61 



March 16, 1842. 



Vice President, Dr. C. T. Jackson, in the Chair. 



Dr. S. L. Abbot made some remarks upon several Birds 

 which had been recently procured and mounted for the Soci- 

 ety, viz. 



1. Kittiwake Gull, (Lams tridaclylus, Lath.) shot in the outer 

 harbor in January, in full winter plumage, by Mr. Charles Mayo, 

 and by him presented to the Society. 2. Black headed Cull (Lo- 

 tus atricapUla, Lin.) a species which Dr. A. had observed to be 

 very abundant about Yarmouth, but which is not mentioned by Mr. 

 Peabody in his Report on the Birds of the State. 3. Long-billed 

 Curlew (Numenius longirostris, Wilson,) an adult female in full 

 plumage, shot in Virginia. 



Dr. Gould had examined a paper in the last number of 

 Silliman's Journal, by Henry C. Lea, purporting to de- 

 scribe eight new species of shells. 



Dr. G. believed that a large proportion of them were not new. 

 The Cyrena purpurea, he was confident, must be a small speci- 

 men of Venus gemma, Totten. The genus Cyrena seldom inha- 

 bits salt water. His Crepidula acuta is certainly a small specimen 

 of C. convexa, Say. His Carychium exile is a common variety of 

 Pupa cxigua. Say. Pasithea sordid a must be a variety of Ac- 

 tion trifidus, Totten ; and Cerithium cancellation is apparently a 

 specimen of Cingula aculeus, Gould, with the lip broken. 



Dr. G. deprecated such a practice as had been here pursued, 

 that of describing very minute shells, from a few specimens 

 brought from a distance. The natural inference that they might 

 be embryo shells ought to deter one from describing them, unless 

 he were possessed of numerous specimens gathered at different 

 seasons. 



Mr. Teschemacher exhibited a number of fossil Ferns 

 which he had collected from the anthracite coal mines at Mans- 

 field, with a view of ascertaining the age of the stratum by a 

 comparison of the fossils with those of other coal mines in 

 this country, particularly those of the Alleghany region. 



