Royal Physical Society. 249 



previously exhibited, I have been anxiously seeking for small-sized horns 

 of the reindeer to compare with it, and at last was fortunate enough to get 

 the horns of a young or female reindeer, of the American variety. I exhi- 

 bit these horns, and the Society will at once see the very close resemblance 

 between them (fig. 2). (I am indebted to T. B. Johnston, Esq., for kindly 

 favouring me with the annexed careful drawing, which shows the relation 

 between this broken horn and the perfect horns of the recent reindeer.) 

 And, to set this matter completely at rest, I then forwarded the horn to 

 our great authority in fossil remains, Professor Richard Owen of London , 

 who favoured me with the following reply : — •" It gives me pleasure to in- 

 form you that the portion of antler from the basin of the Endrick, which 

 you sent for my inspection, is of a young or female reindeer of the exist- 

 ing species, and if, as is most probable, a female, of the large variety 

 called ' Carabou' by the Hudson's Bay trappers." Professor Owen, in 

 his valuable " History of British Fossil Mammals," refers to two in- 

 stances of the cranium or horns of the reindeer being found in Eng- 

 land. The only instance described, as far as I am aware, of its occur- 

 rence in Scotland, is that recorded by Dr Scouler of Glasgow, in the 

 " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal" of 1852, p. 135. This consisted of 

 a portion of the distinctive palmated brow-antler. I have much pleasure, 

 therefore, in recording another instance of the remains of this animal — ■ 

 now so exclusively a native of the more northern parts of Europe and 

 America — being found in Scotland. 



(2.) Notice of the Wood Sandpiper (Totanus glareola, Temm.) Shot in 

 Mid-Lothian. By John Alex. Smith, M.D. 



The wood sandpiper which I exhibit was kindly sent to me by Richard 

 Bell, Esq., who shot it on the 14th of August last on a moor a little to 

 the west of the village of Heriot, among the Muirfoot Hills. It rose from 

 the side of a pool or peat-hag, flew much like a snipe, which he supposed 

 it at first to be, alighting at no great distance, when he sprung it again 

 and killed it. The bird is considered a rare occasional visitant of Eng- 

 land, and three specimens have been recorded by Mr Selby, taken as far 

 to the north as Durham and Northumberland. In this specimen, the 

 dark brown feathers of the back and scapulars are spotted round the 

 edges with fawn-colour, showing the plumage of the young bird ; and as 

 the district is just such a one as they are described by naturalists as se- 

 lecting for incubation on the Continent, it seems not impossible this lo- 

 cality may be visited for a similar purpose. The bird is a male. The 

 stomach was filled with semi-digested remains of insects, including, as my 

 friend Mr Andrew Murray informs me, the following genera and species : 

 ■ — Gyrinus, Hydroporus, Donacia micans, Colymbetes Sturmii, &c. 

 This appears to be the first time the bird has been observed in Scotland. 

 Sir William Jardine, to whom I sent the specimen for examination, informs 



