176 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



SPECIIVIENS EXHIBITED. 



Mr James Lumsden exhibited a young male specimen of the 

 Great Spotted Woodpecker (Picus majw)^ shot by himself on the 

 9th November at Arden House, Loch Lomond. Mr Gray remarked 

 that this bird was of somewhat rare occurrence in the West of 

 Scotland, though it had of late years appeared in considerable 

 migratory flocks in the eastern counties, ranging from Berwick- 

 sliire to the Orkney and Shetland Islands. 



Dr Dewar exhibited a live specimen of the Snowy Owl (Nydea 

 scandiaca), which had been lent by Mr Martin, Buchanan Street. 

 This beautiful bird, which excited considerable interest by the 

 lively way in which it scanned the audience on being introduced 

 to the meeting, had been captured at sea on board the S.S. " St 

 Andrew." It was in beautiful plumage. 



Mr David Robertson, F.G.S., exhibited some recent nodules of 

 Post-pliocene Clay, from Norway, enclosing various species of 

 mollusca, the clay having evidently been hardened by the presence 

 of animal matter. These were shown in illustration of a specimen 

 of clay taken out of a skull of the Great Irish Deer in which the 

 clay was found to contain a considerable portion of animal matter, 

 rendering it insoluble in water. 



PAPERS READ. 



I. — Abstract of a im])er on the Existence of the Elk {Alces malchis, 

 Gray) in Scotland. By Professor John Young, M.D., F.G.S. 



Dr Young described, and gave the measurements of, the head 

 and antlers of an Elk found in a marl pit in Perthshire, and 

 referred to by Mr Smith of Jordanhill as being deposited in the 

 Hunterian Museum. As Mr J, Young had pointed out, this example 

 had been entirely overlooked by subsequent writers. Dr J. A. 

 Smith of Edinburgh, in his paper " On the Reindeer in Scotland," 

 has doubted the existence of the Elk, and, without seeing the 

 specimens, it is impossible to rely on statements not m^de by 

 naturalists, more especially as there is still some confusion in the 

 use of the word Elk, which is used indiscriminately for the 

 Caribou and the Wapiti. Mr H. AVoodward has spoken of an 

 Elk as having been found at " Chirdon Burn," a locality which he 

 (Dr Young) had failed to identify. In the course of his remarks 



