236 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



1. A specimen of the Hawk Owl (Surnia funerea), which was 

 taken in the flesh to a Greenock bird-stufFer about ten clays ago 

 for preservation, and is supposed to have been captured at no 

 great distance from that town. This is the fourth specimen that 

 has occurred in the mainland of Britain, and the sixth Hawk Owl 

 that has been captured as British, taking into account two specimens 

 recorded by Dr Saxby, of Baltasound, as having been procured in 

 the Shetland Islands. 



2. A specimen of the Great Snipe (Scolopax major), shot by Mr 

 Boyd on the 15th September last, in the parish of Stewarton, 

 Ayrshire. 



3. An unusually dark-coloured specimen of Richardson's Skua 

 (Lestris Richardsonii), shot last winter in the Hebrides. This 

 specimen was exactly in the uniform shade of plumage figured in 

 Swainson's "Fauna Boreali- Americana" pi. 73. 



Dr Dewar exhibited a handsome variety of the Pheasant, 

 apparently a cross between Phasianus versicolor iind P. Colchicus, 

 obtained this month at Skipness, Argyleshire, and stated to the 

 meeting that he had another specimen of this variety in his 

 collection from Culzean grounds, Ayrshire. 



Mr J. Coutts exhibited specimens of the common Silk- Worm 

 and its products, from a second brood reared in Glasgow during 

 the present year, on which he made a few remarks. 



Mr J. Young exhibited from his own collection ten species of 

 Goniatites, and made some observations on this interesting group 

 of extinct, chambered, fossil shells, pointing out their relationship 

 to the extinct family of Ammonites, their distribution in time, the 

 manner of their occurrence, and the various species found in the 

 carboniferous limestone of Scotland. 



Mr William Lorrain exhibited a specimen of the Great Grey 

 Shrike, or Butcher Bird (Lanius cxcubifor), from near Lochwinnoch, 

 where it was shot a few days ago when in company with another 

 bird of the same species. In the course of his remarks on tliis 

 bird, Mr Lorrain stated that it occurs but rarely in the West of 

 Scotland, but was now becoming well knoAvn in the eastern 

 counties as a winter visitant, the specimens met with being 

 generally females and young males. Mr Gray had informed him 

 that out of a dozen specimens obtained by himself, only one could 

 be said to be a male in a perfect state of plumage. Mr Lorrain 

 expressed his obligations to Mr M'Culloch, bird preserver, 



