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PROCEEDINGS OF THE WERNERIAN NATURAL HISTORY 

 SOCIETY. 



1833, April 6. Rev. Dr David Ritchie in the chair. — Mr 

 James Wilson read a paper on the natural history of the glow- 

 worm, a colony of which, found in the neighbourhood of Edin- 

 burgh, he had made the subject of particular observation. He 

 pointed out the change of habits, in regard to food, which takes 

 place among these insects, at a certain period of their transfor- 

 mations, the larvae being predaceous, or attacking living prey, 

 particularly minute testacea, and other moUusca, while the per- 

 fect insect are herbivorous. 



A communication by Mr Macgillivray was then read, regard- 

 ing the occurrence of a large flock of foreign water-fowl, the 

 Anas jEg2/ptiaca, on the eastern coast of Scotland ; but the 

 author suggested the possibility of these birds having strayed 

 from Lord Wemyss''s pleasure-grounds at Gossford ; and that 

 the present instance could not therefore, with certainty, be re- 

 garded as illustrating the natural migration of the species. A 

 drawing was exhibited of the leader of the flock, which had been 

 shot by Captain Sharpe. 



An extensive and valuable series of highly finished represen- 

 tations of the indigenous animals of Great Britain, chiefly qua- 

 drupeds and birds, by Mr Macgillivray, was also exhibited to 

 the meeting. Professor Jameson pointed out that their peculiar 

 excellence consisted in their combining, with great beauty of 

 pictorial effect, a more accurate representation of the forms of 

 the crania, as always identical in the young and old of the same 

 species, — an important particular, greatly neglected by ornitho- 

 logical draughtsmen ; and also in there being less of what is 

 called inaniurism in the general treatment of the plumage, the 

 characteristic form and texture of the feathers of each species 

 being particularly attended to by Mr Macgillivray. 



April 20. R. Jameson, Esq. P. in the chair.— A 



communication from Dr Scoulcr of Glasgow was read, giving 

 an account of the discovery during last autumn (1832), of two 

 specimens of the Sorex remifer of GeoffVoy, in the vicinity of 

 that city. They differ from the water-shrew in being of a larger 

 size ; of a deep velvet black on the back and sides, and a fcrru- 



