Dr SiiiitliS Ornithological Notes, etc. 89 



that in 184:5 he had seen three hybrid pheasants of this kind, 

 two males and one female, which were hatched at Cambo 

 House, Fife, under a common hen, the parent birds being, 

 as in this instance, the golden pheasant cock and common 

 pheasant hen ; and tw^o of these birds were unfortunately de- 

 stroyed when young, and the third was killed by accident 

 when eighteen months old. It was a male ; the colour of the 

 pretty large crest was a buff yellow ; the breast a light brown ; 

 wings dark brown ; upper tail coverts buff; tail large, blotched 

 mth buff and brown. The golden pheasant is believed to be 

 three years old before it acquires the mature plumage. Tliis 

 hybrid, therefore, showed the plumage of the immature bird. 



2. Goosander. — Dr Smith exhibited a fine male specimen 

 shot near Biggar on the 10th of February. It was remarkable 

 as showing the commencement of the summer or breeding 

 plumage in the pure white colour of the top of the breast. 

 Mr Small, bird-stuffer, from whom he got the specimen, in- 

 formed him that an unusual number of these birds had been 

 killed this season between December and February, some 

 sixteen birds, males and females, having come into his pos- 

 session, shot in Midlothian and the neighbouring counties. 

 It has been once recorded as breeding in Perthshire, by Mr 

 Harvie-Brown. 



3. Bohemian Waxwing. — This bird, a young male, was 

 shot near Bannockburn on the 14th December. Several 

 specimens of this occasional visitor had been killed in the 

 neighbourhood of Edinburgh during the winter months. 



V. — Note of Plaster Casts destroyed hy Weevils. By John 

 Alexander Smith, M.D. 



Dr Smith stated that Mr E. Carfrae (of Messrs Bonnar and 

 Carfrae, George Street) had called his attention to the fact of 

 some beautifully-modelled plaster casts of little children in 

 his possession, which had been brought from Italy, being 

 entirely pierced through and honeycombed with holes made 

 by insects, so as to be almost destroyed, and requiring careful 

 handling and repair. Dr Smith had never heard of plaster 

 casts being destroyed in this way, and on getting them for 



