248 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



exhibited. The bird does not assume the white plumage 

 until the second autumn. It was shot by Captain Firman, 

 B.N., at Taynash, Argyleshire, in the beginning of this 

 month. Its plumage very much resembles the adult female ; 

 it is, however, rather larger in size, measuring, when stuffed, 

 sixteen inches in length (the female being about fourteen 

 inches long). The smaller wing coverts, instead of being- 

 pure white, are edged with dusky brown, and it shows no 

 patch of black at the base of the upper mandible, and round 

 eye, in the reddish-brown of head, as in the adult female and 

 male ; resembling in this respect the young female. The 

 trachea of the bird which was exhibited shows the charac- 

 teristic dilated box at its bifurcation ; this is awanting in 

 the female. 



The smew is a bird of eastern Europe, and is only an 

 occasional visitor or straggler to Scotland, being more fre- 

 quently seen in the south of England. One or two speci- 

 mens taken in Scotland have been previously exhibited to 

 the Society. 



The very cold weather of the winter, he might remark, 

 had been very severe on many of our small birds, as well as 

 on our regular winter visitors, great numbers of which had 

 been destroyed. 



VI. Petromyzon marinus. The Sea Lamprey. Exhibited by John 

 Alexander Smith, M.D. 



Dr Smith exhibited a specimen of the sea lamprey, Pe- 

 tromyzon marinus, measuring thirty-three inches in length • 

 and about six in circumference, near the middle of the fish. 

 The mottled appearance of its sides was very distinct. It 

 was taken on the 12th January, above Inchgarvie, in a net 

 used for fishing garvie herrings, and was kindly sent to 

 Dr Smith by Mr Muirhead, Queen Street. Parnell, in his 

 " Fishes of the Forth," says it is not uncommon above 

 Alloa, on the Forth ; the fishermen, when they accidentally 

 take them, having a prejudice against them, return them 

 to the water. They are consequently never, under any cir- 

 cumstances, seen in the Edinburgh market. In some parts 

 of England they are esteemed a great delicacy. 



