196 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



bewildered cries. The cloud continuing to advance, they were driven back 

 about three kilometres, and it was nearly three-quarters of an hour before 

 they appeared able to rally aud re-form in line as before, almost where they 

 had originally dispersed. This incident, says the writer, may perhaps be 

 explained as follows: — The cloud, which had not shed a drop of water, 

 though presenting a stormy appearance, may have been charged with 

 electricity ; the Wild Geese, on coming in contact with it, would then 

 have received a severe shock ; hence their rout and agitation. But it is 

 surprising that birds accustomed to migration were not instinctively 

 warned of the danger, and did not turn a little out of their way to avoid 

 it. — J. E. Harting. 



SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES, 



Linnean Society of London. 



April 16th, 1896.— Mr. W. Percy Sladen, Vice-President, in the 

 chair. 



Messrs. V. H. Blackman and W. B. Hemsley were elected, and Messrs. 

 J. W. Cornwall, W. M. Christy, P. Ewing, and J. H. Leigh were admitted, 

 Fellows of the Society. 



Mr. George Massee read a paper on the types of Fungi in the collection 

 of the late Rev. M. J. Berkeley, which was presented to Kew in 1879, and 

 which contains rather more than 11,000 species. Many of the species were 

 described more than fifty years ago ; hence the diagnoses are in some cases 

 too brief, and do not embody points which at the present day are considered 

 to be of importance. In many instances this has led to the same species 

 being redescribed by others as new. Mr. Massee now supplied careful 

 descriptions of the types, with a view to obviate future confusion, and to 

 secure for Berkeley as the original describer the priority in nomenclature 

 which is justly his. 



Mr. A. D. Michael read a paper upon the internal anatomy of Bdella 

 (the Red-snouted Mite), giving the results of three years' work and of many 

 hundreds of dissections and serial sections. The material was furnished 

 chiefly from the Zoological Station at Port Erin, aud the subject is practically 

 new, only one paper (describing a few parts of the female) having been 

 hitherto published. The male organs of Bdella are extraordinarily com- 

 plicated : a pair of testes on each side of the body are joined by a tubular 

 bridge to those on the other side. In Bdella Basteri these testes are sunk 

 in the thick walls of great " embedding sacs," which are glandular, but are 

 absent from other species. The vasa deferentia are transformed into 

 immense mucous glands which communicate by "antechambers" with the 



