driving it up an inclined plane of air. If the above explains the peculiar action of the feet described, it may account for the singularly short allowance of tail that many web-footed birds are favoured with.-H. Marriage Wallis; London, July 11, 1874.

[The Guillemots at the Zoological Gardens.-A similar deficiency, or indeed almost total absence, of tail has often struck me in the guillemots, and it has been with intense pleasure I have watched the actions of these birds, under the care of the very intelligent keeper, Mr. Church, at the Zoological Gardens. We have had at different times several of these birds in the Gardens, but have never succeeded in keeping them any length of time we have now two, one a bird of 1872, the other a bird of 1873. Both of them are exceedingly tame, and will walk deliberately into a cage constructed in the similitude of a rabbit-hutch in order to be conveyed from their residence in the eastern aviary to the basin in the pelican enclosure, where they are fed on gudgeon and other small fishes, simultaneously conveyed thither by the keeper in a tin can, this fish-can in one hand, the guillemot-hutch in the other. The guillemots are perfectly unmutilated; the stumpy tail may perhaps be a little worn, and this is scarcely perceptible; the wings are entire, and there is no obvious reason why the birds do not take leave of their keeper and wing their way to the sea-side in company with other fashionables. Their-gait in walking is awkward in the extreme; they waddle along, resting on the whole length of the tarsus, and emit almost incessant guttural sounds, whether indicative of affection for their keeper or eagerness for food I am not prepared to say. As soon as the fishes are transferred from the can to the basin the guillemots plunge in after them, and now a scene of vigour and activity takes place which does one good to watch. You see at a glance that although the guillemot is known to avail himself of land or air when necessity compels, yet water is his element, his home. The first observation you will infallibly make is that the wings, which we are apt to suppose exclusively organs of flight, are now converted into organs of swimming, and are used, to the almost entire exclusion of the legs, for the purpose; the wings, under water, are plied with the strength and regularity of the fins of a turtle, but with infinitely more rapidity and energy; the legs seem to follow the body because they must, not because they wish to; they flap feebly and lazily, but allow the wings to do all the work. The bird must keep a bright look out under water, for he pursues the fish with undeviating accuracy, whatever its speed and however abrupt and angular its turns to avoid him: escape is impossible: the fish is generally seized crosswise of the bill, and brought to the surface of the water to swallow head first. The office of the wings in swimming is not more remarkable than their apparent inaptitude for flight if taken out of the water and dropped from a height of three or four feet on to its surface, the bird invariably plunges below, and begins to pursue

imaginary gudgeons if there are no living ones to be swallowed. As soon as the exhibition is over the lethargic listless bearing and guttural grumbling of the birds is resumed; it re-enters its hutch with all the sulky obedience of a well-disciplined child, and is forthwith conveyed to its appointed home. Of course, as the feet seemed almost useless in swimming, I wanted to see them utilized in flight in the manner described by Mr. Wallis as regards the puffin, but I had no such gratification.-Edward Newman.]

·

Glaucous Gull.-The Iceland gull described by Mr. Kennedy in the July number of the Zoologist' (S. S. 4078) appears to me to be in the transition stage between the plumages of the first and second year. I think I could show him a specimen shot here two winters ago by me in a very similar dress. I obtained three here that winter, and on one day saw upwards of thirty, besides glaucous gulls. They were always much more wary than the glaucous gulls. Papers upon the great arrival of glaucous and Iceland gulls in the winter of 1872-73 in the Firth of Forth and elsewhere on the east coast of Scotland were read at meetings of the Glasgow Natural-History Society by Mr. Robert Gray, late Secretary, and myself. The glaucous gull is a regular winter visitant to our coast, and I shall not be surprised if the Iceland gull be found to be so also.--John A. Harvie Brown; July 2, 1874.

Proceedings of Scientific Societies.

LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.

Anniversary Meeting, May 25, 1874.-G. BUSK, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair.

The Secretary stated that the death of twelve Fellows of the Society (viz.-Philip Barnes; Frederic Bird, M.D.; Robert Cole; Henry Deane; J. T. Dickson, M.B.; James Fischer; Rev. Dr. Garnier, Dean of Winchester; Albany Hancock; T. N. R. Morson; J. L. Stewart, M.D.; Thomas Turner; Francis C. Webb, M.D.) and of three Foreign Members (viz.Professor Louis Agassiz; Georg Ritter von Frauenfeld; Carl Friedrich Meissner, M.D.) had been ascertained to have taken place during the year; and twenty-seven had been elected during the past year.

The Chairman announced on the report of the scrutineers appointed for the purpose, that the following gentlemen were elected officers of the Society for the coming year:-President, G. J. Allman, M.D.; Treasurer, Mr. D. Hanbury; Secretaries, Messrs. Frederick Currey and St. George J. Mivart; that Robert Braithwaite, M.D., J. D. Hooker, C.B., M.D., J. G. Jeffreys, LL.D., Mr. Daniel Oliver and Mr. W. W. Saunders were removed from the Council, and the following five gentlemen elected in their place:-Major

General Strachey, Messrs. W. T. T. Dyer, J. E. Harting, W. P. Hiern, and J. J. Weir.

It was moved by Mr. Busk, seconded by Mr. Carruthers, and carried unanimously: "That the Secretaries be requested to convey to Mr. Bentham the cordial thanks of the Society for his invaluable services throughout the thirteen years during which he has occupied the President's chair; to express to him the regret with which the Fellows contemplate the loss of his services, and to assure him that the zealous interest which he has taken in the welfare of the Society and the great efforts which he has made, with so much liberality and success, to increase its prosperity and usefulness, will always be held in grateful remembrance."

It was moved by Mr. Busk and unanimously resolved:-"That the thanks of the Society be also given to Mr. Stainton on his retirement from the office of Secretary, with an expression of the Society's deep regret on losing his valuable services in that capacity."

June 4, 1874.-G. J. ALLMAN, M.D., President, in the chair.

The President exhibited a number of living specimens of firefly (Luciola italica) recently taken by himself in the neighbourhood of Turin, calling attention to the remarkable synchronous emission of flashes of light by numerous individuals, and pointing out that the phosphorescence is a phenomenon not of darkness merely, but of twilight or night.

Dr. W. G. Farlow exhibited and described microscopical preparations made in the botanical laboratory of the University of Strasburg, illustrating a remarkable asexual development from the prothallus of Pteris serrulata. In the centre of the cushion or thickest part of the prothallus were a number of scalariform ducts, the prothallus bearing a number of antheridia, but no archegonia. From these ducts a leaf is developed directly, after which a root is also developed, and last of all a stem-bud. A comparison was drawn between this growth, which was observed in this species only, and the buds indirectly produced from the protonema of a moss. Normally the prothallus of a fern is entirely destitute of vascular tissue of any kind.

The following among other papers were read :-" On the Restiaceae of Thunberg's Herbarium," by M. T. Masters, M.D.; "On Napoleona, Omphalocarpum, and Asteranthos," by Mr. J. Miers.

June 18, 1874.-G. J. ALLMAN, M.D., President, in the chair.

E. Birchall, Esq., James Leathem, M.D., and J. Harbord Lewis, Esq., were elected Fellows.

Mr. D. Hanbury exhibited branches of olive grown in the open air at Clapham, some bearing flowers, others nearly ripe fruit; also a specimen of Rheum officinale, Baill., now grown in this country for the first time, the

source of the true medicinal Turkey rhubarb, and pointed out the characters in which it differs from other species of the genus.

Dr. Hooker made a communication on the subject of some Indian Garcinias.

Prof. Thiselton Dyer exhibited a young oak-plant with three cotyledons, which had been sent to him by Mr. Cross, of Chester; also a pitcher-like development of a leaf of the common cabbage, from Harting, Sussex, sent by Mr. H. C. Watson to the Kew Museum.

Mr. A. W. Bennett exhibited drawings of the style, stigma and pollengrain of Pringlea antiscorbutica, Hook. f., describing the remarkable manner in which the pollen of Pringlea differs from that of other nearly allied Crucifers, being much smaller and perfectly spherical, instead of elliptical with three furrows. This he considered a striking confirmation of Dr. Hooker's suggestion that we have here a wind-fertilized species of a family ordinarily fertilized by insects, an hypothesis which is again confirmed by the total absence of hairs on the style of Pringlea.

An extract was read of a letter from Mr. Harry Bolus to Dr. Hooker, dated Graaft Reinet, April 4th, 1874, in which he comments adversely on some of the reasonings contained in Grisebach's 'Vegetation der Erde' in favour of the theory of "independent centres of creation." Grisebach, relying chiefly on an observation of Burchell's, makes the Orange River the boundary between the Cape and Kalahari provinces, a boundary which Mr. Bolus shows to be untenable, at least in certain portions. Grisebach unites the Kanoo flora with that of the Cape province; while Mr. Bolus doubts whether it does not differ more from this than from the Kalahari. The Roggeveld, and indeed the whole Kanoo, by its predominance of shrubby Compositæ, seems to incline more to the desert type of plants than to the richer Cape flora.

The following papers were then read, viz. :-" On the Resemblances between the Bones of Typical Living Reptiles and the Bones of other Animals," by Mr. Harry G. Seeley; "On the Auxemmeæ, a new Tribe of Cordiaceae," by Mr. J. Miers; "A Revision of the Suborder Mimoseæ," by G. Bentham, LL.D.; "On some Fungi collected by Dr. S. Kurz in Yornah, Pegu," by Mr. F. Currey; "Notes on the Letters from Danish and Norwegian Naturalists contained in the Linnean Correspondence," by Prof. J. C. Schiödte, of Copenhagen.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

June 2, 1874.-ARTHUR GROTE, Esq., F.Z.S., in the chair.

The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during the month of May, 1874, amongst which were

specially noticed a blue-faced green Amazon parrot (Chrysotis Bouqueti), a young male Koodoo antelope (Tragelaphus strepsiceros), and a racoon-like dog (Nyctereutes procynides), acquired by purchase; two Pacific whimbrels. (Numenius femoralis?) from Quiros Island, Pacific, presented by the Rev. S. J. Whitmee; a Beisa antelope (Oryx beisa), presented by Admiral Cumming, and a guilding's amazon (Chrysotis guildingi), transmitted by Mr. G. H. Hawtayne, from St. Vincent, W.I.

A letter was read from Mr. T. D. Forsyth, containing an account of some of the animals met with in the vicinity of Kashgar.

An extract was read from a letter received from Mr. E. P. Ramsay, relating to a living cassowary (Casuarius australis), which he was proposing to send to the Society's collection.

Professor Owen read the fifth part of his series of memoirs on the "Osteology of the Marsupialia." This portion contained a general account of the osseous structure of the Kangaroos.

Lieut. Col. H. Irby exhibited specimens of apparently a new species of raven, which he had lately obtained in the vicinity of Tangier, Morocco, and which he was intending to describe under the name of Corvus tingi

tanus.

A communication was read from the Rev. O. Pickard Cambridge on some new species of the Arachnidean family of Drassides, from various localities.

A communication was read from Dr. E. Grube, containing descriptions of new Annulata, collected by Mr. E. W. H. Holdsworth on the coasts of Ceylon.

A communication was read from Mr. W. Nation on the habits of Spermophila simplex, as observed in the vicinity of Lima.

A communication was read from Mr. A. G. Butler, containing a list of the butterflies of Costa Rica, with descriptions of new species.

June 16, 1874.-Dr. A. GÜNTHER, F.L.S., Vice-President, in the chair. An extract was read from a letter received from Dr. A. B. Meyer, concerning two birds (Rectes Bennetti and Campephaga aurulenta) lately described in the Society's Proceedings' by Mr. Sclater.

A letter was read from Mr. W. Summerhayes, relating to certain species of curassows found in Venezuela.

Dr. J. Murie read a paper on the nature of the sacs vomited by the hornbills, which he stated, in confirmation of Professor Flower's account of these objects, to consist of the epithelial lining of the stomach.

Mr. W. Saville Kent communicated a second paper upon the gigantic cephalopods recently encountered off Newfoundland. From further information received, Mr. Saville Kent apprehended that it would be necessary to refer the two individuals preserved in St. John's Museum to the genus