178 proceedings of the 



January 30th, 1872. 



Mr James Ramsay, Vice-President, in the chair. 



The following gentlemen were elected resident members : — 

 Messrs John Fleming, Archibald T. Arrol, William Johnston, 

 Donald T. Martin, and David Aitken. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



Mr Gray exhibited the following birds, which have occurred in 

 the West of Scotland during the last six months : — 



I. A specimen of the Balearic Crane (Ghms jMiwwia), shot near 

 Dairy, Ayrshire, on 1 7th September. This large and beautiful bird 

 had made its appearance in the neighbourhood about a week pre- 

 viously, and was repeatedly seen soaring with a strong and vigorous 

 flight at a considerable height in the air. It then became a marked 

 object, and when it alighted it was heard giving utterance to loud 

 and discordant cries, the only effect of which was to draw the closer 

 attention of those who had designs on its life. On being 

 approached it ran with great swiftness before taking wing, and 

 ^after being hunted from one farm to another, it was at last shot 

 wliile perched on a hay-rick towards the close of a quiet Sabbath. 



The Balearic Crane is found generally in the north-east of Africa. 

 Dr Bree has admitted it with hesitation into his " Birds of Europe." 

 Brisson, however, has mentioned that in 1760 it was a common 

 bird in the Balearic Islands (Majorca and Minorca). Twenty 

 years later Dr Latham, in his ''General History of Birds," denied 

 the accuracy of that statement ; but the late Mr Swainson, in his 

 work on the " Classification of Birds," says that specimens were 

 brought to him in Malta from the little island of Lampidosa, 

 where they are by no means scarce. To these localities Degland 

 iidds Sicily; and the late Prince Bonaparte has recorded that the 

 species "is found in the islands of the Mediterranean." Mr 

 Tristram informed Dr Bree that one had been killed in the island 

 of Pantellaria, between Tunis and Sicily. 



Mr Gray concluded by saying, that though Keyserling, Blasius, 

 and Schlegel refuse to admit the bird into the European list, and 

 though another well-known ornithologist — M. De Selys Long- 

 champs — has also doubted its claims as a European species, there 

 could be no reason for rejecting it now, as an allied species — the 

 Demoiselle Crane {Anthropoides vircjo) — had been unhesitatingly 



