6448 



Birds — Reptiles. 



the 2nd of February, a strange sea-bird was observed flying low over the people's heads 

 in the fish-market at Barnstaple, the fish-market being near the river (Taw). A vio- 

 lent gale from the N.W. had been blowing all day. The bird continued flying up and 

 down the street for some little time, until at last it was shot from the street by some per- 

 son who had gone for a gun. It was taken to the bird-stufler in the town, where I saw 

 it in the flesh, and found it to be a young bird of the fulmar petrel. It had, extraor- 

 dinary to relate, an immense wen-like protuberance on the neck ; this protuberance 

 was the size of a small orange, perfectly spherical, and to a great extent nude of fea- 

 thers ; the skin of the bare part seemed hard and horny. The bird-stuffer skinned the 

 bird while I was present, but was obliged first of all to remove the wen from the neck, 

 which came off' without much difficulty : the body of the bird was fleshy and 

 well covered with fat; all its internal parts seemed healthy, and, from dissecting it, I 

 found it to be a young male. The tumour which was removed from the neck weighed 

 a trifle under three ounces, and, on making an incision in it, I found it composed of a 

 firm, fleshy substance. It is probable that the bird must have been incommoded and 

 weakened by this tumour, so as to have been unable to contend against the strong 

 winds which drove it to a place so far south. A specimen of the longtailed duck was 

 shot close to this town towards the end of last November: this is another bird 

 not often obtained so far south as this. — Murray A. Mathews ; Raleigh, near Barn- 

 staple, February 5, 1859. 



Occurrence of the Adult Glaucous Gull in Orkney. — The winter here has been very 

 stormy, but unusually mild : I procured an adult specimen of the glaucous gull (Larus 

 glaucus) on New Year's day; this is only the third adult specimen I have seen 

 during my five years' residence at Stromness. We have seen two immature specimens 

 this winter, but did not obtain either: some winters we have seen as many as half-a- 

 dozen immature specimens. — Robert Dunn; Stromness, Orkney, January 24, 1859. 



Interesting Fossil Bones in Philadelphia. — A remarkable exhibition of fossil bones 

 was made by Mr. Foulke and Dr. Leidy, before the Academy of Natural Sciences, at 

 a very full meeting, last evening, to which the attention of our readers is invited, 

 because the new light which it shed upon, and the greatly enhancing interest it 

 gave to, the common bone contents of the innumerable marl-pits of the Atlantic sea- 

 board, make it, in a scientific light, the duty, and probably will make it the pleasure, 

 of the intelligent and liberal-minded living in their vicinity to watch their periodical 

 excavation, and secure still more valuable relics than any yet discovered. * * * * 

 A month or two ago, according to Mr. Foulke's graphic historical exordium, he visited 

 a neighbour's house, near his own summer residence at Haddonfield, in New Jersey, 

 a few miles out from Camden, on the Camden and Atlantic Railroad ; and, in the 

 course of conversation, Mr. Hopkins described from memory some teeth and vertebrae 

 which had been thrown out from a marl-pit on his property, not less than twenty years 

 ago: one by one they had been given away to curious friends or casual acquaintances, 

 or lost: he could remember no long or large bones, but only teeth and vertebrae. 

 Receiving permission to re-open the spot, Mr. Foulke set a gang of marl-diggers to 

 work at the bottom of a small ravine, near where it opens upon Cooper's Creek, and 

 about twenty feet below the surrounding farm-land of the neighbourhood ; three or 

 four feet of soil brought the workmen to the face of the marl, and discovering the old 



