Ixii. president's address. 



with a long, sharp, biting apparatus, is also said to be subject 

 to this mould ; but I think much less so, as I do not remember 

 to have seen one affected by it. It comes, however, much 

 less indoors, and it is there that one generally sees the dead 

 victims to the disease. The only creature that I have to 

 mention in the fish line (if that be its real position) is a sea- 

 serpent, which was seen by several people on board the 

 Dover Castle in the Gulf of Guinea on Oct. 17 last. The 

 head and neck extended at least 14 feet above sea level, and 

 were seen six times in two minutes at a distance of about 

 IJ miles. What the animal was is of course problematical, 

 but it is suggested that the object might have been the arm 

 of one of the gigantic squids which are known to exist, as 

 their bodies have been actually found ; or it may, of course, 

 have been one of the monsters unknown to science, which it 

 seems probable that the sea contains, from the many accounts 

 of their appearance. A new bird, the Terek Sandpiper 

 {Terekia cinerea), of which four were killed in Kent, has been 

 added to the British list, and the Dartford warbler has been 

 recorded for the first time in Ireland. Still more interesting 

 is the capture at Utrecht, Natal, on Dec. 23, 1912, of a swallow 

 which had' a ring placed on its leg in May, 1911, in Stafford- 

 shire. As very little seems to be Itnown of the nesting habits 

 of that curious duckbilled quadruped, the Platypus, I refer 

 to an account of the investigation of three of its burrows, 

 which are made high up in the river bank. One contained 

 two eggs, another one, the third a female and two lately- 

 hatched young, one of which clung very firmly to its mother. 

 When the young are hatched, the female blocks the burrows 

 in two or three places with earth, either against water or 

 enemies. It is satisfactory to be able to state that a thriving 

 colony of the Elephant seal, which was threatened with 

 extinction through being killed in large quantities for its 

 oil up to about 1852, has been lately found on the island of 

 Guadalupe, California, and will be protected. The first 

 living specimens of the Pigmy hippopotamus {H. liberiensis) 

 have reached Europe, and one is established in the Regent's 



