Extracts from the Minnte-Book of the Society. 583 



and extraordinary occurrence induced me to examine the 

 spur of the animal; and on pressing it down on the leg 

 the fluid squirted through the tube : but for what purpose 

 Nature has so armed these animals is as yet unknown to 

 me. The female is oviparous, and lives in burrows in 

 the ground, so that it is seldom seen either on shore or 

 in the water. The males are seen in numbers through- 

 out our winter months only, floating and diving in all our 

 large rivers ; but they cannot continue long under water. 

 I had one drowned by having been left during the night 

 in a large tub of water. I have found no other substance 

 in their stomachs than small fish and fry. They are very 

 shy, and avoid the shot by diving and afterwards rising 

 at a considerable distance." 



Ja?^. 20, Mr. Lambert, V.P. communicated to the Society an 

 1818. Extract of a Letter from Don Jose Pa von of Madrid, one 

 of the authors of the Flo7-a Peruviana, stating that he and 

 his companions Ruiz and Dombey had found the potatoe 

 {Solanimi tuberosum) growing wild in the environs of Lima, 

 and fourteen leagues from thence on the coastof Peru, as 

 well as in Cliili; and that it is cultivated very abundantly 

 in those countries by the Indians, who call it Papas. 



Dr. Maton, V. P. communicated a Letter from the 

 Rev. Revett Sheppard, F.L.S., stating that on the first 

 of this month he shot a fine specimen of the common 

 heron {Ardea major), and that its feathers were covered 

 with a powder of a light blue colour; but in Avhat man- 

 ner this powder is secreted, or whether it occurs in the 

 winter season only, he has not been able to ascertain. 



Teh. 17. The Secretary stated, that Mr. Robert Gee has com- 

 municated to the President a specimen of Salix cinerea, 

 {Flor. Brit. 1063, Eng. Bot. 1897,) with androgynous cat- 

 kins. 



