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Show 826 ON THE SKINS OF A DARTER AND CORMORANT. [Nov. 15, Haliplus elevatus. Hyphydrus ovatus. Hydroporus linearis. Oolymbetes exoletus. grapei. Eetained in the cool for future exhibition. Agabus dispar. Noterus sparsus. ) All these, except the first three, were presented by Mr. W . A. Forbes, having been from Askham Bog, near York. O n the 22nd of August a specimen of Cholus forBesi1 was presented by Dr. Wallace of Colchester, who found this rare Rhyncho-phore amongst some South-American orchids ; it is now exhibited upon one of these plants in a suitable glass vessel. A specimen of the Great Green Grasshopper (Acrida viridissima) was presented by Mr. Forbes on the same day, but died a few days after. I obtained some more larvae of the Ant-lions early in present month; and there are still many of their pits exhibited. Some imagos have also been bred from earlier larvae obtained. O n September 3rd a number of Helix pomatia were hatched from eggs deposited by the specimens presented by Lord Arthur Russell, F.Z.S., in April last. The Rev. Canon Tristram exhibited skins of a Darter and a Cormorant, and nine eggs of the former bird, procured on the Lake of Antioch, and made the following remarks:- "I have the pleasure of exhibiting the skins of two birds procured by m e in June of this year on the Lake of Antioch, which may be of some interest to ornithologists. The Bahr el Abiad, or " White Sea," as it is called, is the only piece of fresh water of any extent in Northern Syria, and is formed at the junction of several affluents with the Orontes river, in the great plain which extends from Antioch (to within a few miles of which city the lake reaches) almost as far as Aleppo. " The northern part of the lake is very shallow, and full of hundreds of little islets, being, in fact, rather a marsh than a lake. These islets are covered with reed (Arundo donax) and occasional marsh-shrubs. Ducks and Waders of all kinds abound; and the Common Tern (Sterna hirundo) breeds there. I saw no other Tern, though the lake is not twenty miles in a straight line from the sea; but I am told that several smaller species of Terns are found here. " There were many Buff-backed and Squacco Herons and a few Night-Herons to be seen. I obtained a few eggs of the Buff-backed. But the most remarkable inhabitant was the Darter of South Africa (Plotus levaillanti), of which I exhibit a male specimen and a few eggs. There is a very large colony of these birds breeding on the islets in society, with nests in no way differing from those of the Cormorants. Along with them is a Little Cormorant (Phalacrocorax pygma?us)'\\\ some plenty, breeding also in communities, but not on the same islets. I did not succeed in obtaining their eggs. I could 1 Pascoe, Proc. Ent. Soc. 1876, p. xxx. |