On Argentine and Anchovy on the Coast of Caithness. 259 



mation, and, if new, examine for themselves. I ought to 

 observe, that I am quite aware that this upward turn is, as 

 a foetal one, well known : it is of adult fish that I now speak. 

 Whether new or not, it appears to have escaped Cuvier's 

 notice, for he says, " The one-sided condition of tail exists 

 in no recent osseous fish known to naturalists, except the 

 bony pike, — a Sauroid fish of the warmer rivers of America." 

 Such is no longer the case, for the trout and salmon of our 

 coast must be added to it ; not having had an opportunity 

 of examining any other of the Salruonidse, I cannot say 

 whether this peculiarity runs through the whole family. 



The Secretary exhibited several diagrams in illustration 

 of some of the various degrees of change, which appear to 

 have taken place in the caudal termination of the vertebral 

 column of fishes, from the Silurian periods to those of our 

 own day. 



It was stated that Professor Goodsir had been in the 

 habit for many years of exhibiting and describing, in his 

 lectures on comparative anatomy, the upward terminal curve* 

 of the vertebral column in the tail of fishes. It was a fact 

 long known to Knox and to other anatomists here. Mr 

 Peach, however, had the merit of discovering a fact, pre- 

 viously unknown to himself, and of calling special attention 

 to it, in relation to the fossil fish of past ages. 



V. Ornithological Notes. 

 (1.) Larus glaucus. Glaucous Gull. By P. A. Dassauville, Esq. 



Mr Dassauville exhibited a specimen of the glaucous gull, 

 Larus glaucus (Temm), sent by Mr Small, bird-stuffer. It 

 was recently shot by R. J. Hebden of Eday, Esq., Orkney, 

 and appears to be in the pale yellowish grey mottled plum- 

 age of its second winter. The bird is rare, and is not known 

 to breed in any part of the British Islands. 



(2.) Cygnus Bewickii. Bewick's Swan. By John Alex. Smith, M.D. 



Dr Smith exhibited a fine specimen of our smallest British 

 swan, Cygnus Bewickii (Yar.), which was killed on Loch 



* Vide Handbuch der Zootomii von V. Siebold und von Hermann Stannius. 

 Berlin, 1854.— Ed. 



VOL. II. 2 L 



