Feb. 17, 1870] 
NALORE 
415 
Islands. Mr, Janson, on behalf of Mr. Crotch, exhibited Pidonthus 
cicatricosus, Dyschirius angustatus, Hydroparus unistriatus, and 
47, minatissimus, four recent additions to the list of British beetles. 
—Major Parry exhibited //icagus obscurus, a North-American 
species placel by Leconte among the Scaradreide, of which it has 
since been suggested that it might possibly belong to the Zz- 
canide.—The secretary read a letter from Mr. Roland Trimen, 
on the habits of some South-African species of Paztsside.—The 
following papers were read :—‘‘ A revised catalogue of the 
Lucanoid coleoptera, with remarks on the nomenclature andl 
descriptions of new species” (the concluding part), by Major | 
Parry ; ‘On the species of Chavaxes described in the ‘ Reise der 
Novara,’ with descriptions of two new species,” by Mr. A. G. 
Butler. Mr. M‘Lachlan presented the MS. of ‘* A catalogue 
of the Newroptera of the British Isles,” being the first instalment 
of the proposed list of all our indigenous insects. 
EDINBURGH 
Royal Physical Society, January 26.—Mr. R. F. Logan, 
president, in the chair. Mr. F. W. Lyon, M.D., and Mr. B. N. 
Peach, of the Geological Survey, were elected resident mem- 
bers. The following communications were read :— 
‘*Notes on the meteoric shower of November 1869, as ob- 
served at the Cape of Good Hope ; and on the supposed fall of 
an aerolite there.” By D. R. Kannemeyer. A number of 
specimens of star-fish and echini, recently added to the British 
fauna, from Shetland, &c., were exhibited and commented on 
by Mr. Charles W. Peach. The specimen first mentioned by 
Mr. Peach was Comatula rosacea, for a long time the only known 
representative, in our seas, of the fossil encrinites; two other 
species are now known, viz., Axtedon Sarsti, of which several 
specimens have been taken in 80 to roo fathoms off Unst, and 
Antedon Celticus, which has been captured in the Minch and 
Sleat of Sound, and about 10 years ago in the Sound of Skye. 
The other specimens exhibited were as follows:— Ophiura affinis 
—got on both sides of Shetland, at Wick, N.B., and off the 
coast of Northumberland; was taken for Ofphioroma bellis. 
Luidia Sarsti—Shetland in deep water, at Wick, N.B., and in 
Cornwall. Archaster Parleii—Two specimens only were taken 
off Shetland in 1864 and 1867; the most beautiful of our native 
stars. Goniaster aculeatum—Vaniety of GC. phyrgianus ; very deep 
water off Unst, Shetland, 1864, two specimens only. Crihel/a 
curta—Variety C. sanguinolenta, occurs between tide-marks from 
Cornwall to Shetland.  Cidaris papiliata—the ‘‘ Piper” of the 
Shetland fisherman, although not new, has hitherto been considered 
as very rare; has turned up in numbers on the west coast of Shet- 
land in 100 to 110 fathoms. chinws Norveyicus has been also 
found occasionally in great numbers in deep water, same locality, 
with Zoxopneustes pictus, another beautiful addition. The one of 
the greatest interest is Spafangus meridionatis, from equally deep 
water, same locality, it being especially a Mediterranean form ; 
itis a magnificent species. Several of the above species are 
also found in the Mediterranean and as these are living in the 
same spot with Boreal and Arctic forms, it would be interesting 
to know how they got there, as it is now well ascertained that 
the Gulf Stream does not reach those seas. All the above are 
additions to the British list. He was at present unable to give 
their names. Although he was aware that many new //olothuriz 
had been found, he did not notice them. 
Remarks on the Bill and Food of the Indian Skimmer 
(Rynchops atbicollis). By Mr. William Bell. Communicated 
by Dr. Davidson. Tt has been stated that the African species 
of the genus feed on the ground, searching the soft mud with 
their bills. Mr. Bell had watched these birds near Saharunpore; 
he had seen them on the mud, but never searching it as if for 
food. ‘They were well named skimmers, as with their long and 
powerful wings they flew along the surface of the water ; they 
opened their bills very wide and struck the water at a low angle 
of 10 deg. or 15 deg., dipping into it in this way to catch 
small fish and other inhabitants of the water and he had found 
their stomachs filled with the bones of fish. 
Notice of Larus minutus, the Little Gull, recently captured 
in Berwickshire, &c. By John Alex. Smith, M.D. (the specimen 
was exhibited). —This rare gull, the smallest of the genus Zarzs, 
was shot in the harbour of Coldingham, Berwickshire, on the 
27th of December. It was the property of Mr. Andrew Wilson, 
Coldingham. — It is a native of Eastern Europe, migrating from 
the Baltic and Gothland, where it breeds, to the South of Europe 
and Caspian Sea in the winter and is a rare straggler to Scotland, 
only some two or three specimens having been previously observed, 
The bird is a young male in immature plumage. Temminck 
states that it feeds on insects and worms and very little is known 
of its habits. Dr. Smith found the stomach and gullet of this 
bird filled with fishbones and was able to detect among these 
part of the fifteen-spined stickleback, Gasterosteous spinachia. 
The bird was easily distinguished by its small size, measuring 
only 11$ inches from the bill to the extremity of the tail. 
Dr. Smith exhibited a fine adult male AZergusalbellus, the seamew 
recently shot, he believed, in Forfarshire ; also a specimen of the 
Merenu/us alle, the little rotche shot in the end of December at 
Seacliff. He had hoped to be able to exhibit a very fine 
specimen of the rare Alandu alpestris, the shore lark, which he 
had examined. It was killed at St. Andrews in company with a 
flock of snow buntings, on the 31st of December and is the 
property of Mr. R. Wardlaw Ramsay, jun. He had just learned 
that another specimen had been killed at Dunbar in the beginning 
of this month and was in the possession of Mr. F. Balfour of 
Whittinghame. Very few instances are on record of this bird 
having been seen in Scotland. Mr. Scott Skirving was inclined 
to think that the general resemblance borne by this bird to the 
buntings might help to make it overlooked, and that it might 
not be so very rare as it was considered to be. 
DUBLIN 
Royal Irish Academy, January 24.—The Rey. Dr. Jellett, 
president, in the chair. Mr. Eugene A. Conwell read a paper 
on a tumulus and chamber in the Island of Gavr’ Inis, Mor- 
bihan, Brittany ; and described the conditions of the purchase of 
the Island in 1832, in regard to the treasure supposed to be con- 
cealed in this tumulus, and the subsequent clearing out of the 
interior chamber and gallery, measuring 50 feet 8 inches in 
length. The large blocks composing the walls and roof were not 
of the native rock of the island; and, excepting three, which were 
quartz, were granite, and must have been procured from the ad- 
joining continent. Supposing this monument to have been 
erected by an essentially primitive people, and at a period sub- 
sequent to the time when the present island of Gavr’ Inis was a 
portion of the adjoining continent, what a miracle of mechanical 
power must have been exerted to drag these immense blocks to 
the shore, to place them on solid rafts, and, after disembarking 
them, to haul them to the opposite end of the island, where the 
tumulus is erected, adjoining a cliff! The paper was illustrated 
by three large sheets giving minute details of the general plan 
and section of the tumulus, with ground plan, elevations, and 
measurements of the stones composing the interior chamber— 
planned and drawn in 1869 by Sir Henry Dryden, Bart., and 
Rey. W. C. Leukis—together with 21 sheets of drawings of the 
sculptures on the stones, executed by Sir Henry Dryden. No 
capstone, and only one pavement-stone, was found sculptured. 
Twenty-two of the upright stones were profusely covered 
with sculptures, of the intended significance of which, 
whether ideographic, symbolic, or intended merely for orna- 
mentation the author could offer no explanation.—Mr. Con- 
well also exhibited two series of drawings from the cairns on 
Sliabh-na-Caillighe, one to show the kindred character of the 
ancient sculptures of Ireland and Brittany, and the other the 
sculptures on twenty-eight inscribed stones in a single cairn on 
Sliabh-na-Caillighe, exhibiting an elaborate diffuseness and a 
variety of characters unequalled in any single cairn hitherto 
opened and described in any part of the world. —Professor R. S. 
Ball read a paper ‘‘On the small oscillations of a rigid body 
about a fixed point under the action of any forces, and more 
particularly when gravity is the only force acting.” —Dr. Sigerson 
read an account of some examinations of the minute organisms 
found floating in the air of cities, comparing them with those 
met with in the sea breezes and in country air. 
Royal Geological Society of Ireland, February 9.—Mr. 
G. Dixon in the chair. Professor Macalister read the Annual 
Report of the Council. The Rev. Professor Haughton, M.D., 
read a paper ‘‘on the mineral constituents of the granites of 
Scotland.” Dr, J. E. Reynolds exhibited a new mode of 
exhibiting ordinary hand specimens of minerals to a class, by 
means of the lime light. 
Institution of Civil Engineers in Ireland, February 9. 
Mr. J. Ball Greene in the chair. The chairman delivered the 
annual address. 
GLASGOW 
Geological Society of Glasgow, January 27.—Mr. John 
Young, vice-president, inthe chair, On the ‘‘ Sutherlandshire 
gold-fields.” Mr. William Cameron, The author referred to a 
