78 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



containing nearly four hundred sjDecies of the organic remains 

 found in that formation. 



In the same halls there was a large collection of beautifully pre- 

 served British plants, by Mr John Robertson, St Vincent Street, 

 and a selection from the herbarium of the late Mr William Gourlay, 

 chiefly Leguminosce. On various tables there were excellent micro- 

 scopes, and mounted objects of interest, exhibited by Mr White, 

 Buchanan Street, and Mr John Stone, West Nile Street; and at 

 other tables a number of those instruments belonging to the 

 members were provided for the use of visitors. A display of j^lants 

 from the Botanic Garden, including an interesting collection of 

 Coniferae from various parts of the world, was arranged by Mr 

 Peter Clark, who had undertaken this section of the exhibition. 



The upper room presented the appearance of a museum. 

 One of the centre tables was wholly covered by a remarkably 

 good collection of birds belonging to Dr Dewar, including fine 

 examples of Raptorial birds, British and Continental. Con- 

 spicuous among these were the bald eagle and tawny eagle, the 

 latter having been shot in the Crimea by Dr Dewar himself — a 

 somewhat important capture, being the second instance of the 

 bird's occurrence in Europe — the sno"\vy owl, Iceland falcons, 

 goshawks, buzzards of various species, ospreys, etc. Mr Thomas 

 S. Hutcheson, the society's librarian, exhibited a number of relics 

 of Alexander Wilson, the American ornithologist, including a 

 folio volume of the plates of his celebrated work on the birds of 

 that country. Mr J. Mossman contributed one or two elegant 

 pieces of statuary, all bearing on natural history — one of which, 

 a model for Wilson's statue intended for Paisley, was much 

 admired. On the side tables were laid out an extensive collection 

 of British and foreign lepidopterous insects and beetles, by 

 Mr Thomas Chapman, whose cabinet is well known as the 

 richest in the West of Scotland; a complete series of crustacae, 

 echini, and star-fishes from the Firth of Clyde, by Mr David 

 Robertson ; and a collection of foreign shells by Mr Thomas Gray, 

 a gentleman whose cabinet is acknowledged to be one of the 

 finest in Britain. 



The Secretary exhibited three cases of objects somewhat novel 

 — these being a striking collection of sea-fowls' eggs from Ailsa 

 Craig, a number of birds' nests and their eggs, and cabinet skins 

 of British birds, the last conspicuous for their beauty and perfec- 



