NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 259 



The Chairman showed a specimen of one of the crowned pigeons, 

 Goura albertissi, recently presented to the Hunterian ^Museum, 

 along with skins of birds and other animals, brought home last 

 year from Port Moresby, New Guinea, by the Kev. W. Y. Turner, 

 M.D. This fine pigeon, one of the largest of its class, belongs to 

 a recently-described species, discovered by the traveller D'Alberti 

 in New Guinea. It measures nearly 30 inches in length, being 

 about the size of a small turkey. The colours vary on different 

 parts of the bird from a slate-coloured blue to a rich chestnut 

 purple, the wings being barred with white. The crest that adorns 

 the head measures eight inches in length, and is composed of 

 thinly barbed feathers of a silky texture and of a greyish blue 

 colour. This handsome bird approaches closely in its character to 

 the Goura coronata found in the same island, but differs from it 

 in the form of its crest, and in the disposition of the colours over 

 its body. 



PAPERS READ. 



I. — List of the Birds which have heen observed in the district of 

 Ardnamurchan, Argyllshire. By Mr John J. Dalgleish, 

 M.B.O.U. 



The following notes are the result of observations made at 

 intervals during the last twenty-one years ; and although perhaps 

 it may be necessary to add to the list from time to time, still it 

 may be taken as a nearly complete one of the birds of the district. 



Before, however, proceeding to give the list in detail, it may be 

 interesting to describe the physical features of the district. 



The peninsula of Ardnamurchan, while interesting as being the 

 most westerly portion of the mainland of Great Britain, forms 

 otherwise a remarkably well-defined district for ornithological 

 observations, being bounded on the north and west by the open 

 Atlantic, and on the south partly by the Sound of Mull and 

 partly by Loch Sunart — one of the most beautiful of our western 

 fiords ; the eastern or landward boundary being very short, and 

 formed partly by the river Sheil and loch of the same name, 

 which separate it from Inverness-shire, and partly by the public 

 road leading from the latter at Ardshealach — a distance of only 

 a mile and a half — to Salen on Loch Sunart. 



The extreme length of the district is about twenty-five miles, 

 and the average breadth about six miles. It consists of a range 



