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 J ardine states he has 
never personally found it. It is the rarest of the British 
Grebes. 
VII. A Large Specimen of the Wild Cat {Felis 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 */rom 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 Bafiin'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. 
