28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



THE SOCIETY'S KOOMS, 207 BATH STREET, 



December 28th, 1880. 



Mr. John Kirsop, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



Messrs. John Pesque, Wm. R. Baxter, Colin A. M'Vean, Duncan 

 M'Kinlay, Archd. Muir, John Scott, David Glen, jun., James 

 Ballantyne, John Stewart, Duncan Thomson, and Wm. Cassels, were 

 elected ordinary members. 



SPECIMENS EXHIBITED. 



Mr James J. King exhibited Limnophilus subcentralis (Brauer) 

 from Aviemore in Inverness-shire, and Molanna palpata (M'Lach.), 

 from Strath-Glass in the same county, two species of Trichoptera 

 new to the British Lists, and showed by diagrams the points which 

 distinguised these from other species. 



Mr John M. Campbell exhibited a skin of the Nutria or Coypu, 

 Myopotamus coypus, Mol., from Chili, and remarked that although 

 the skins of the Nutria have for many years been a recognised 

 article of commerce, the animal itself has been very little known. 

 Mr. Ernest Gibson, of Buenos Ayres, one of the Society's correspond- 

 ing members, has already given, in vol. iii. of the Proceedings, p. 344, 

 an interesting account of the habits and economy of this animal ; 

 but as his paper was not accompanied by any specimen, some 

 doubts were at the time expressed as to the identity of the species, 

 and it was thought desirable to bring up the present specimen for 

 exhibition. The Nutria is a true rodent, and in habits and struc- 

 ture bears no little resemblance to the beaver ; but the tail, which 

 in the beaver is broad and paddle-shaped, is in this species long 

 and round. It is well known in Chili, Buenos Ayres, and several 

 other districts of South America, on both sides of the Andes, and 

 probably also in North America. In the British Museum there are 

 skulls of the species so marked, though they may not unlikely be 

 those of beavers. 



Mr Campbell also showed a specimen of the Indian Flying 

 Gurnard, Daetylopterus orientalis (Lin.), from the Gulf of Aden, 

 remarking that two kinds of fish are capable of flight owing to the 

 enlargement of the pectoral fins. One genus, Exoeaetus, comprises 

 the more familiar Flying Fishes ; the other, Daetylopterus, of which 

 the specimen shown is a young individual, is a genus of gurnards 



