196 proceedings of the 



April 24th, 1877. 



Mr Thomas Chapman, Vice-President, in the chair. 



Mr James Thomson, LA., was elected a life member; and 

 Messrs. John Buchanan, Walter Burns, Scipio M. Kennedy, and 

 Robert Smith, ordinary members. 



Mr Peter Cameron submitted a report from the Committee 

 appointed last Session to prepare Catalogues of the Fauna of the 

 West of Scotland, and more particularly the Fauna of the 

 Clyde Valley. The report stated that arrangements had been 

 made with several Zoologists, who had undertaken to frame lists 

 of species in various departments of Natural History, so that the 

 first part might appear during this year. The Catalogues would 

 be paged separately from the Proceedings, so that when completed 

 they would form a separate volume. The report was approved of, 

 and the Committee instructed to proceed with the issue of the lists. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



The Chairman exhibited specimens of several species of Cetoniae, 

 including examples, in both sexes, of Goliathus iJolypliemus, from 

 the west coast of Africa, and remarked that this family of lanielli- 

 corn beetles forms an extensive and brilliant group of insects. In 

 a perfect state they frequent flowers, upon the juices of which they 

 feed, the structure of the maxillary lobes enabling them to lap up 

 the sweets. Some species are found on the trunks of trees, where 

 they feed on the sap, especially of such as are wounded. Dr 

 Savage, who has collected these large Cetonias at the Gold Coast, 

 states that they are roasted and eaten by the natives, who find 

 them to be fat and sweet. G. pohjphemus, he says, feeds upon a 

 vine climbing up very lofty trees, and full of a fluid as tasteless 

 and limpid as water, and so plentiful that the natives, in travelling 

 through the woods, tap it and drink the juice, when water cannot 

 be easily found. The Rosechafer, Cetonia aurata, is common in 

 the south of England on roses, and on the flowers of the privet. 

 In the larval state they are found in rotten timber. The larvae 

 and pupae are often found in ants' nests, where it is probable the 

 larvae feed on the fragments of wood of which the nests are often 

 largely formed. 



Mr James Lumsden, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of the Spotted 

 Crake, Crex jporzana, which was shot at Aird's Moss, Cronberry 

 Farm, in the parish of Auchinleck, Ayrshire, on 3d November, 



