150 REPORT — 1859. 



List of the Birds of the North of Scotland, with their Distribution. 



By T. F. Jamieson. 



A detailed list was given of the birds found in that part of Scotland lying to the 

 north of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, showing the distribution and comparative 

 frequency of each species. The whole number amounted to 258, of which 106 

 remain throughout the whole year, 37 are summer visitors that breed in the 

 region, 38 are winter visitors, 5 visitors during the vernal and autumnal migrations, 

 67 stragglers from England and Europe, 4 stragglers from America, and 1 straggler 

 from Asia. 



Some species have been extinguished in recent times, viz. Capercailzie, Bustard, 

 Bittern, and great Auk ; while the Eagles and larger Hawks have become exceedingly 

 scarce, and are banished from most districts. Those species that haunt waste lands 

 and marshes are also diminishing in numbers ; on the other hand, the denizens of 

 cultivated tracts are on the increase. 



The Goldfinch has become much rarer than formerly, while the Missel Thrush 

 seems spreading and more numerous, and the Woodcock now frequently remains all 

 summer. 



Dr. Lankester exhibited a series of drawings from life of the various species 

 of British spiders by Mr. Tuffen West, intended to illustrate Mr. Blackwall's forth- 

 coming work on British Spiders, to be published by the Ray Society. Dr. Lankester 

 solicited contributions of living spiders, which might be sent by post, to enable Mr. 

 West to continue his sketches from life. 



Notice of a Skull of a Manatee from Old Calabar. 

 By Jas. M'Bain, 31./)., R.N. 



The skull of a Manatee which I now exhibit to the Zoological Section of the B ritish 

 Association was handed over to me a short time ago by Mr. Wm. Oliphant, 

 Treasurer to the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. It was transmitted to 

 Mr. Oliphant, from Old Calabar, by Mr. Archibald Hewan, Medical Missionary to 

 the United Presbyterian Mission on the West Coast of Africa — one of those intelli- 

 gent men, who, in addition to the benevolent object of their calling, lose no oppor- 

 tunity of making contributions to the general stock of scientific information. 



The occipital bone, petro-mastoid, and tympanic bulla are wanting, — a part of the 

 basi-occipital, firmly united to the basi-sphenoid, only remaining; the skull is 

 otherwise in a good state of preservation. 



Viewed from behind, the anterior half of the internal vaulted cavity of the cranium 

 is seen to be divided into two lateral halves by a curved spinous ridge or crista 

 interna, formed partly by a coalescence of the inner tables of the parietal and frontal 

 bones, but chiefly by the largely developed crista galli of the ethmoid, which extends 

 backwards nearly as far as a depression that appears to represent the sella turcica. 

 On each side of the crista galli there is an oblong depression nearly an inch in 

 length, with several openings, forming the cribriform plate of the ethmoid bone. A 

 slender spinous process bounds the outer edge of the cribriform plate, passing down- 

 wards and backwards to terminate over the middle of the foramen lacerum orbitale. 

 Immediately to the inner side of the foramen lacerum orbitale, there is a small 

 aperture which corresponds in position to the foramen opticum ; and a little to the 

 outer side there is another foramen, somewhat larger, which probably represents the 

 foramen ovale. There is also a small foramen nearly midway between the cribriform 

 plate and the so-called foramen opticum. From each of these foramina, a distinct 

 groove proceeds backwards, strongly marked behind the foramina lacera. The inner 

 cavitv of the cranium is otherwise remarkably free from inequalities, and the sutural 

 connexions are clearly defined. 



The cranio-facial bones are mounted on the massive lower jaw, at a height of 

 rather more than six inches, and slope forward at an angle of nearly 45°. A plumb- 

 line, dropped from the posterior centre of the parietal bone to a level with the 

 angular processes of the lower jaw, measures 9i inches. The distance across 

 from the outer edge of each zygomatic arch is 9tV inches, nearly four inches of 



