J'1-6 Liniutan Society. 



passing into each other are protruded from beneath highly inclined 

 beds of sandstone, in which are also many faults. These serpentine 

 rocks seem to be prolongations of the great developement of the 

 same system in Southern Liguiia ; and, to illustrate more fully their 

 nature, the author gives a section of their relations in a contiguous 

 district at Monte Ferrato, where, as has already been noticed by M. 

 lirongniart, gray compact limestone and slaty shale and jasper are 

 covered by serpentine and diallage rocks, which, in one place, seem to 

 traverse and cut through the strata. 



In conclusion, the author observes, that if the Porto Venere mar- 

 bles be considered equivalent to any part of the oolite fornuttion, they 

 afford a striking example of the little value of mineralogical structure 

 as a character taken by itself, and show the extreme caution that 

 should be used in assigning names to rocks from hand specimens, 

 brought home bv distant expeditions, without the accompaniment ot 

 organic remains. He considers that the diallage rock and serpentine of 

 Southern Liguria, have been intruded among these rocks subsequent 

 to the epoch of the oolite formation ; and regards the diallage rock 

 and serpentine as of igneous origin, concurring in opinion with those 

 geologists who attribute to these rocks in common with granite and 

 trap, and the forces that ejected them, the contortion and fracture 

 of the stratified rocks, and their consequent elevation into ridges and 

 mountains. 



LINNiF.AN SOCIETY, 

 Jan. 19th — An Account was read of the Mode of Growth of 

 Corals of the genus Fungia. By Mr. Samuel Stutchbury, A.L.S. 



The writer observed, when collecting specimens near Tahiti, that 

 though the larger ones were unattached, in the young state they 

 are fixed to rocks or dead fragments of coral, growing on a foot- 

 stalk, and remaining attached till about an inch in diameter, when 

 they separate. 



A communication was also read : On a new species of Wild Swan, 

 taken in England, and liitherto confounded with the Hooper. By 

 William Yarrell, Esq. F.L S. &c. 



To this new species, which Mr. Yarrell names Cygnus Beivickii, 

 after the celebrated artist who so greatly promoted the study 

 of natural history by his works, he gives the following cha- 

 racter : " C. rostro semicylindrico atro, cera flava, corpora albo, 

 Cauda rectricibus 18, pedibus nigris." Mr. Yarrcll's previous suspi- 

 cions that a species distinct from the Hooper existed, occasioned 

 by an inspection of several preparations, were confirmed by an ex- 

 amination of three specimens of different ages which he obtained in 

 the markets of the metropolis, where they were brought during the 

 late severe weather. The new species is one-third smaller than 

 the Hooper at the same age. It differs much more in anatomical 

 structure than in external character, and principally in the trachea, 

 a minute description of which in all the specimens is given. 



