found parasitic on gulf-weed from the Atlantic, and was named Halecium nanum. The paper was illustrated by drawings of the several species.

On the Homology of the Skeleton.

By G. M. HUMPHRY, Surgeon to Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge. Having lately been engaged in lecturing and writing upon the Human Skeleton, the author has carefully investigated the whole subject of its homology, in relation to the skeletons of the various vertebrate classes, and in relation to its development and connexion with the nervous system. The conclusions at which he arrives differ, in some particulars, from those of Prof. Owen, more especially with regard to certain bones of the skull, such as the temporal bone, and the components of the anterior or nasal vertebra. His views, and the arrangement he proposes, are set forth in the accompanying Table I. In Table II. the bones are placed according to the plan of Prof. Owen; the differences between the two being indicated by italics. He considers that the pelvis consists of the hæmal elements of two sacral vertebræ; that the scapular arch consists of the hæmal elements of two cervical vertebræ; and that the limbs are appendages diverging from the points of junction of the hæmal spines with the hæmal alæ. The key to the comparison of the fore limbs with the hinder-a subject of much difficulty to anatomists-is furnished by the fact that the limbs are placed at the anterior and posterior ends of the trunk; and that consequently the opposed surfaces of their upper segments, as well as of the pelvis and scapula, are made to correspond; that is, the anterior aspect of the hinder limb corresponds with the posterior aspect of the fore limb. This disposition of the parts takes place during development. At first, each limb is nearly straight; the hands and feet bud out from the sides of the trunk; the palms and soles look downwards; and the thumb and the great toe look forward. Subsequently, each limb undergoes a quarter turn, but in opposite directions. The anterior limb is rotated, on its axis, backwards; the posterior limb is rotated, on its axis, forwards; the ilium and femur slant, forwards, from the hip; and the scapula and humerus slant, backwards, from the shoulder; the knee bends forwards; and the elbow bends backwards. In the anterior limb, however, a rotation of the distal segments takes place, when the hand is pronated, in an opposite direction to that which has occurred in the proximal segments; and pronation is the easiest position to man, and is the ordinary position with most other