some extemporize very prettily without being able to play a single air. Their performance, however, is very graceful ; and though the melody be simple, every scope is given to variety by the mode of touching the strings. The author enters into an examination of the musical theory of the sounds produced by this instrument.
The Society then adjourned over the Easter Recess, to meet again on the 22nd instant.
April 22, 1841.
The MARQUIS of NORTHAMPTON, President, in the Chair.
William Bowman, Esq., was balloted for and duly elected into the Society.
The following papers were read, viz. —
1. Magnetic-term Observations taken on board H.M.S. Erebus and Terror, at Hobart Town, on the 29th and 30th August, and the 23rd and 24th September, 1840, by, and under the direction of James Clark Ross, Captain R.N., F.R.S., and Commander of the Antarctic Expedition.
2. Magnetic-term Observations made at the fixed Magnetic Obser- vatory, Van Diemen's Land, on the 28th, 29th and 30th August, and the 23rd and 24th September, 1840; by James Clark Ross, Captain R.N., F.R.S., Commander of the Antarctic Expedition.
3. Hourly Magnetic Observations for August and September, 1840, taken at the Ship's Magnetic Observatory, Van Diemen's Land, under the direction of James Clark Ross, Captain R.N., F.R.S., Commander of the Artarctic Expedition.
The above papers were communicated by the Lords Commission- ers of the Admiralty.
4. Variation de la declinaison, intensite horizontal et inclinaison magnetique, observes a Milan, pendant vingt-quatre heures de suite, le 24 et 25 Fevrieret Mars, 1841, par Signior Carlini, Forn. Memb. R.S.
5. " Remarks on the Birds of Kerguelen's Land." ByR. M'Cormick, Esq., Surgeon R.N. of H.M.S. Erebus. Communicated by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty
The birds usually met with by the author in this island were petrels and penguins ; and besides these, he found two species of gull, a duck, a shag, a fern, a small albatros, and a species of Chionis; and also a remarkable nocturnal bird allied to the Procellaria. Brief notices are given of the forms and habits of these birds.
