482 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



if indicating the course of the current. This is not so much the case 

 at Durdlestone Bay. Some gigantic wings of Neuroptera, rarely 

 perfect, are rather prevalent ; there are also wings of Gryllus and 

 other Orthoptera, associated with some BlattcB, Ilomoptera, and 

 other families. A very large collection of Insects has been made from 

 the Dorsetshire Purbecks * by the officers of the Geological Survey, 

 and by Messrs. W. R. Brodie, Austen, Fisher, and Willcox. I am in- 

 debted to the kindness and generosity of Mr. Brodie for the greater 

 part of the specimens in my cabinet, and I have to thank the last- 

 named gentleman for the loan of his valuable collection of insect 

 exuviae, which also were sent to Mr. Westwood for examination. 



P.S. — I cannot conclude without referring to the interesting and 

 important discovery of Mammalian and Reptilian remains near 

 Swanage, by Mr. W. R. Brodie and Mr. Wilcox, which have been 

 lately described by Professor Owen. These consist of two small 

 lizards {Nuthetes, from No. 84 of Mr. Austen's Section, and Macel- 

 lodus, from No. 93) and a small Mammal {Sjmlacotherium, also from 

 No. 93 f), most closely resembling the Thylacotherium of the Stones- 

 field slate. Professor Owen considers both the Mammal and the 

 Reptiles to have been insectivorous ; aiid although the presence of 

 insects would have led to the inference, as I have elsewhere observed J, 

 that some insectivorous animals must have existed contemporaneously, 

 it is extremely interesting to be able to prove the fact ; and we are 

 greatly indebted to the zeal and energy of the discoverers for bringing 

 these remains to hght. — [August 14, 1854.] 



* Not long after Prof. Forbes's discovery of a few insect wings in the Hastings 

 Sand in the Isle of Wight, Mr. W. R. Brodie sent me a fragment of a wing from 

 the Hastings sand at Swanage Ba}', north of the town. Since then, Messrs. W. 

 and H. Binfield have detected numerous insect remains throughout the Wealden 

 Series near Hastings. See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. for May 1854. — [Aug. 14, 1854. 

 —P. B. B.] 



t This bed occurs in the " Marly middle freshwater series " of Prof. E. Forbes, 

 and is the basement-bed of the Middle Purbecks. 



% Fossil Insects, p. 112. 



