REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 
295 
Excursion to Puffin Island at the recent Manchester Meeting of 
the British Association.” This excursion was taken by a party of 
about fifty members, on the 3rd of September, by a special steamer 
from Liverpool to Puffin Island, at the entrance of the Menai Straits, 
forty-five miles distance. The party was under the leadership of 
Professor Herdman, of Liverpool University College, and was well 
supplied with several dredges and tow-nets, and a trawl-net. Numer¬ 
ous interesting specimens were taken, including some rare in the 
district. The new station was visited that has been established this 
year on Puffin Island by the Liverpool Marine Biological Committee, 
containing a zoological laboratory, at which naturalists are afforded 
facilities for carrying out original research and investigations into the 
life history of marine animals, with the advantage of the continued 
supply of fresli specimens from a surrounding region containing a 
rich and varied marine fauna. An improved tow-net was described 
in the paper, that had been tried in the previous year’s dredging 
excursion at Tenby, by the Birmingham Society, and some 
modifications were suggested from the further experience of its 
use. —Geological Section. —October 18th, 1887, Mr. Thos. H. Waller, 
B.A., B.Sc., in the chair, twenty-one members present. On the 
proposition of Professor Hillhouse, seconded by Mr. Clarke, and 
earned by acclamation, the warmest congratulations of the Section 
were presented to Mr. W. P. Marshall upon his election to the office 
of President of the Birmingham Philosophical Society. The following 
gentlemen were unanimously elected members :—Mr. Alfred Hughes, 
Paradise Street. Re-elected: — John Anthony, M.D., F.R.C.P., 
F.R.M.S., 6, Greenfield Crescent, Edgbasbon ; Mr. H. J. Sayer, 
Cambridge Street; Mr. Edmund Tonks, B.C.L. (ex-president Bir¬ 
mingham Natural History and Microscopical Society), Packwood, 
Knowle. Exhibits :—Mr. R. W. Chase, Richards’ Pipit, Anthus Richardi, 
near Brighton ; Mr. Charles Mautell, Jun., several photographs— 
“ Ledbury Station Yard,” showing passage beds, &c. Mr. T. H. Waller 
read a paper on “ The Micro-Chemical Methods for the Examination 
of Minerals.” The paper was illustrated by experiments in flame 
coloration, and solutions of minerals placed under the microscope. 
BIRMINGHAM MICROSCOPISTS’ AND NATURALISTS’ 
UNION. — September 19th, Mr. Beale exhibited specimens of Roe 
stone and Pisolitic limestone from the Oolite, and a similar limestone, 
containing fossils of Saccamminia Carteri (a foraminifer), from the 
Bunter drift; also a specimen of the same rock from the Elf Hills, 
Northumberland; Mr. J. W. Neville, large variety of mussel from the 
Pacific ; Mr. W. H. Bath, specimens of Dorites apollo and D. delius 
from Switzerland; Mr. Hawkes, a collection of fungi, including 
specimens of Polyporus rufescens, P. betulinus, Coprinus comatus, &c. 
Under the microscope, Mr. Hawkes showed a slide of five species of 
Mildew ; Mr. J. W. Neville, section of Favosites Forbesii, a fossil coral. 
—September 26th, Mr. H. Hawkes showed a collection of fungi, 
including specimens of Agaricus phalloides, A. butyraceus, Boletes 
badius, Paxillus involutes, Lactarius quietus, and Doedalea quercina; Mr. 
P. T. Deakin, specimens of Sphcerium ovale. Mr. C. Beale then read a 
paper on “ Anecdotes of Animals from Personal Observations.” The 
writer observed that few pleasures were so great as those of noting the 
winning wavs of our non-human friends. The anecdotes were 
numerous, and bore upon the sagacity of the horse, the intelligence 
