218 Proceedings of the BoTjal Physical Society. 



II L Note of ci Smcdl Lizctrcl,V?>>?imi\\^^YOTSi\\^ Hispanicus; also 

 a large species of Sirex; hoth recently taken alive at 

 KinleitJi, near Currie. By John Alexander Smith, 

 M.D. (The specimens were exhibited.) 



My friend Mr William Bruce, one of our members, brought 

 me these interesting specimens ; they were got this summer, 

 at Kinleith Paper Mills, and as this pretty little lizard, with its 

 two parallel light-coloured stripes along each side of its greyish 

 back, turns out to be a Spanish species, we may naturally 

 conclude that both the lizard and the fly were brought to this 

 country among the esparto grass, great quantities of which 

 are imported, both from Spain and Africa, by Mr Bruce, to be 

 used in paper-making. The workman who first noticed the 

 little lizard running about, and captured it, being familiar only 

 with our common water-newts, concluded that the best way 

 to keep the fragile little creature alive was to get a bottle, 

 fill it with water, and put the lizard into it, and was rather 

 astonished to find that instead of prolonging its life, he had 

 actually drowned the poor little land lizard. 



Sir ex sp. — Mr R. F. Logan informs me this insect belongs 

 to this genus, but he does not know the species. It is a 

 large hymenopterous insect which has a long ovipositor, well 

 seen in this pretty black and yellow ichneumon-like fly, 

 with which it deposits its eggs in holes in old trees, etc. 



Both the lizard and the fly are therefore in all probability 

 simply species accidentally brought to this country, like many 

 others, by man in the course of ordinary commerce; few 

 of which meet with circumstances sufficiently favourable 

 to prolong their existence here, and in this case, as they were 

 introduced from a warmer climate, in all probability the cold 

 of winter would soon have killed them both, could they have 

 survived the summer. They show one of the ways by which 

 new species of animals may be introduced into our country, 

 and this, of course, may on some occasions involve results of 

 an important character. 



We all know the interest and even fear excited throughout 

 the whole country by the expected chance of the introduc- 



