254 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



foot were so singularly contorted that it seemed impossible it 

 could have used them in feeding; it must, therefore, have been 

 dependent solely on what fish it could find cast ashore by the 

 tides. Dr Dewar was inclined to think it had not been trapped, 

 as in that case the remaining leg might have been expected to be 

 strengthened and fitted for doing double duty. It seemed to him 

 that the malformation extended to both legs, one of which was 

 undeveloped, and the talons of the existing foot so curiously 

 twisted that it could be of little use to the bird. 



Mr George E. Paterson exhibited a specimen of the Oyster- 

 catcher (Hoematojms ostralegus), with an abnormal bill, forwarded 

 by Mr Thomas Struthers, Larkhall. This bird, which was 

 obtained some time ago near Motherwell, had the upper mandible 

 so far turned to one side as to make it impossible it could have 

 found its own food, and it is difficult to conceive how it could have 

 existed at all unless fed by some other bird. The specimen being 

 a young one had probably been bred in the district where it 

 was found. 



Mr James J. King exhibited a collection of coleoptera from 

 different localities, including examples of Placiisa infima taken at 

 Gadder in June of last year, under the bark of felled trees. 

 Tachinus elongatus, at Tollcross ; T. fiavipes and t. laticollis, common 

 in cow-dung at Rannoch; PMlonthus cephalotes and P. jjuella, both 

 sparingly taken at Rannoch ; Lathrohium atrqmljje, only one speci- 

 men of this Scottish rarity occurred, at Rannoch; Lema erichsoni, 

 from the neighbourhood of Belfast. 



Mr John Young, F.G.S., exhibited an interesting series of 

 Carboniferous mollusca, recently obtained from the weathered 

 fissures in the limestone at Hairmyres old quarry, near East 

 Kilbride, by Mr David Robertson, F.G.S., Mr James Armstrong, 

 and himself. The most of the specimens are found weathered 

 into relief on the face of the limestone fissures, maiiy of them 

 being but slightly attached to the rock, while all possessed their 

 original sculpturing in a wonderful state of preservation. A short 

 examination of the limestone strata had yielded the following 

 species, not hitherto recorded in that locality, while one or two 

 are rare shells in the limestone strata of the West of Scotland : — 

 BelleropJwn Urii, B. decussatus, B. Dumontii, Elcnchus antiqims, 

 Macrocheilus acutus, M. imhricaiuSy Naticopsis plicistria, N. variata, 

 Pleurotomaria Gallcoiiiana, P. Yva?ii, P. inonilifcra, P. contraria, 



