142 Birds that are Land and Water Feeders. 



fisher in the lecturer's experience had swallowed at a sitting 

 nine minnows about two to three inches long. 



OTTER AS FISHER. 



A series of pictures showed the development of the trout 

 from the egg to its full-grown state. The otter and its hunt- 

 ing habits was another subject of vivid illustration. Re- 

 ferring to a prevalent belief that the otter eats a piece out of 

 the back of a fish and leaves it, Mr Armistead said it only did 

 that when it was not very hungry and wanted only a tit-bit ; 

 when, in fact, he was killing for sport. A photograph showed 

 him on a stone in mid-stream, holding down a fish with his 

 claws and screwing off the head at one bite. Disturbed, pos- 

 sibly by the click of the camera, he was seen plunging under 

 water, taking the fish with him. 



WHAT A FISH SEES. 



Many of the photographs, lent by Dr Ward, had been 

 taken from under the water, looking upwards ; and the lecturer 

 pointed out the singular discovery that the surface of level, 

 unbroken water acts as a mirror, so that the fish sees 

 nothing above the water, but only what is beneath the sur- 

 face and an inverted image of that. These under-water 

 photographs presented a curious appearance. Thus of a 

 ^ull swimming you saw only the legs and lower part of the 

 body, and these reproduced as in a mirror, but upside down. 

 And of a heron standing in the water among reeds you saw 

 only the long thin legs, bearing a wonderfully close resem- 

 blance to the reeds, and an upward prolongation of the legs 

 in the aqueous mirror. 



DISCUSSION. 



Dr Semple expressed the thanks of the Society to Mr 

 Armistead for his able and instructive lecture, and also 

 initiated an interesting discussion. He mentioned that when 

 becalmed for some hours off Ailsa Craig in July last he had 

 been struck by the almost entire absence of bird life, with 

 which the island used to teem. He noted also the almost 

 complete disappearance of guillimotes and puffins from Jura, 



