62 Report, 8fc. 



convey it to the sea below without dropping it, and so causing its 

 destruction ; in the second place it would be a matter of still 

 greater difficult}' for the parent bird to take its offspring up to the 

 ledge of rock again ; and lastly, we may observe that fishermen's 

 stories are proverbially of a fabulous nature. Mr. Wood* men- 

 tions an instance of a hawk carrying its young one from tree to 

 tree, when hard pressed, but then we must remember that in this 

 instance the carriage of the young bird was effected by its parent's 

 feet; and again that the formation of the feet of the hawk and 

 guillemot are exactly opposed to one another, one being furnished 

 with claws, and consequently well adapted for carrying anything, 

 and the other webbed, and consequently unable to be put to this 

 use, so that this is scarcely a point of evidence in favour of the 

 fishermen's story. 



This point of dispute applies only to the common guillemot, for 

 the young of the black guillemot, curiously enough, never leave 

 the nest, until fully fledged. Once having done so, they never 

 return, and from that time forward are totally independent of their 

 parents. 



A general conversation followed, in which many curious facts 

 about eggs were mentioned by various members of the society. In 

 answer to a question as to the derivation of "cormorant" the Presi- 

 dent observed that it was a curious compound word derived from 

 Corvus marinus, and the Bas-Breton Mor-vrau, a sea-crow or 

 sea-robber, so that the name (as is not unfrequent) repeats the 

 same thing twice over. 



Mr. Hayward then communicated to the Society some recent 

 observations of great interest and importance respecting the 

 spectrum of the new star which has suddenly burst forth in Corona 

 Borealis. It appears from a recent communication to the proceed- 

 ings of the Royal Society, by W. Muggins, Esq., F.R.S., and Dr. 

 Miller, F.R.S., that "the light of this star is compound, and has 

 emanated from two different sources. The principal spectrum is 

 analogous to that of the sun, and is evidently formed by the light 

 of an incandescent solid or liquid photosphere, which has suffered 

 absorption by the vapour of an envelope cooler than itself. The 

 second spectrum consists of a few bright lines, which indicate that 

 the light by which it is formed was emitted by matter in the state 

 of luminous gas." 



The constitution of this star must, therefore, be as follows : — 

 A photosphere of solid or liquid matter emitting light, surrounded 



• Wood's " My Feathered Friends." 



