promote it; and the inhabitants of every part of Ireland are invited to concur, and to communicate on the subject with the Assistant Secretary of the Society, giving a description of the articles which they may be disposed to exhibit. The exhibition is to take place within the Repository of the Society on the second Monday in February, 1834: all articles for it should be ready, and sent in or before the 1st of that month.

Amongst the articles of which the Exhibition may consist, may be enumera

ted

The productions of our looms in woollens, linens, cotton, silk, and their numerous varieties.

Lace, hosiery, threads, yarns, printed and stamped cotton, and other goods. Leather and skins variously prepared, and their applications in saddlery, harness, shoes, gloves, and fancy wares. Hats of every description-Imitation Leghorn and straw bonnets. Papers, plain, stamped, and coloured. Paper hangings, painted floor cloths, fancy matting.

Gold and silver plate, jewellery, watches,

clocks, mathematical, optical, and other scientific instruments.

Glass, in all its variety of form and use. Pottery ware.

Hardware, whether wrought or cast, in steel, iron, copper, brass, bronze, or

other metals.

Cutlery.

Fire arms.

Dies and medals.

Engravings, whether on metal or stone. Lithography, typography. Carvings, turnings, and ornamental works in ivory or wood-in foreign or Irish marbles, and imitations thereof. Musical instruments.

Cabinet ware and upholstery, gildings, &c.

Machinery, and mechanical contrivances, and models thereof. Models or plans of buildings. Relief in plaster, wood, stone, sculpture. Carriages, agricultural instruments. Chemical preparations, useful in arts, manufactures, or medicine.

Products of our mines and quarries. Specimens of agricultural and horticultural produce.

In fine, every article which can serve to exemplify native ingenuity and industry, and illustrate our national resources.

There are extensive Sheds for the exhibition of Carriages of all kinds, of implements of husbandry, of machinery, or

of any article too large for an exhibition room,

No article can be entitled to a premium without clear and satisfactory proof of its being the manufacture, invention, or production of Ireland.

The nature of the article intended for exhibition, and the space it is likely to occupy, to be distinctly stated by the person who is disposed to exhibit it.

Articles admitted into the Exhibition cannot be removed until the period of exhibition be over, which may last two, or perhaps three weeks.

articles, at pleasure. Prices may be attached or not, to the

Articles to be conveyed to and from whom they belong. the Exhibition at the expense of those to

After the hours of exhibition, the rooms to be locked, and to remain under the

custody of the officers of the Society; but every facility will be afforded to the exhibitors of any curious or valuable articles, to secure them in cases which may be sent in for the purpose, or in such manner as may be deemed most expedient.

The Exhibition to be opened free to the public-on Tickets-which may be obtained from the members or officers of the Society.

Each article offered for a premium, must be accompanied with a sealed note containing the name of the exhibitor, which will not be opened till after the premiums are decided, and which will be before the public Exhibition takes place, in order that the names of the exhibitors may be marked on the articles obtaining premiums, unless it shall be otherwise desired by the owners.

At a meeting held on Thursday tho 14th of March, it was resolved

That it be referred to the Select Committee, and the Commitee of Agriculture, to communicate with the country gentlemen, during the Cattle Show, and to consider and report on the advantage and expediency of offering Premiums for Hay brought into Smithfield market, in Dublin, in Trusses.

The following donation was presented to the Society by M. Fitzgerald, Esq., M.R.D.S.

A Head of the "Sus Babyrussæ” of Linnaus.

RESOLVED That the thanks of the Society be presented to Mr. Fitzgerald for this valuable and very perfect specimen.

May 2.

Mr. Hawthorne presented the following report from the Selected Committee, in conjunction with the Committee of Chemistry and Mineralogy :

It having appeared to these Committees since their last report, that the allowance of £150 to the late Sir Char

les Giesecke, as Keeper of the Museum, was only personal to him, and not intended to apply to his successor; they are of opinion, that it will not be in the power of the Society to offer to such persons as may be Candidates for the vacant situations, more than the salary enjoyed by Sir Charles Giesecke, of £150, as Professor of Mineralogy; and they recommend to the Society, that they should endeavour to procure for the latter annual salary, (with the liberty of keeping private classes,) a person qualified by his knowledge of Mineralogy, Geology, and Natural History, to take charge of the Cabinet of Minerals, and of the Museum; and that these Committees should have the same authority as that delegated to them on the 4th April last, to invite scientific men to propose for the Professorship.

"CHARLES S. HAWTHORNE "Chairman."

May 9.

Mr. Hemphill presented the following report from the Committees of Library and Museum :

"Your Committees have to report, that since the last meeting of the Board, the Society has experienced a severe loss by the death of their respected and valued Librarian, Frederick Cradock, Esq., a loss which they have no doubt the Society at large will unite with them in deploring, and creating a vacancy which they will find it difficult to fill with the same degree of efficiency, correctness, and talent. That immediately on this event taking place, the Assistant Secretary convened those two committees, and that they have felt it to be their duty to

direct that the Library and Museum should both be closed until the Society should have an opportunity at their meeting on Thursday next, the 9th inst., to give such directions, on this occasion, as they may judge proper.

"6th May, 1833."

RESOLVED,

"JOHN MCKAY, "Chairman."

That it be referred to the Committee of Botany, to take into their consideration how far it may be practicable to have a short course of Lectures, on the Physiology of Plants, delivered by the Professor in the Society's Theatre, in Kildare-street, this season, previous to the delivery of the course at the Garden, having reference to the resolution of the Society of the 4th April.

President-The Provost. Vice-Presidents-Lord Oxmantown, Whitley Stokes, M.D., Colonel Colby, R. E., Richard Griffith, Esq.

Council-Francis Barker, M.D., Maziere Brady, Esq., G. A. Hamilton, Esq., W. T. Hamilton, Esq., Robert Hamil

nell, M.D., Philip Molloy, Esq., John Nicholson, Esq., Captain Portlock, R.E., Rev. G. S. Smith, Isaac Weld.

Secretaries-Rev. H. Lloyd, J. Apjohn, M.D.,

Treasurers-Rev. T. Luby, Henry Joy, Esq.

The seventh public meeting of the members of the Natural History Society

in the present Session, was held on Wednesday evening, 17th of April, on which

occasion a paper was read by Mr. William Webb on Heat. The Reader justified the introduction of such a subject in a Natural History Society, by pointing out its universal influence over every part of the universe. The two conflicting theories respecting the nature of caloric were brought forward, and a number of facts illustrative of the phenomena of the radiation and absorption of heat were noticed, their influence on animals and vegetables alluded to, and the difference between latent and combined caloric explained.

The following donations to the Museum were received, viz. :-Addresses delivered to the Proprietors of the Liverpool Royal Institution at their different annual meetings, from Thomas Martin, Esq., Secretary; Proceedings of the Committee of Science, and Correspondence of the Zoological Society of London for 1832, presented hy the Council; thirteen copper, and five silver coins, from Mr. Herdman, Mill-street; a Hottentot carosse of the skin of the bonti-bok, and two bottles of snakes, from Mr. Robert Halliday, Esq., Cape of Good Hope; a species of limalu, or king-crab of the Americans, from New Orleans, presented by Samuel Vance, Esq.; a number of British and exotic insects, from J. O. Westwood, Esq. F.L. S.-part of these were received in exchange for some of the Society's insects, and the remainder as a donation; some insects, from John Curtis, F.L.S.; specimens of a few of the smaller British fishes, from William

Yarrell, Esq., F. L.S.; specimens of Hippothon Elliotac and Linneus Grazemus Jeff., from John Ed. Gray, Esq., F.R.S.; nine large bottles of East Indian reptiles, from Major Martin; specimens of the turbo politas, from Bantry Bay, presented by Mr. John Humphreys, Cork; a fine skin of a boa constrictor, from Mrs. Dickey, Myrtlefield; fossil horn of the stag, (cervus elephas,) dug up in the vicinity of Belfast, from William Sinclaire, Esq., ten specimens of native birds, stuffed and in cases, being the remainder of thirty, including some rare species, from John Montgomery, Esq., Locust-lodge; a flying fish, and some of the rarer land and fresh water shells of Ireland, from William Thompson, Esq.; a collection of Irish marine shells, from Mrs. James Thomson Tennent; a number of foreign shells from a lady; a collection of Irish shells, from Robert Templeton, Esq.; some rare Irish marine shells, from George C. Hyndman, Esq.

The valuable donation of bird skins from Chili, received from James George Hull, Esq., of Santiago, had been announced on a former evening. Part of them having now been stuffed, by Mr. Carfrae, of Edinburgh, were exhibited, and, by the variety of their attitudes, and the contrast of their plumage, excited general admiration. Among them we noticed herons of different species, falcons, owls, ducks, flamingoes, spoonbills, kingsfishers, &c.

The Naturalist's Library. Ornithology. Vol.

1. Humming Birds.-By Sir William Jardine, Bart., F.R.S.E., &c. 8vo. pp. 147. burgh, Lizars; Dublin, Curry and Co. There could scarcely have been a better chosen subject to commence a Naturalist's Library than the history of the golden humming birds of southern countries.They were calculated to captivate attention by their curious forms and habits but more particularly by their lustrous and gorgeously varied plumage. Diminutive in their proportions, their wings arched and lengthy, the plumulets firmly united, and the shafts of the quills remarkably strong and elastic, their flight is so swift as to be compared by some to a meteor, and by others to the descent of a sun beam. Though

so frail and delicate, they are familiar, hovering over one side of a shrub while the fruit or flowers are plucked from that opposite, and when about to feed they poise themselves over the favorite flower so steadily, that the wings become invisible or only like a mist, and they then suddenly dart off to the object. They are singularly intelligent, and Mr. Bullock relates the curious manner in which they rob the large Mexican bird spider of his prey. These bee-like and beautiful creations, which Sir William Jardine has so ably illustrated, are, perhaps, the only birds that possess to an equal extent, variety of colour, and a lustre that approaches so nearly to that of the more brilliant

metals and gems. Superb mantles were made of their feathers by the Mexicans, pictures were embroidered with their skins, and jewels stolen from their "starry fronts," are worn by the Indian's bride. Yet these tints are versatile with the reflected light, and farther appear to vary at different ages in different sexes, and it is not certain if, like the Indian Bunting (Emberiza Paradisea), they do not undergo certain changes in different seasons which render the recognition of species oftentimes a source of considerable doubt. Of the first kind we have examples in the ruby-crested humming bird, in which the bird of one year is of a brownish grey.The Trochilus mellivorus from the considerable differences which exist between the plumage of the young and the old bird, has been described under more than one name. The T. recurvirostris, in which the recurvature of the bill was supposed to be accidental, till Wilson pointed out the necessity of such a provision to enable the bird to obtain honey from some of the pendant Bignonacea, is not in its complete plumage, and the young male and female of the T. magnifica differ from one another, and again in the adult state: it is indeed only the adult male that has any pretensions to the name which Viellot gave them. The second source of difficulty is exemplified in the difference between the male and female of the T. chalybeas, as figured by Lisson, and other species. In many the fe

male is unknown-this is the case in the

T. furcatus, T. cyansus, and T. petasphonis, figured in the work before us. The disappearance of crests, tufts, and other appendages, is a most common, if not a constant occurrence, and in many species there is even variety in size; this is the case in the female of T. ornatus, which wants the crest and neck tufts, and is less in size than the male. In the T.

delandii, the crown of the male is adorned with a crest, and the fore part of the throat is of a deep azure blue, in the female this crest is wanting, and the upper parts are of a golden green. The third cause of difficulty in specific determinations, occurs in the tufts of certain species, as the T. scutatus, T. ornatus, and T. Audenetii, which perhaps are in the ruff (Tringa pugnax), only appear during the breeding season. There are varieties in the birds themselves which are independent of all these circumstancesthus Lalham describes three states of the T. furcatus, and the same author mentions three varieties of the T. viridissimum, one of which is figured by Sir

William as the T. prasina. Lastly, there are variations effected by the sole influence of situation, which is strikingly exemplified in the evening humming bird (T. vesper), which inhabits the neighbourhood of Valparaiso, upon the naked and little wooded plains, and upon these elevated spots, wants the splendid lustre of the upper plumage.

Professor Rennie has condescended to say, that "with the exception of one thing," Sir William Jardine can write; we think so too, but we doubt very much how far this could be carried without those altered translations and frequent quotations which serve to connect the very few observations for which a work of mere illustration leaves space. The work, however, on every account is deserving of the highest encomiums, and is unparalleled in cheapness---35 beautifully coloured plates for 6s. and we shall look out with interest for its continuation. Edinburgh Cabinet Library. No. 11. Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, by Patrick Fraser Tytler, Esq., F.R.S. and F.S.A. In one vol.--Edinburgh, Oliver and Boyd; and Simpkin and Marshall, London, 1833.

We should be guilty of an injustice to our own opinions, as well as to the great merits of the volume before us, were we to confine our commendations, so far as

merely to consider it in reference to its valuable and interesting series, or as conforming an individual number of a most trasted with any of the works which have issued from the press, executed upon a nearly similar plan. It is, in fact, one of the ablest productions in point of arrangement and style, and the most attractive in interest, amongst the many publications which have lately appeared to ductors of the Edinburgh Cabinet Licanvass for popular favour. The conbrary, without any affectation or unfounded pretensions, have established liberal patronage of the public: from the equitable claims in their behalf, upon the

outset, their successive volumes have been distinguished for varied and instructive information, conveyed alike with conciseness and elegance; they have not undertaken a task which, upon experiment, they have been detected as incompetent to effect; nor are they likely to commit the error, by which some of their cotemporaries have suffered, and not untheir material and the number of their justly, in impoverishing the strength of able anxiety to publish, as it would apresources, by an indiscreet and unprofitpear, against time. The just and honorable meed of approbation, to which we conceive the managers of the Edinburgh