498 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
there is nothing of this colour, but a general tone of ashy brown with 
striated lines of brown. One of the first two specimens referred to was 
brought alive to Mr. Vingoe, and he had a good opportunity of observing - 
the colour of the iris, which was a bright vermilion. This, I believe, is the 
colour in the adult bird. In the specimen I examined yesterday the colour 
of the iris was bright yellow. The weight of this little bird was just over one 
ounce, and the length, with extended neck, to the end of the tail-feathers, 
exactly seven inches and a half—Epwarp Hrartr Ropp (Penzance). 
Sxua anD SHEARWATER AT CHRISTCHURCH AND Pootz Harpour.— 
When at Bournemouth in August I saw, in the shop of Mr. Hart, the 
birdstuffer, a good specimen of the Common Skua, which he informed me 
had been obtained on the 6th January, 1876. A boy had observed it in a 
ploughed field at Christchurch, and knocked it down with a stick. It is an 
adult bird and in good plumage. Mr. Hart also showed me a specimen of 
the Greater, or Cinereous, Shearwater, which had been captured by some 
fishermen in Poole Harbour on the 7th June last, apparently a female 
bird, and also in good plumage-—Marovs 8. C. Rickarps (37, Cornwallis 
Crescent, Clifton). 
Earty Arrival or Witp Gerxrse.— Brent Geese and White-fronted 
Geese appeared on the North Devon coast as early as the beginning of 
October. In the first week of that month four White-fronted Geese, all 
splendid birds, were shot out of a flock on Braunton Marsh.—Murray A. 
Martnew (Bishop’s Lydeard). 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
EntomoLoaicaL Socirty or Lonpon. 
October 3, 1877.—Prof. Wrestwoop, M.A., F.L.S., President, in the chair. 
Donations to the Library were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors. 
Mr. W. L. Distant exhibited a specimen of the ravages of Dermestes 
vulpinus (F'ab.) in a cargo of dried hides from China. On the arrival of 
the hides in this country they were found to be infested and gnawed into 
holes by swarms of the insect in their different stages, causing a damage 
of from fifteen to twenty per cent. on the value of the cargo. It is not 
unusual to see this well-known insect amongst these articles, but quite 
unprecedented to find it in such numbers and causing such an amount of 
damage. In fact, its appearance had quite paralyzed the importation of the 
hides, and gave further proof of the value of Economic Entomology in 
the arts and manufactures. 
