3308 Zoological Society. 



ration has been completed with only the fracture of a single aim 

 Many of them are brought ashore in a sadly mutilated condition, but 

 I have frequently seen more than the half deposited on the shore per- 

 fectly entire, or, as they had been caught, with shattered rays in course 

 of reparation. As regards the method of extingushing star-fish life by 

 plunging in cold fresh water, the result of my experience is in favour 

 of excepting most of the Ophiurae, and in particular this frail star, from 

 having any part in the hydropathic mode of treatment. Every time I 

 have tried the experiment, the body has quickly thrown off into frag- 

 ments ; and in one instance, where I treated a whole colony, carried 

 in safety over a distance of a mile and a half, to the douse, I had the 

 mortification the next moment of beholding the whole converted into 

 a chaos of hapless shreds. I retained the mingled mass upwards of 

 twenty-four hours, and on turning it out was somewhat surprized to 

 find many of the fragments giving unequivocal indications of vitality, 

 which was done by violent movement of the suckers, the motion be- 

 ing chiefly lateral. This fish inhabits deep water, and on this coast 

 is very often associated with the rosy Cribella. 



Of the Echinidae, besides the common egg-urchin {Echinus sphaera, 

 Muller), the other varieties I have met with on this coast are the pur- 

 ple-tipped egg urchin (E. miliaris), hitherto not considered to be very 

 abundant on the east coast of Scotland ; and the purple heart-urchin 

 (Spatangus purpureus, Muller), respecting which Forbes observes at 

 p. 186, that it is rare in England and in Ireland; but, according to 

 Fleming, is common in the Firth of Forth. 



George Harris. 



Manse of Gamrie, Banffshire, 

 September 10, 1851. 



Proceedings of the Zoological Society. 



Monthly General Meeting, November 6, 1851. — W. J. Broderip, Esq., V.P., in 

 the chair. 



F. I. Bladon, Esq., R. W. Crawford, Esq., and the Rev. B. Winthrop were elected 

 Fellows. H. Druitt, Esq., W. H. Lintott, Esq., J. Colthurst, Esq., H. N. Reboul, 

 Esq., and H. Bullock, Esq., were proposed as Candidates for the Fellowship. 



The Report of the Council stated that the number of visitors to the Gardens dur- 

 ing the month of October amounted to 45,535, and that the number of visitors in the 

 current year, up to this time, as compared with the same period in 1850, presented an 

 increase of 308,147. The Report further stated, that the Society had been honoured 

 by the gift of a pair of wild boars, from H. R. II. the Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha, 

 which had been sent to this country under the care of one of H. R. H.'s foresters, and 



