XIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



the effect that the subscriptions of Life Members should be 

 set apart to form a fund separate from the ordinary annual 

 income of the Society, and that the capital-sum derived from 

 such separate fund should be invested so as to yield a source 

 of revenue to the Society. 



Mr. A. Somerville, B.Sc, F.L.S., stated that a Committee had 

 recently been appointed by the Council to arrange for the 

 delivery of a course of Popular Lectures by distinguished biolo- 

 gists connected with the Society. It was hoped that these 

 Lectures would not only have the effect of keeping the Society, 

 and its objects and work, before the notice of the public, but 

 also be the means of bringing together the members of the 

 various Biological Societies in the city and surrounding district, 

 and promoting among them a spirit of co-operation. He inti- 

 mated that arrangements had now been completed for a course 

 of five Lectures, the first of which would be delivered on 

 13th prox. by Professor James Cossar Ewart, M. D., F.R.C.S.E., 

 F.R.S.E., F.L.S., Edinburgh University. 



Mr. James J. F. X. King exhibited an albino Blackbird, 

 Ttirdus mcrula, L., recently shot in the neighbourhood of 

 Johnstone by Mr. George Allison, Juu. 



Rev. John Muir exhibited a series of Ophidia and 

 Scorpionidse from Southern India, and gave an account of 

 the sub-orders which the specimens illustrated. He also 

 showed an example of Epicriuin glutlnosum, a footless 

 amphibian found in India and a few other Asij^tic countries. 



Mr. R. Broom, B.Sc, made some remarks on the rarer and 

 more intei-esting species of Ophidia exhibited by Mr. Muir, among 

 which were specimens of Cynophis malabaricus, Triineresurus 

 ananiallensis, and Passerita piirpurascens ; and he stated that 

 the last-mentioned species, which is remarkable for its greatly- 

 developed rostral appendage, has never before been recorded 

 for Southern India, btit has been known to occur only in 

 Ceylon. The type-specimen in the British Museum, from 

 which the species was originally described, differs in some 

 respects from that obtained in Southern India. In the type- 

 specimen there are 194 ventrals and 154 subcaudals, while in 

 the specimen exhibited from Southern India there are 198 

 ventrals and as many as 200 subcaudals.* 



Mr. Joseph Sommerville made some remarks on the interest 

 which the Scorpionidaj possess from the point of view of 

 Palaeontology. Fossil species occur in strata as old as the 



• Dr. Albert Gunther, F.R.S., of the British Museum, informs me that he 

 regards these differences as probably merely sexual rather than of speciflc 

 import. He states that the British Museum has recently received a specim^i 

 from almost the same locality as that where the specimen exhibited before 

 the Society was obtained. The latter would accordingly appear to be only the 

 second obtained from the mainland of India. — i?. A 



