44 Exhibits in Natural History. ' [Sess. 



they had had such a mass of correspondence on the subject, as to bring their 

 regular business to a standstill ; and offering to sell specimens of the heads 

 at 2s. 6d. each. Three were purchased, and Messrs Levington sent along 

 with them the body of a cat and a fragment of the cloth in which it had 

 been wrapt. These were exhibited to the members of the Society. 



By Mr A. B. Steele. 



The Beef-steak Fungus (Fistulina hepatica, Ft.). — This specimen w r as from 

 Mr William Evans, who got it growing on the decayed trunk of an oak tree 

 in the Palace Gardens at Dalkeith. Although common in England, it is 

 not so in Scotland, and its usual habitat in this country is the oak tree. On 

 the Continent, however, it is most commonly found on the chestnut, and is 

 called " the tongue of the chestnut." It was lately found growing on a 

 chestnut tree in a garden on the south side of Edinburgh by Dr William 

 Craig, which is the only instance on record of its growing on that tree in 

 Scotland. 1 



The Fork-tailed Petrel (Cymochiyrea leucorrhoa, Vieillot). — This specimen 

 was shot last September by Mr Campbell Mackechnie on the shore of Loch 

 Frisa, in the island of Mull. It was weak on the wing, and probably the 

 protracted stormy weather previously had driven it ashore in a feeble con- 

 dition. They never come to land except in the breeding-season in June. 

 In the latter part of September and the beginning of October the weather 

 was very stormy, and unusual numbers of the fork-tailed petrel are recorded 

 to have been seen in Ireland and the west of Britain — driven ashore, no 

 doubt, by the high gales. It breeds in Britain only in St Kilda and in one 

 or two islands of the Outer Hebrides. 



Eggs of the Great Skua. — Several eggs of the Great Skua (Stercorarius 

 catarrhactes, Linn.) were exhibited ; and there was read a report, by Mr 

 W. Eagle Clarke, F.L.S., on these birds, for the season of 1891. This 

 report is now printed in the 'Annals of Scottish Natural History' for 

 1892, pp. 87-92. 



Polyporus igniarius, F. — The specimen exhibited was an unusually 

 large one, and was found growing on an ash-tree in Dalmeny woods, near 

 Edinburgh. 



By Mr A. Moffat. 



Fasciation in Narcissus. — This was a very rare and curious example of 

 fasciation in the flower of Narcissus poeticus. 



By Mr Wm. Forgan, F.R.M.S. 



A Neiv Semi-apochromatic Microscope Objective. — The lens shown was a 

 No. 3 by Leitz of Wetzlar. It has, like all the Continental objectives of 

 that number, a focal length of two-thirds of an inch. The term semi- 



1 See article by Dr Watson, "The Sacred Plant of the Druids," ante, p. 20, 

 for further information regarding the Beef-steak Funeus. 



