Scientific Intelligence, fyc. 395 



Tlie Members will be divided into tbe following classes : Resident, 

 Non-Resident, Foreign and Associate. Any person wishing to be- 

 come a Non-Resident Member must be recommended by two indivi- 

 duals belonging to some scientific or literary society, and pay a con- 

 tribution of two guineas, which, without any additional payment, will 

 entitle him, as long as he continues annually to send specimens to the 

 Society, to a participation in the duplicates. To become a Foreign 

 Member, it is necessary to transmit 500 specimens, including at least 

 100 species, or a botanical work of which the candidate is himself 

 the author ; the former alternative only entitling him to a share of 

 the Society's duplicates. To continue to participate in these dupli- 

 cates, he must afterwards contribute annually 3U0 specimens, in- 

 cluding at least 50 species. 



The Flora of Edinburgh, which is particularly rich, will aiFord a 

 constant supply of valuable duplicates, and others will be regularly 

 obtained from other parts of Scotland, especially the rarer alpine 

 species. 



Local Secretaries will be appointed in different parts of the king- 

 dom. In the meantime, all communications are to be addressed 

 (postage paid) to, the Secretary, W. H. Campbell, Esq., 21 Society, 

 Brown-square, Edinburgh. 



VII. — On the Instinct of the Water-Hen. By P. J. Selby, Esq.* 



As the following anecdote seems to indicate a degree of intellect, 

 or an exercise of the reasoning power, in the feathered race, and 

 apparently acting in conjunction with Instinct, or that blind impulse 

 to perform certain offices or actions, for which the lower orders are 

 remarkable, and which, according to the views of one of our ablest 

 naturalists, is supposed, and with great probability, to be the result 

 of physical action upon organizations adapted to receive and respond 

 to it, I think it may not be altogether uninteresting to the Club, and 

 may possibly direct the attention of some of its members more imme- 

 diately to the various phenomena exhibited by the lower animals in 

 regard to their instincts, combined, or acting as it were, at times in 

 conjunction with the exercise of their reasoning or intellectual facul- 

 ties. During the early part of the past summer, a pair of water- 

 hens (Gallinula chloropus) built their nest by the margin of the 

 ornamental pond at Bell's-Hill, a piece of water of considerable 

 extent, and ordinarily fed by a spring from the height above, but 

 into which the contents of another large pond can occasionally be 

 admitted. This was done while the female was sitting, and as the 

 nest had been built when the water-level stood low, the sudden 

 influx of this large body of water from the second pond caused a rise 

 of several inches, so as to threaten the speedy immersion and conse- 

 quent destruction of the eggs. This the birds seem to have been 

 aware of, and immediately took precautions against so imminent a 

 danger. For when the gardener (upon whose veracity I can safely 



* Proceedings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, p. 84. 



