214 PROCEEDINGS OP THE 



Truxillo, and made some remarks on these and other species of 

 aquatic reptiles. 



Mr. J. B. Low, M.A., exhibited a species of Gorgonia from 

 Jamaica, on which Mr. John Young, F.G.S., made some remarks. 



PAPERS READ. 



I. — Some Notes em Goniocypris mitra. By Mr. Thomas Scott, of 

 Greenock, Corresponding Member. 



The study of the Fresh-water Ostracoda is often a means of 

 spending a leisure hour both pleasantly and profitably. Notwith- 

 standing that water of questionable purity is often their habitat, they 

 in many instances appear to enjoy life so thoroughly, and to be 

 so much at home, though in confinement, that it is often a decided 

 relief, after the toils of the day, to sit quietly and watch their busy 

 life, either swimming about in their own peculiar way, or running 

 in and out of the soft mud, or over the aquatic vegetation. Some 

 of them no doubt appear to be of a more meditative turn, and love 

 ignoble ease rather than the busy hurry-skurry life of their neigh- 

 bours, but this difference only adds to the interest with which we 

 view them. One great fault of theirs (of course it is taken for 

 granted that, like other creatures of Earth, they are not faultless), is 

 that they are cannibals. I do not exactly mean to say that they will 

 attack a healthy neighbour and make a meal of him, but that they 

 do eat up a sickly one I have seen proved by ocular demonstration. 



It is only within comparatively recent years that this interesting 

 order of the Crustacea has been wrought out with anything like 

 systematic thoroughness, and I need scarcely say that the worker 

 who has done more than any other to increase our knowledge of 

 these organisms is the respected member of this Society, Mr. David 

 Robertson. 



One result of the increased interest taken in the Ostracoda has been 

 the addition of not a few fresh-water species. Among these 

 additions is a form which was got in some parts of England, and 

 some years ago a station in Scotland was also found for it, viz., a 

 loch near Edinburgh. The specimens from both England and 

 Scotland were not perfect enough, however, to allow of a satisfac- 

 tory knowledge of the structure and habits of the organism being 

 arrived at, but it otherwise appeared to all intents and purposes to 

 be an Ostracod, and from its peculiar three-angled bishop's-mitre- 

 like form was named Goniocypris mitra. 





