SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 271 



pounds and three-quarters. There is nothing extraordinary about this 

 weight; but it is that of a large hen fish in good condition. — H. A. 

 Macpherson (Carlisle). 



VERMES. 



A Bifid Worm. — In April last Mr. Gilchrist Clark, of Speddoch, gave 

 me one of those rare abnormalities — a worm with two tails. It had been 

 found amongst some worms kept for angling purposes. The species was 

 the ordinary Brandling, Lumbricus fcetidus. Considerably less than a dozen 

 instances of this curious malformation in worms are on record, and it so 

 happens that, including the specimen under notice, no less than four of 

 these have passed through my hands. So many as four having been in the 

 possession of one individual would seem to indicate that this "freak" is 

 not so rare as is generally supposed. I have presented this specimen to 

 the Museum of Science and Art in Edinburgh. — Robert Service (Max- 

 welltown, Dumfries). 



[The Brandling (diminutive of Brand) is so called from its colour. It 

 may be of interest to note here that in many dictionaries Izaak Walton is 

 quoted as the first English writer who mentions the Brandling by this 

 name (1653), but the word occurs in Barker's ' Art of Angling,' 165 1 . — Ed.] 



I SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



Linnean Society of London. 

 June 7th. — Mr. C. B. Clarke, M.A., F.R.S., President, in the chair. 



Messrs. W. E. Bailey, F. W. Hildyard, and A. Zietz were elected. 



The President nominated as Vice-Presidents for the year Messrs. J. G. 

 Baker, W. Carruthers, and F. Crisp, and Prof. C. Stewart. 



Dr. John Lowe communicated the results of observations made by him 

 in Madeira and Teneriffe on the habit in certain insectivorous small birds 

 belonging to the genera Sylvia, Phylloscopus, and Parus (of which specimens 

 were exhibited) of puncturing the calyces of flowers for the purpose of 

 attracting insects on which they feed. An interesting discussion followed, 

 in which the President, Rev. G. Henslow, and others took part. 



Mr. Carruthers exhibited a series of photographs of the celebrated 

 Cowthorpe Oak in Yorkshire, taken at long intervals, commencing with a 

 reproduction of Dr. Hunter's engraving of 1776, and made remarks upon 

 the rate of growth and decay, and probable duration of life in this tree. 



Mr. Raymund Dowling exhibited and made remarks upon a dwarf 

 Glaucous Pine, and some curiously shaped Trapa fruits from Japan. 



Mr. Thomas Christy exhibited specimens of two species of Polygonum 

 (P. sachalinense and P. cuspidatum), of value for forage, and pointed out 



