Manx Shearwater breeding on the Coast of Carnarvonshire. It is a well-known fact that the Manx Shearwater, Puffinus anglorum, breeds on some of the small islands off the Welsh coast, but it is perhaps not so well known that it breeds in certainly one locality on the mainland. When visiting the Carnarvonshire coast between Pwllheli and Aberdaron, in June, 1887, Mr. C. Oldham and I saw a string of these birds flying across the bay towards two small islands; and the following year we made several enquiries about the birds from the lighthouse-keepers on the islands, and from the natives. They all spoke of "Mackerel-cocks" being occasionally seen in the bay, but affirmed that they did not breed. The keepers, however, said that they heard them at night making a noise "like a child sobbing in trouble." Visiting the same locality in May, 1893, we found a great number of dead Shearwaters along the cliffs and on the beach. All the birds had apparently died violent deaths, for their necks were broken, and many of them had their heads twisted off. In one spot on the steep grassy cliffs of the mainland we found over a score of bodies lying near some rabbit-holes, some quite recently dead, others very much older. All the older bodies had the skin torn from the breast and belly, and the skeletons were picked clean, probably by the Carrion Crows, several pairs of which birds nest along these cliffs. One of the rabbit-burrows had been dug out with a spade, and contained a dead Shearwater and a broken egg. At the mouth of two holes at the base of a turf-wall there were recent droppings, in one case hardly dry, and in digging in we found, at a depth of eight or nine feet, a few feathers and a little grass and other nesting material. Next day we found a dead Shearwater on one of the islands, and the lighthouse-keepers told us that some weeks before some men had been catching rabbits on the islands, and had bolted several Shearwaters and killed them. Probably this also explained the massacre on the cliffs, although the natives either knew, or professed to know, nothing about it. The keepers again spoke of the bird calling at night, and described the call as sounding like a deep, drawn-out repetition of the words "It's your fault; " the emphasis on the word "your." We found odd corpses along the cliffs for some distance, though they were only numerous in one spot, where the cliffs were very steep and covered with heather, bracken, and furze.-T. A. COWARD (Bowdon).

Variety of the Hawfinch.-A beautiful variety of the Hawfinch, Coccothraustes vulgaris, was shot by a keeper on Oct. 5th, 1894, at Berry Hill, near here, and kindly sent me by Mr. W. Hollins. The head, neck, breast and tail are pure white, except on rump, where there are a few grey feathers; the shoulders are white, the rest of wings of the normal colour— a blue-black, the bar across them being very white and large, a pleasing contrast which adds to the beauty of this bird. The legs are flesh-colour. This is one of the most striking varieties of the Hawfinch I have ever seen,

and also a very rare one, only two other varieties of this species being on record, one of which is in my collection.-J. WHITAKER (Rainworth, Mansfield, Notts).

REPTILIA.

Ringed Snake laying Eggs in Captivity.-Some months ago a country lad caught two fine specimens of the Ringed Snake (C. natrix). These I requested him to keep for me until I returned from my holiday. During that time the Snakes laid (between them) seventy-one eggs in the box in which they were kept. The shape of the eggs was oval, and the skin was something similar to limp parchment, and they were from three-quarters to one inch long. Some of these eggs were deposited in heaps, while others lay about the box in twos and threes, closely agglutinated. The Snakes themselves did not seem the least solicitous about the welfare of their eggs, and moved them about as they pleased. I wrote to this boy, telling him to put all the eggs in a warm manure-heap in his garden. That was the only plan I could think of for hatching them. Great was my vexation to find, when I next saw him, that he had thrown them all away. If he had done as I told him they would in all probability have been successfully hatched. Each Snake measured three feet six inches in length. Another one he gave me later on was slightly less.-C. B. HORSBRUGH (Bath).

MOLLUSCA.

Homing Instinct in Limpets. -At a meeting of the Bristol Naturalists' Society, held on Dec. 27th, Prof. Lloyd Morgan referred to the results of experimental observations he had recently made on the homing habits of Limpets. His plan of operations was to watch for the times when the Limpets were just beginning to start on a journey from their bed on the rock-commonly as the tide left them exposed-and then to lift them bodily up and place them on the rock at distances varying from six to twenty-four inches from their home. A certain proportion of those experimented upon returned accurately to the place whence they were taken this proportion lessening directly as the distance increased, the time occupied in the return journey also increasing with the distance. Some never returned, and were either lost sight of, or attached themselves to a fresh bit of rock. These observatious, Prof. Lloyd Morgan thought, negatived the hypothesis that had been advanced by Prof. Davies, of Aberystwyth, that Limpets found their way back by means of scent. He was inclined to attribute the phenomenon to touch, as he had noticed that while moving, the Limpet always touched the rock with its feelers at each step. Their range of peregrination does not seem to exceed three feet, and the rate of movement in one case observed was an inch in two minutes, including stoppages.

ZOOLOGIST, THIRD SERIES, VOL. XIX.-FEB. 1895.

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SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON.

Jan. 17th, 1895.—Mr. C. B. CLARKE, F.R.S., President, in the chair. Surgeon-Captain J. H. Walsh and Messrs. S. Dunn, J. P. Hill, D. Hooper, V. O'Rell, W. B. Stonham, and J. Wilshire were elected Fellows.

Mr. George Murray exhibited lantern-slides representing a new part of Pachytheca, consisting of a cup-shaped receptacle in which Pachytheca was found by Mr. John Storrie, of Cardiff. The walls of the cup are composed of radiating chambers like those of Acetabularia, and in the centre there are traces of an axile structure. Mr. Murray considered that this discovery only made the interpretation of the nature of Pachytheca more difficult than ever.

Mr. Arthur Lister exhibited and made remarks upon a Landrail, Crex pratensis, which had been found a few days previously near Axminster in Devonshire, where it had been killed by coming in contact with telegraphwires. The occurrence in mid-winter of a bird which is a summer visitor to this country seemed to him to be worth notice.

Mr. J. E. Harting exhibited specimens of northern sea-birds which had been driven upon the east coast of England during recent gales; amongst others the Little Auk, Mergulus alle, of which great numbers had come ashore dead or in an exhausted condition; the Little Gull, Larus minutus, obtained at Whitstable on Jan. 5th; and an example of Brünnich's Guillemot, Uria brünnichii, Sabine (Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. p. 535), a species which, though abundant in Greenland, N.E. Iceland, and Spitzbergen, is of such extremely rare occurrence on our coasts that not more than two or three authenticated instances of its appearance here have been recorded. The specimen exhibited had been forwarded by Mr. W. J. Clarke, of Scarborough, near which seaport it was shot on Dec. 7th last. (See p. 70).

A paper was then read by Mr. I. H. Burkill on "Variations in the number of stamens and carpels." Of Stellaria media about 5700 flowers were examined, showing that, towards the end of the life of the plant, the number of stamens becomes reduced. Ranunculus ficaria (nearly 800 flowers) showed that towards the end of the flowering period both stamens and carpels become reduced in number without their proportion being changed. Smaller numbers were examined of Caltha palustris, Ranunculus arvensis, R. bulbosus, Thalictrum flavum, Bocconia cordata, Prunus padus, P. lauro-cerasus, Crategus oxycantha, Rosa canina, Quercus ilex, and Sagittaria montevidensis, all of which showed, either in carpels or in stamens, a reduction in number towards the end of the flowering period. Of other influences besides age which affect the number of parts, temperature might be one, but nothing could be safely assumed.

Of a kindred nature was a paper by Mr. A. G. Tansley and Miss E.

Dale, on "Variation in the floral symmetry of Potentilla tormentilla, Necker." This paper, of which Mr. Tansley gave an abstract, was mainly a record of variations tending to alter the normal tetramerous actinomorphic symmetry of this flower.

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

Jan. 15th, 1895.-Dr. ST. GEORGE MIVART, F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair.

The Secretary read a report on the additions that had been made to the Society's Menagerie during December, 1894, and called attention to two Tapirs recently deposited in the Society's Gardens, which he believed to be referable to Dow's Tapir, Tapirus dowi, of Central America.

Mr. P. Chalmers Mitchell exhibited and gave an account of a tibia and other bones of an extinct bird of the genus Epyornis from Central Madagascar, which had been lent to him for exhibition by Mr. Joseph H. Fenu. With these bones was associated a skull of a species of Hippopotamus.

Prof. G. B. Howes exhibited and made remarks on the photograph of an embryo Ornithorhynchus.

The Secretary exhibited, on behalf of Mr. R. Lydekker, a life-sized drawing of Idiurus zenkeri, a new and remarkably small form of Flying Squirrel from West Africa, recently described at Berlin.

Lord Lilford sent for exhibition the skin of a Duck, believed to be a hybrid between the Mallard, Anas boschas, and the Teal, Querquedula crecca, that had been caught in his decoy in Northamptonshire. (See p. 55).

The Rev. T. R. R. Stebbing exhibited a specimen of a species of Peripatus from Antigua.

Mr. Frederick Chapman gave an account of some Foraminifera obtained by the Royal Indian Marine Survey's SS. Investigator' from the Arabian Sea near the Laccadive Islands. The author described the forms found

in the samples sent him. As many as 277 species and varieties were enumerated, some of which were new to science. Several of the species, which were here recorded for the first time from recent soundings, had been previously known from the Pliocene deposits of Kar Nicobar.

A communication was read from Mr. P. R. Uhler, containing an enumeration of the Hemiptera-Homoptera of the island of St. Vincent, W. Indies.

A communication from Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell contained a description of a new species of the family Coccida belonging to Lichtensia, a genus new to the fauna of the Nearctic Region. The species was named L. lycii.

Mr. Sclater read some notes on the recent occurrence of the Barbary Sheep in Egypt. A flock had visited the eastern bank of the Nile above Wady Halfa in the summer of 1890. A second paper by Mr. Sclater contained some notes on the recent breeding of the Surinam Water-Toad, Pipa americana, in the Society's Reptile House.-P. L. SCLATER, Sec.

ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.

January 16th, 1895.-Sixty-second Annual Meeting.-HENRY JOHN ELWES, F.L.S., F.Z.S., President, in the chair. An abstract of the Treasurer's accounts, showing a good balance in the Society's favour, having been read by Mr. W. F. H. Blandford, one of the Auditors, Mr. H. Goss read the Report of the Council. It was then announced that the following gentlemen had been elected as Officers and Council for 1895:-President, Professor Raphael Meldola, F.R.S.; Treasurer, Mr. Robert McLachlan, F.R.S.; Secretaries, Mr. Herbert Goss, F.L.S., and the Rev. Canon Fowler, M.A., F.L.S.; Librarian, Mr. George C. Champion, F.Z.S.; and as other Members of the Council, Mr. George T. Bethune-Baker, Mr. Walter F. H. Blandford, Dr. Frederick A. Dixey, Mr. Henry J. Elwes, Mr. Charles J. Gahan, Professor Poulton, Dr. David Sharp, and the Right Hon. Lord Walsingham. It was also announced that Professor Meldola, the new President, would appoint Lord Walsingham, Mr. Henry J. Elwes, and Professor Edward B. Poulton, Vice-Presidents for the Session 1895-6. The outgoing President then delivered an interesting address "On the Geographical Distribution of Insects." He remarked that though a great deal had been written of late years on the geographical distribution of plants, mammals, birds, fishes, and reptiles, comparatively little had yet been done by entomologists to show how far the natural divisions of the earth's surface which have been established for other classes were applicable to insects. Perhaps the proportion of known as compared with unknown insects was still too small, and the classification of the known species still too uncertain, to allow anything like the same methods to be applied to insects that had been used for mammals by Dr. Wallace, for birds by Dr. Sclater and Dr. Bowdler-Sharpe, and for plants by Sir Joseph Hooker, Mr. Thiselton Dyer, and Mr. W. B. Hemsley. He then enumerated the genera of the Rhopalocera, and pointed out which of them were characteristic of the various regions and subregions into which the world had been divided by the zoologists and botanists above-mentioned. He also exhibited specimens typical of these regions and sub-regions. After alluding to the prosperous condition of the Society, and to the increase in its numbers and income, reference was made to various entomologists who had died during the year, and a vote of thanks to the President and other Officers of the Society having been passed, the proceedings terminated. -H. Goss & W. W. FOWLER, Hon. Secretaries.