Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Glasgow (Volume 5)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...though it had of late years appeared in considerable migratory flocks in the eastern counties, ranging from Berwickshire to the Orkney and Shetland Islands. Dr Dewar exhibited a live specimen of the Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaea), which had been lent by Mr Martin, Buchanan Street. This beautiful bird, which excited considerable interest by the lively way in which it scanned the audience on being introduced to the meeting, had been captured at sea on board the S.S. St Andrew. It was in beautiful plumage. Mr David Robertson, F.G.S., exhibited some recent nodules of Post-pliocene Clay, from Norway, enclosing various species of mollusca, the clay having evidently been hardened by the presence of animal matter. These were shown in illustration of a specimen of clay taken out of a skull of the Great Irish Deer in which the clay was found to contain a considerable portion of animal matter, rendering it insoluble in water. PAPERS READ. I.--Abstract of a paper on the Existence of the Elk (Alces malchis, Gray) in Scotland. By Professor John Young, M.D., F.G.S. Dr Young described, and gave the measurements of, the head and antlers of an Elk found in a marl pit in Perthshire, and referred to by Mr Smith of Jordanhill as being deposited in the Hunterian Museum. As Mr J. Young had pointed out, this example had been entirely overlooked by subsequent writers. Dr J. A Smith of Edinburgh, in his paper On the Reindeer in Scotland, has doubted the existence of the Elk, and, without seeing the specimens, it is impossible to rely on statements not made by naturalists, more especially as there is still some confusion in the use of the word Elk, which is used indiscriminately for the Caribou and the Wapiti. Mr H. Woodward has spoken of an Elk as...