91 



^2" 





388 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



to have been dispersed among public and private collections 

 throughout Europe. 



The bird is an adult male in full summer plumage ; the 

 following being its principal dimensions: — 



Length from tip of bill to end of tail, -34i inches. 



of tail, . . . 3 „ 



of tarsus, . 



of wing, . 



of bill dorsally, 



of gape, . 



of bill from nostrils, . 2f „ 



Depth of bill, . . . If „ 



There are 7 ridges on the upper, and 11 (two of them indis- 

 tinct) on the lower mandible. The number of ridges and the 

 large size of the bird point to the specimen as being that of 

 an old male. In conclusion, I beg to thank His Grace the 

 Duke of Koxburghe for allowing this interesting, and, so far 

 as Scotland is concerned, unique specimen to be exhibited at 

 the Eoyal Physical Society, and to be recorded in its Proceed- 

 ings ; and also Mr Brotherston for assistance rendered in pre- 

 paring this notice. 



XXXy. Water Supply of Villages. By John Hunter, Esq., 



F.C.S. 



(Read 18th April 1883.) 



Than the water supply of a village, or of any other inhabited 

 place, nothing can be more important. The advisability — or 

 I might almost say necessity — of bringing these notes before 

 this Society to-night, has been suggested to me from my 

 having for many years past — but perhaps more forcibly re- 

 cently than ever before — had many opportunities of judging 

 of the almost universally dangerous condition of rural water 

 supplies. 



The sources from which these supplies are most commonly 

 drawn are burns, rivers, so-called springs, and wells. 



The first of these — i.e., burns and rivers — I had occasion 

 recently to refer to in an essay which I wrote, and from 



