NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 181 



ANDERSON'S UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS. 



February 27th, 1872. 



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

 Messrs Henry Young and James J. King were elected resident 

 members. 



SPECIMENS exhibited. 



Mr Chapman exhibited a large collection of butterflies, beetles, 

 bats, and reptiles from Batavia. These had been forwarded by 

 Mr William Lorrain, one of the Society's corresponding members, 

 and excited considerable interest. Among the beetles were several 

 specimens of Mormolyce phyllodes — a species remarkable for the 

 peculiar leaf-like expansion of the elytra. 



Mr James Lumsden exhibited a specimen of the Marsh Tit (Parus 



palustris), from near Loch Lomond, a species somewhat local in 



its habits, and probably restricted in its distribution in Scotland 



to localities south of Perthshire. Mr Lumsden also drew the 



attention of the meeting to the circumstance of numbers of Eazor- 



bills (Alca torda) having of late been cast on shore, either dead or 



in an exhausted condition, both on the English and Scottish coasts. 



He had even heard of specimens having been driven inland to 



considerable distances, and he exhibited one which he had found 



in the River Fruin, about three and a-half miles in a strait line 



from the sea. This gave rise to a discussion among the members 



as to the probable cause of the exhaustion and mortality affecting 



a single species, as in the present case. In 1859 large numbers of 



sea-fowl of various species had been discovered dead on the water 



— the mortality, however, having been much greater in the Frith 



of Clyde than elsewhere. Various theories had been put forward 



to account for the visitation, such as loss of food and consequent 



starvation, poisoning from substances floating on the sea, as would 



happen after the shipwreck of a vessel laden with paraffin oil, etc.; 



but during the present winter, the disease having been confined 



exclusively to one species, it was not easy to account for its 



existence. Several gales had no doubt been experienced on 



various parts of the coast, but these would naturally have aff*ected 



Guillemots and other birds as well as Razorbills; and as for the 



loss of food, it was remarked by Mr Gray that the shoals of 

 VOL. II. N 



