26 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



heads of a size to compare with two specially fine ones which were 

 presented to the Zoological Society in 1869. Choughs are fairly plentiful, 

 though there is a keen demand for their eggs, as for those of all the 

 rarer birds, so that the chief sea-bird haunts near St. David's are harried 

 every year to an increasing extent by the local fishermen. The Gannets at 

 Grasholm, in whose favour popular sympathy was enlisted some years since, 

 are now plundered almost annually.— J. H. Salter (Aberystwith). 



INSECTS. 



Vanessa antiopa at Epsom in December. — A specimen of the Cam- 

 berwell Beauty, Vanessa antiopa, was captured in the drawing-room of a 

 house at Epsom on Dec. 19th. The family were seated round the fire at 

 about 7.30 p.m., and a log of wood had been recently added to the coals, 

 when the butterfly in question was observed crawling amongst the cinders 

 and ashes in the grate. It was at first supposed to have come down the 

 chimney ; but the more reasonable explanation probably is that it had 

 hybernated in the log of wood which had been recently put on the fire. — 

 John Bucknill (Hylands House, Epsom). 



SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, 



Linnean Society of London. 



December 6th, 1895. — Mr. C. B. Clarke, F.R.S., President, in the 

 chair. 



Messrs. Beruard Arnold and Rupert Vallentin were admitted, and the 

 following were elected Fellows of the Society : — W. M. Christy, Rev. H. P. 

 Fitzgerald, A. W. Geffcken, Rev. E. A. Peacock, Rev. T. R. Stebbing, and 

 W. 0. Stentiford. 



The President called attention to a portrait of the late Prof. Babington, 

 of Cambridge, which had been lately presented by his widow to the Society. 

 On the motion of Dr. Murie, seconded by Mr. A. W. Bennett, a vote of 

 thanks to Mrs. Babington was unanimously accorded. 



Prof. Stewart offered some remarks on the types of the axes of certain 

 Gorgonacece, in which he referred chiefly to the alleged importance or 

 otherwise of the presence of spicules in the axes, and exhibited the following 

 species in illustration of his remarks : — Paragorgia arborea, Melitodes 

 ochracea, Suberogorgia suberosa, Corallium rubruni, Caligorgia verticillata, 

 Verucella guadalupensis, Isis hippuris, Plexaurella crassa, and Eunicella 

 verrucosa. Some criticism was offered by Dr. Murie chiefly in relation to 

 the structure of Gorgonia flabellum and Gorgonia setosa. 



Mr. Martin Woodward exhibited and made remarks on a living specimen 



