368 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



being yellowish. This specimen is probably a young bird 

 in winter plumage ; it has the upper parts of head nearly 

 black, feathers rather prolonged at sides of hind head ; neck 

 and back brownish-black ; chin, and across upper part of 

 neck white, a greyish band crosses front of neck ; and be- 

 low it is silvery white, the flanks being dashed with brown. 

 Wing : primaries, dusky, first and second nearly equal, rest 

 gradually diminishing in length ; secondaries, pure white ; 

 the coverts brown ; below, white ; length from carpal joint 

 5 inches. Legs and feet dark green, rather lighter on in- 

 side. Macgillivray says he has very seldom met with this 

 bird in Scotland; and Sir William Jardine states he has 

 never personally found it. It is the rarest of the British 

 Grebes. 



VII. A Large Specimen of the Wild Cat (Felts catus ferus), 

 recently shot on the property of the Earl of Seaforth, in 

 Inverness-shire, was exhibited by Edward Hargitt, Esq. 



VIII. Mr Robert Brown exhibited to the Society a beautiful specimen 

 o/Astrophyton scutatum * from Davis Strait, with the following Note, 



Twelve months ago to-day I sailed to the Arctic Eegions, 

 for the purpose of studying some points in Natural History to 

 which my attention had of late been directed. During the 

 eight months I was away, I visited various parts of the Polar 

 Eegions, the seas round Jan Mayen, Spitzbergen, and the 

 east coast of Greenland, the west coast of Greenland, and 

 crossing the top of Baffin's Sea to Lancaster Sound, that 

 portion of the American coast bordering Davis Strait, &c. &c. 

 From a variety of causes — among others the late severe 

 winter and spring (the latter of which we ourselves expe- 

 rienced, the former we were told of by the Eskimo), and 

 the comparatively still summer, blocking up the shores 

 with ice, which was not dissipated before we were forced to 

 seek a milder climate — my voyage was not so successful, 

 from a scientific point of view, as, under other circum- 

 stances, it might have been. I however gained valuable 

 experience, which I hope soon to make use of, and which 



* The specimen is now in the Natural History Museum, Edinburgh. 



