PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSI vE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. XXXV 
WINTER SESSION, 1888-89. 
v 8th November, 1888. 
F. Buchanan White, M.D., F.L.S., F.E.S., President, 
in the Chair. 
The following donations were intimated :— 
Museum—Perthshire Collection. —Bat—from Mr. J. Smart. Two 
young Oyster Catchers—from Mr. Athole MacGregor. Nest and 
Eggs of Pochard and Nest and Eggs of Tufted Duck—from Captain 
D. M. Smythe. Nest and Eggs of Reed Bunting—from Mr. G. 
Alexander. Rabbit’s Head, with malformed teeth—from Mr. Adam 
Steel, Blackpark. Fungus (Polyporus) —from Mr. Routledge, Free¬ 
land. Nests of Bees and Wasps and Parasites on Bees—from Mr. 
T. M. M‘Gregor. 
Mr. R. Pullar, F.R.S.E., Delegate of the Society to the East of 
Scotland Union of Naturalists’ Societies, gave a report of the Meet¬ 
ings of the Union at Largo. 
Mr. R. Brown, F.E., R.N., Delegate of the Society to the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science, gave a report of the 
Meetings of the Association at Bath. 
The President delivered the following Opening Address :— 
Gentlemen,— In seeking a subject for the address from the 
chair on the occasion of the opening of the Winter Session of the 
Society, it was soon apparent that, beyond the work which has been 
done since we met here in May last, there was not much of great 
importance to be discussed. The address, therefore, will be—as, 
I venture to think, it should be—almost confined to an account 
of the summer’s work of the Society. 
In May last seven official excursions were arranged, and of these 
five were carried out. Through various causes the excursions this 
year were not so strikingly successful as those of the previous summer 
—that is to say, they did not result, for one thing, in the discovery 
of so many additions to the local Flora and Fauna. This, perhaps, 
was not to be expected; but it must be confessed that on the whole 
the localities selected for exploration were not so replete with attrac¬ 
tions as they might have been. Though the area within which our 
explorations can be conducted is very large, embracing, as it does, 
about 2500 square miles, it must be kept in mind that, from the 
situation of Perth, a large part of the district is beyond our reach for 
a single day’s excursion. It must also be remembered that, though 
the area is large, many a square mile of it is but a repetition of many 
another square mile, neither particularly productive nor attractive. 
Thirdly, I must remind you that the localities within reach which 
experience has proved to be the richest have been visited over and 
over again, and hence were, perhaps unwisely, passed over in drawing 
up the programme, when*we, like the old Athenians, were desirous 
