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, 
K.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. Tlie Sea Lamprey. Exhibited hy 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 1.2th 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. 
