PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 269 
for future observers. The results of similar records carried out hereafter 
may throw much light on the meteorological principles of cultivation, and 
Miss Molesworth, who was one of the first to lead the way in the path 
of joint observation, deserves our grateful remembrance.—R. MELpo.a, 
Hon. Secretary. 
NaturaL History Socirry or Grascow. 
The eighth and concluding meeting of the session was held on 
Tuesday, April 27th, in the Library of Anderson’s College, Prof. Joun 
Youne, M.D., F.G S., in the chair. 
The proceedings opened with an address by the President “On Critical 
Periods in Geology,” in which he reviewed the several epochs, and illustrated 
his remarks by a large geological map of the world. 
Mr. Thomas King exhibited a growing specimen of the common primrose, 
Primula vulgaris, in which the points of the calyx had been metamorphosed 
into true leaves, 
Mr. Peter Ewing showed specimens of Petasites alba from the neigh- 
bourhood of Barrhead. This plant, which differs not only in the colour 
of its flower but in other respects from the common butterbur, is not 
indigenous, but may be considered as an escape from shrubberies, although 
found in many different localities. 
Mr. John M. Campbell exhibited a specimen of the Collared Peccary, 
Dicotyles cajacu, Linn., and made some remarks on the distribution and 
habits of the genus. 
Mr. Peter Cameron exhibited specimens of Microyaster sericeus, a 
parasite on Thera juniperata, from Milngavie. When it leaves the cater- 
pillar on which it has fed it spins a cocoon attached to the spine, where it 
in its turn is attacked by other ichneumons, of which he had bred two 
species of Hemitetes. He also exhibited two species bred from the galls of 
Lasioptera juniperina, viz., Torymus juniperi (Linn.), a species new to 
Britain, and an undescribed species of Lygocerus, which it was proposed 
to name juniperi. He also showed a gall from Cadder of Aphilothria 
elementinw, a species new to Britain. 
Mr. J. J. Dalgleish contributed a paper “ On the Irruption of Skuas, 
principally Stercorarius pomatorhinus, on the Scottish Coasts, in the 
Autumn of 1879.” 
Mr. John A. Harvie Brown read a monographic sketch of “ Barra Head, 
and its Bird-Life,” being principally based upon the personal observations 
of Mr. George M‘Lachlan, formerly lighthouse keeper at Barra Head, and 
upon the minor results of a short visit made to that locality by Capt. H. W. 
Feilden and himself in 1870. After taking notice uf the accounts of 
