Government. They have continued to act in concert with the Royal Society Committee, the two having together maintained Mr. R. C. L. Perkins in the islands during the whole of the twelve months since the last report. They have now the pleasure of stating that that gentleman has obtained valuable results in several departments of zoology, and more especially in entomology. The Committee have received from him several consignments, being the result of his first year's work. These are roughly estimated at nearly 150 bird-skins, 3,000 insects, 1,000 shells, a collection of spiders in spirit, together with some crustaceans, worms, and myriapods. These specimens confirm the importance of the investigation your Committee are carrying on, while the information received from Mr. Perkins and other quarters strengthens their belief that the work should be done at once, and that it is not probable that it will be satisfactorily done except by some such body as your Committee.

The Committee therefore request that they may be reappointed, with the same powers as before, and that the sum of 2001. be placed at their disposal.

A Digest of the Observations on the Migration of Birds at Lighthouses and Light-vessels, a report on the same.-Report of a Committee, consisting of Professor A. NEWTON (Chairman), Mr. JOHN CORDEAUX (Secretary), Messrs. R. M. BARRINGTON, J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, W. EAGLE CLARKE, and the Rev. E. P. KNUBLEY.

THE Committee have to report that steady progress has been made with the systematic tabulation of the statistics, and a series of schedules framed for the final report. The nature of the work is such that it necessitates a great expenditure of time, as each item contained in the vast mass of schedules accumulated has to be separately dealt with and entered in the sheets. The Committee trust that the Association will reappoint them as before, so that the work, now entrusted to one of their number-Mr. W. Eagle Clarke-may be duly carried out and brought to a conclusion.

The present state of our knowledge of the Zoology and Botany of the West India Islands, and on taking steps to investigate ascertained deficiencies in the Fauna and Flora.-Sixth Report of the Committee, consisting of Dr. P. L. SCLATER (Chairman), Mr. GEORGE MURRAY (Secretary), Mr. W. CARRUTHERS, Dr. A. C. L. G. GÜNTHER, Dr. D. SHARP, Mr. F. DUCANE GODMAN, Professor A. NEWTON, and Dr. D. H. SCOTT.

THIS Committee was appointed in 1887, and it has been reappointed each year until the present time.

During the past year the efforts of the Committee have been directed mainly to the working out of the great series of specimens secured from the West Indian region by means of its collectors, and the collector employed by Mr. Godman.

ZOOLOGY.

The list of birds collected in Anguilla by Mr. W. R. Elliott has been published by Dr. Sclater in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society." Mr. R. I. Pocock has completed his account of the Myriapods, Scorpions, Pedipalpi, and Peripatus, and his exhaustive papers on these subjects, which have been communicated to the Linnean Society, are in course of publication. Professors Riley, Ashmead, and Howard have finished the parasitic Hymenoptera of St. Vincent, and their paper, which contains descriptions of about 300 new species, has also been presented to the Linnean Society. These authors have been entrusted with the insects of the same group from Grenada, and a report on them will be duly forthcoming. In last year's report the publication was announced of Herr Hofrath Brunner v. Wattenwyl's Orthoptera of St. Vincent.' His paper on the Orthoptera of Grenada has now been received, and is being published by the Zoological Society. It describes fifty-five species, eight of which are new, and thirteen were not met with in St. Vincent. The report on the Hemiptera of St. Vincent, by Dr. Uhler, and a very important memoir on the Ants, by Professor Forel, have also been received, and will be published without delay.

The Rev. Mr. Matthews has undertaken to examine and report upon the Trichopterygidæ and Corylophide, and the specimens are now in his hands.

BOTANY.

Additional collections of cellular Cryptogams from Dominica, made last autumn by Mr. W. R. Elliott, have been received and distributed to those workers who have undertaken the groups of these plants. In addition to those mentioned in last year's report Mr. R. Spruce offered to work out the Hepatice of Dominica, and he has completed his examination. About thirty species are new, but for the rest Mr. Spruce finds great resemblance with the Hepatic flora of the adjacent French Antilles. The novelties obtained by Mr. Elliott were mainly from the peaks of the Diablotin and Les Trois Pitons. Mr. William West, of Bradford, is at present engaged on an examination of the difficult and obscure forms of hot-spring Algæ from the Souffrière of Dominica, and Professor Wainio has undertaken the Lichenes. All the groups of cellular Cryptogams have thus either been completed or are in course of examination.

The Committee regard with satisfaction this rapid working out of the vast series of specimens obtained by its efforts, and have considered and approved of a proposal to examine the island of Margarita, the natural history of which is wholly unexplored.

The Committee recommend their reappointment with the following members-Dr. Sclater (Chairman), Mr. George Murray (Secretary), Mr. Carruthers, Professor Newton, Mr. Godman, Dr. Günther, and Dr. Sharp. They also recommend that a grant of 2001. be placed at their disposal to enable them to continue their work, and to adequately provide for the exploration of Margarita.

The Marine Zoology of the Irish Sea.-Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. GEORGE BROOK, Professor A. C. HADDON, Mr. W. E. HOYLE, Mr. I. C. THOMPSON (Secretary), Mr. A. O. WALKER, and Professor W. A. HERDMAN (Chairman).

[PLATE IV.]

CIRCUMSTANCES have prevented Mr. Brook, Professor Haddon, and Mr. Hoyle from taking much practical part in the work; but the other three members of the Committee have all been present on nearly all the expeditions, and they have received much assistance from their colleagues of the Liverpool Marine Biology Committee and from some of the other naturalists who have been working at the Port Erin Biological Station during this year. The present report is drawn up by the Chairman, with contributions from Mr. Thompson and Mr. Walker, and from other naturalists, in regard to the groups of animals they have severally undertaken to investigate.

The area which this Committee was appointed to explore is that region of the Irish Sea which lies around the Isle of Man (see chart, Plate IV.), and which is classic ground to the marine biologist as being the scene of the first pioneer work of Professor Edward Forbes more than sixty years ago. Some few parts of the area were also investigated more minutely later on by Forbes in conjunction with Mr. R. McAndrew, a Liverpool merchant well known in science from the extensive dredging operations he conducted from his yacht along the north-west coasts of Europe from the Mediterranean to the north of Norway. The greater part of our area, however, has never been thoroughly explored, and some parts are still unknown ground to the naturalist. It is an interesting region from the considerable diversity of shore, of depth, and of bottom which it presents, and, as your Committee hope to show, it possesses an abundant fauna, including a number of rare and novel forms.

A continuation of the deep-water depression runs down from the Clyde sea area on the western side of the Isle of Man (see chart and section, Plate IV.), and gives depths of 70 to 80 fathoms within 12 miles of land. The bottom of this depression is occupied by a stiff blue-grey clay-mud, in which we find the annelids Panthalis Oerstedi and Lipobranchius Jeffreysii, the crustacean Calocaris Macandreæ, the echinoderms Brissopsis lyrifera and Amphiura Chiajii, the pennatulid Virgularia mirabilis, and the mollusc Isocardia cor.

It

In moderate depths on the sides of the depression we come upon varied bottoms of sand and sandy mud, gravel, dead shells, &c., on which is a rich fauna representing all the usual invertebrate groups. is from this region that the greater number of our additions to the British fauna have come. On April 30, from a depth of 46 fathoms, we obtained two specimens of Cyclostrema millepunctatum, Friele, a species only previously known from a depth of 649 fathoms near the Lofoten Islands in the north of Norway. From depths of 25 to 30 fathoms, to the west of Port Erin, we have obtained in considerable quantity the interesting ascidian Forbesella tessellata, which unites, in a

The sudden death of our friend and coileague Mr. George Brook has occurred since this report was drawn up.