82 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Mr Coutts also exhibited several objects of interest from Old 

 Calabar, amongst which were a number of articles formed of 

 the rinds of gourds, and used by the natives for various domestic 

 purposes. They were of different sizes, some being two feet in 

 diameter, and were beautifully ornamented on the outer surface 

 with various devices, burnt into the woody fibre with heated tools. 

 There were also shown by Mr Coutts specimens of the nest of 

 the weaver bird, the construction of which displays remarkable 

 ingenuity. They are about a yard in length, and are composed 

 of dried grass, very similar to Esparto. In appearance they 

 resemble fine basket work, and in shape are not unlike a large 

 glass retort. The bulbous, closed end is suspended to the 

 under side of the leaf of the palm tree, while the narrow open 

 end hangs downwards. The object of this contrivance is to guard 

 against the depredations of serpents, which are great plunderers 

 of nests for the sake of the eggs. The position of this nest re- 

 moves it out of the probable reach of the reptiles, but even should 

 they succeed in getting to it, they contract the opening so much 

 by winding round the nest, that it is not possible for them to get 

 into the interior. 



Mr John Young, F.G.S., exhibited some Carboniferous fossils 

 from the limestone shale at Gillfoot, Carluke, Lanarkshire. He 

 stated that the specimens had been sent to him by Dr Eankin, 

 Carluke, who had examined the bed of shale very carefully, 

 and had obtained from it nearly 150 species of various marine 

 organisms, several of which were new to science. Two of those 

 which he exhibited belong to the genus Fenestella, being, 

 apparently, undescribed species. One of them has the interstices 

 strongly carinated, and tuberculated on both faces of the frond of 

 the polyzoon. These tubercules are seen in the best preserved 

 specimens, which show the poriferous face of the frond to be the 

 bases of short spines that are often broken off" in the matrix in 

 which the organism lies. When found in this condition these 

 spines present the deceptive appearance of perforated tubercules, 

 which, however, is not their true character. The other species of 

 Fenestella exhibited is found in fronds of about one inch in 

 diameter. It is characterised by the numerous and strongly 

 tuberculated nature of its non-poriferous face. The tubercules 

 occur in an irregular, alternating double row, and, like those 

 noticed in the former species, present, when broken or worn, the 



