Proceedings of the Royal Society for the month of April, 1885.

A monthly meeting of the Society—the first of the session of 1885 — was held at the Royal Society's rooms, on Tuesday, April 14. There was a large attendance of Fellows. Mr. James Barnard, vice-president, occupied the chair.
The following gentlemen were elected Fellows :—The Premier (Hon.
Adye Douglas, M.L.C.), Mr. Justice Giblin ; Messrs. E. Edmondson, Joseph Davies (Beaconsfield), H. J. Burnett, J. C. Hadley, G. H. Edwards, J. F. MacMullen, Arthur Butler, H. T. Maning, and the Rev. T. M. O'Callaghan.
The Hon. Secretary (Dr. Agnew), said that amongst the novelties laid on the table that evening was a catalogue of the library, prepared by the Curator, and which had long been a great desideratum, and it had been compiled now with such completeness that it would be a very valuable possession for some time to come. It was so arranged that any books received in the future could have their names inserted in the proper place. Mr. Morton deserved the greatest credit for the assiduity and ability which he had shown in the compilation of this very useful book, and thanks were not only due to him, but also to the Government for kindly allowing it to be printed at the Government printing office, and so saving the society a great deal of expense. The officers of the department, Messrs. Strutt and Grahame, had shown such an amount of attention, care, skill, and interest in the mechanical part of the work that he could hardly find words to thank them.
Mr. E. D. Swan said the absence of the Woodpecker wao, according to Gould, owing to the Australian trees shedding their bark, so that the beaks of the birds would not be required to bore into the trees to get insects for food.
Col. Legge said it would be very interesting to acclimatise them here and see the result. Also included are additions to the Library, presentations to the museum and time of leafing, fruiting and flowering of a few standard plants in the Royal Societies gardens’ during March, 1885