LINNEAN SOCIETT OF LOXDON. I 5 



April 18th, 1901. 



Prof. S. H. Vines, F.R.S,, President, in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



Messrs. Allan Octavian Hume and Pierre Elie Felix Peredes were 

 elected Fellows of the Society. 



In view of the approaching Anniversary Meeting, the Rev. T. R. R. 

 Stebbing and Mr. Henry Groves were elected Auditors on behalf of 

 the Council, and Messrs. A. 0. Walker and H. Druce on the part 

 of the Fellows. 



Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited a large Falcon which had been 

 trapped at Hatfield Broad Oak, Essex, and which, from its great 

 size, dark colour, and the absence of bars on the tail-feathers, was 

 thought to be a male Norwegian Gyrfalcon. 



Mr. G. E. Lodge, who exhibited some specimens of Gyrfalcons, 

 was inclined to think that it was merely a large and dark variety of 

 the Peregrine. 



Mr. Howard Saunders suggested, in view of its size and the 

 remarkable darkness of the plumage, that the bird might be a male 

 example of the so-called Labrador Falcon, but having since examined 

 it more closely and measured the wing and tarsi, he was of opinion 

 that it was a large female Peregrine. 



It was remarked that, although both the Peregrine and the 

 Gyrfalcon have the tarso-tibial joint clothed with the feathers, the 

 feathering in the former species does not extend nearly so far down 

 the tarsus as in the latter, and this was the case with the bird 

 exhibited. 



Mr. Harting exhibited and made remarks upon a mummified 

 Hawk from an Egyptian tomb, pointing out the difference between 

 mummies made at Memphis, which are black, dry and brittle, from 

 the bitumen employed in the embalming process, and those from 

 Thebes which, like the specimen exhibited, are of a yellowish colour, 

 more flexible, and were prepared with natron, or neutral carbonate 

 of sodium, Na^COg, brought from the natron lakes in the Lybian 

 desert. 



Col. Swinhoe confirmed the statement that our word " mummy," 

 Fr. momie, Sp. momia, was derived from the Arabic moam, wax, the 

 most expensive process of embalming known to the Egyptians being 

 that in which wax and bitumen were the chief ingredients. 



Mr. Charles Dawson, F.G.S., exhibited a hollow flint nodule which 

 had been picked up on the downs at Lewes, and which on fracture 

 was found to contain the desiccated body of a Toad. The flint 

 measured b\ inches in length and 12 inches in circumference, and 



