The Canadian Naturalist and Quarterly Journal of Science

NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of the Society was held at its rooms on May 19th, the President, Principal Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., in the chair. Mr. J. F. Whiteaves, the Recording Secretary, read the minutes, after which the President delivered the annual address.

The Chairman of the Council, Mr. G. L. Marler, then read his report, of which the following is an abstract:—

The Council in making its report for the past year, does so with feelings both of pleasure and regret; with pleasure in having to acknowledge the many valuable scientific contributions which have been placed on the Society's records, to which the President has already alluded; and with regret that the Society has lost many of its members, the number of which is becoming less every year. This decrease is to be attributed to various causes, chiefly, however, to the fact, that the Committee whose special duty it is to solicit and canvas for new members, has ceased its exertions, and that the work of the Society and its valuable contributions to science are not so generally known as they should be. During the last year the Society has lost by death, resignation, or removal, nineteeen members. Eight new ones have been added; the net loss on the year is thus eleven. An appeal should therefore be made to the present subscribers to induce their friends to join the Society.

Your Council begs leave to suggest one means whereby its sphere of usefulness would be enlarged, to wit, by affiliating other Societies, and by bringing into one place the different Libraries now existing in this city. The Society should especially urge upon the Trustees of the Fraser Institute the advantages that would accrue to both parties by such an affiliation. Not only is the position of your building most excellent, but the vacant ground adjoining, belonging to the McGill College, also makes the idea very practicable; and although affiliated the institutions would be distinct.

The annual Conversazione again failed to draw as many persons as we could have wished, notwithstanding the exertions of the Committee in whose hands the matter had been left. Yet your Council cannot but think that such reunions have a beneficial tendency, that much valuable knowledge is derived from them,

and that even though there be a loss in a pecuniary point of view, we must regard them as affording valuable knowledge of things and objects which would be otherwise unknown. Your Council, therefore, recommend that they be continued.

The Council desires to draw the attention of members to the collection of shells belonging to Mr. Whiteaves, your industrious Curator, which he is now engaged in classifying; they are so admirably arranged that their inspection will be useful and interesting to members of the Society and to students. Thanks are due Mr. Whiteaves for the duplicates of the collection which he has kindly presented to the Museum.

Your Council have to report that the post of Taxidermist and Janitor, left open by the resignation of the late Mr. Hunter, whom the Society had some difficulty in replacing, has been well and efficiently filled by Mr. Passmore.

Mr. Whiteaves also read his report as Scientific Curator, of which the following is an abstract :

Owing to the protracted ill health of our late deeply regretted taxidermist, it was found that moths were making havoc among the birds and mammals. The case being urgent, Mr. Craig was called in, and we did our best to remedy the evil. On Mr. Passmore's arrival, I called his attention to this circumstance, and he lost no time in making a searching examination into all the cases, and did all that could be done in the way of applying the necessary remedies. Mr. Passmore and myself have also studied closely our series of Canadian birds, have weeded out several specimens which we have good reason to suppose are not American examples at all, and have rectified some errors in the previous nomenclature. The series is now in good order, and none but authentic specimens are included in that part of the collection.

In the department of mammalia but one new species has been added, namely, a noble example of the grizzly bear of the Rocky

Mountains.

In ornithology, however, we have made much more progress. Mr. A. Jowitt has given us thirty-nine specimens of English birds, Major G. E. Bulger seven rare exotic species, but we have only added twelve specimens to our collection of Canadian birds. have not to go far for a reason for this. When Mr. Passmore arrived, ornithologists here thought that we now had another

active and able naturalist resident on the premises, our collection of birds and mammals would rapidly increase. A special application was made to the Minister of Agriculture of the Province of Quebec for a license to enable Mr. Passmore to procure birds, for the museum, which was not granted, probably owing to a misapprehension.

From the Smithsonian Institute at Washington we have received a large and valuable series of North American birds' eggs, consisting of ninety-one species, many of them of considerable rarity. Among the more interesting of these are the eggs of the Golden eagle, American pelican, King eider and Pacific eider duck, Velvet duck and Surf Scoter, Canvas-backed and Red-headed ducks, Gambel's and Hutchins' geese, Pacific diver, Western grebe, American oyster catcher, California gull, and other rare eggs from Arctic America and the Pacific coast. We have also added Canadian examples of the eggs of the Red-shouldered buzzard (Buteo lineatus), and of the Long-eared owl (Otus Wilsonianus) to our collection. A description of the nidification of each of these species, and a list of all the rare birds that have been recently obtained in the Province (at least of all those of which I could get any definite information) has been published in The Naturalist. The birds' eggs received during the past year have been labelled and arranged in drawers in the museum.

Major Bulger has presented a miscellaneous collection of objects of interest, mostly from the East Indies; a detailed catalogue of some of which has been published in the Society's Journal. Thirty-six species of fossils, several corals, and an example of the Glass-rope sponge (Hyalonema Sieboldii), have been also added to the Museum. Many of these were received in exchange for shells dredged in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

I have steadily worked at the preparation of my own private collection of shells and fossils for exhibition in the Museum, with the following general results: about 3000 species have been partially grouped, of which about 1000 have been attached to proper tablets. Where a name has been ascertained with tolerable certainty, a pen and ink label on white paper has been permanently attached, but where the identification is doubtful, the name and locality of the species is only written in pencil on the blue tablet. Of those mounted permanently 411 species are marine gasteropods (univalve), 300 species and upwards are land or fresh-water gasteropods, 324 species are lamellibranchiate bivalves;-I esti

mate those remaining unmounted at about 2500 species. With regard to the scientific arrangement to be ultimately adopted, there are some difficulties in the way. Dr. Woodward's manual, though excellent as far as it goes, represents only the state of our knowledge of the subject some fifteen or twenty years ago. On the other hand the Messrs. Adams and Dr. Gray in their elaborate treatises unfortunately disregard the well-known and well-estab. lished laws of zoological nomenclature. In the meantime, until the whole collection is mounted, the arrangement is one of mere convenience. When mounting my own shells, all the duplicates were put into the Society's collection, and in this way over fifty species have been added to it.

The work of editing the Society's Journal has led this year to a much larger amount of general correspondence than last, which has taken up time that would otherwise have been devoted to work in the Museum. Under many disadvantages and difficulties, and with many deficiencies and shortcomings to regret, it is yet hoped that the work done during the past session has not been altogether barren of results but that it may have tended in some small degree to help to popularize the study of the natural sciences in the city.

The various reports were ordered to be printed, the usual votes of thanks to the retiring officers duly passed, and the meeting proceeded to elect officers for the current year with the following result:

OFFICERS FOR THE YEAR 1871-72.

President.-Mr. Principal Dawson (re-elected).

Vice-Presidents.-Dr. Hunt, Rev. Dr. De Sola, Sir W. Logan, Dr. Carpenter, Messrs. Billings, Selwyn, Leeming and Barnston, Dr. Smallwood.

Treasurer. Mr. J. Ferrier, jun. (re-elected).
Cor. Secretary.-Prof. Darey (re-elected).
Rec. Secretary.-Mr. Whiteaves (re-elected).

Council.-Messrs. Marler, Watt, McCord, R. Bell, Shelton, Edwards, Drummond, Murphy and Joseph.

After naming the sub-committees, the meeting adjourned.

Dr.

THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF MONTREAL IN ACCOUNT WITH JAMES FERRIER, JR., TREASURER.

Cr.