196 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 
facility and assistance in the work of excavation. A great 
number of specimens had been obtained in beautiful preserva- 
tion, as could be seen from those exhibited to the Society, 
and geologists might rest assured that every care would be 
taken to render these treasures available to the purposes of 
science.* Independent of the palseontological value of so 
many new and perfect forms, the discovery was of high litho- 
logical interest, as enabling geologists to determine with 
greater precision the relative ages of the Forfarshire and 
Caithness series, both of which had now been proved to be 
characterised by the same specific forms. 
III. On the Nidus and Young of Pontobdella maricata, mid other An- 
nelides. By Chas. William Peach, Esq., Wick. (With Illustrative 
Sketches.) 
On the 21st January 1859, my colleague. Collector Boyd, 
kindly sent me an old oyster shell attached to an oyster, 
brought to him from the Frith of Forth, on which he had 
observed something strange and unusual. The form was quite 
new to me, and although well acquainted with the nests of 
many shells and other sea animals, this differed from all I had 
previously seen. I found amongst the nests a small annelid, and, 
on applying my lens, discovered that it was a young Pontob- 
della, which I supposed had got in there for shelter. I laid it 
carefully aside, and continued my examination, and soon found 
a portion of a second worm protruding from the upper part of 
one of the nests, and that it, too, was another tiny Pontob- 
della, This quite surprised and delighted me. Still, I had 
my doubts whether it had not crept into the nest after it had 
teen accidentally ruptured, and suspected that its errand 
was one of felonious intent, I then selected a nest which 
appeared to be full and uninjured. On opening it with my 
lancet, I found that I had libelled the above-mentioned, for 
there, snugly coiled up, was another veritable baby Pontob- 
* Several of the fishes referred to by Mr Page have since been figured and 
described by Sir Philip Egerton in No. 10 of the Decades of the Geological 
Survey of Great Britain." Three of the genera are also figured in Mr Page's 
new work, " Past and Present Life of the Globe." 
