480 APPENDIX. 



find in the fishes of the first great period, differences correspond- 

 ing to those which we observe at the present day between fresh- 

 water and salt-water fishes, it appears to me that it is going be- 

 yond the facts we possess to admit in the oolitic series and lower 

 down, the existence of distinct fresh-water and marine forma- 

 tions. I think rather that the waters of these remote periods, 

 circumscribed in basins less completely shut in, did not then 

 present the marked disfinctions which we remark at the present 

 time." 



At the same meeting of the Society an extract was read of a 

 report by the lighthouse keeper at Lismore, of a small flock of 

 brent geese having been attracted by the light in a dark and 

 stormy night, and killed by the violence with which they struck 

 the building. One of the birds happening to strike a pane of 

 the light-room, formed of plate-glass a quarter of an inch thick, 

 passed through it like a shot, with such amazing force, that 

 pimples were raised on the polished metallic reflectors by t' e 

 particles of the shivered glass. 



A model of the head of the Dodo, which is preserved in the 

 Tradescant collection at Oxford, presented to the College Mu- 

 seum by Mr Duncan of Oxford, was exhibited at this meeting, 

 and an account was given by Professor Jameson of what is 

 known respecting that bird, described by Clusius in 1598 as in- 

 habiting the Mauritius, but which appears to be now extinct. 



Mr Macgillivray read some observations on the Dipper 

 (^Cincbis aqvaticus). The peculiarities of form and plumage, 

 adapting it to its amphibious mode of life, were pointed out, 

 and its habits minutely described. The alleged injuries to the 

 salmon-fisheries by this species were rendered doubtful by the 

 results of the author's observations, he having never found any 

 ova or fry of fish in its stomach, which was usually found to con- 

 tain fragments of coleopterous insects and mollusca, especially 

 Lymncea peregra and Ancylus jiuviatilis . — The Assistant-^Secre- 



