190 



The Natuealist. 



cuckoo, 28tli ; swallow, 30th. ; whinchat, corn crake and house martiny 

 May 6th. He remarked that the cuckoo and swallow were both late, the 

 latter by fully a fortnight. The cuckoo certainly seems more plentiful 

 about Halifax than in former years. This season Mr. Rawson has again 

 noticed golden plovers on the moorlands. 



249th Meeting, May 29th, Mr. James Abbott, president, in the chair. 

 — Mr. Thomas Hick, B.A., B.Sc, delivered a very able and logical paper 

 on ''Evolution and the Vegetable Kingdom," in which, after pointing 

 out the distinction to be drawn between the general hypothesis of evolu- 

 tion and the special one propounded by Mr. Darwin, he stated that he 

 accepted both theories as consistent with the phenomena which have to 

 be explained, and then discussed the evidence which plants supplied in 

 favour of the Darwinian hypothesis. 



250th Meeting, June 5th, Mr. John Grassham, Y.P., in the chair. — 

 Mr. Thomas Benn exhibited a local specimen of Colias Edusa (see 

 p. 192). The chairman showed male, female, cocoon, and eggs of AnthercBa 

 pernyii ; also four specimens of Bmerintlius populi, being bred from one 

 batch of ten eggs, yet were everyone different in shade and intensity of 

 markings ; also nest and egg of the goldcrest {Begulus cristatns), taken in 

 May at Chapeltown, within the borough of Leeds. Messrs. W. H. Hay 

 and Wm. Denison Roebuck exhibited a number of beetles, including a 

 fine pair, male and female, of Dyticus marginalis, Acilius sulcatus, Agahus 

 uliginosus, and Gyrinus natator, all taken in a pond at Osmondthorpe, 

 Leeds, June 4th ; also a large number of newts of both the common 

 species {Triton cristatns and Lophinus punctatus) from the same place. 

 Mr. Charles Rider exhibited dissections of the common smooth newt, and 

 there was a discussion, in which he, Mr. E. E. Prince, and Mr. W. H. 

 Taylor joined, as to the development of the pulmonary apparatus in these 

 animals, especially with reference to the structure and development of 

 the pulmonary sacs. Mr. H. Crowther exhibited spirit-specimens of the 

 larva of Ephemera. Mr. John W. Taylor showed several species of genus 

 Helix, from the two zoological provinces of North America, which differ 

 entirely from each other. On the Pacific slope the bulk of the shells are 

 banded, and belong to the sub-genus Arionta. The Atlantic slope develops 

 also characteristic genera in Mesodon, Polygyra, and Triodopsis, wMch are 

 almost peculiar to the Western Hemisphere. Microscopes were brought 

 into requisition by Mr. F. Emsley, who showed Stentors, and by Mr. S. 

 S. Peat, who brought fern spores, and ihe flower of London-pride. Mr. 

 James Abbott sent a caterpillar {Ourapteryx samhucaria) to be named. 

 A number of other objects were exhibited. 



251sT Meeting, June 12th, Mr. J ames Abbott, president, in the chair. 

 — A paper was read on " The Comparative Anatomy of the Nose," by 

 Mr. Frederick Greenwood, M.R.C.S.E., Curator to the Leeds School of 

 Medicine. He illustrated his subject with a large number of skulls of 

 man and various animals, and by diagrams of the soft structures. — Wm. 

 Denison Roebuck, Sec. 



