6 16 Extracts from the Minute- Book of the Linnean Society. 



Mr. Youell observes that, although the usual food 

 of the Scoter (Anas nigra, Linn.) consists of shell-fish 

 and other marine productions, it will readily feed upon 

 corn. A bird of this species was kept alive by him 

 for several months, and fed upon barley. 



In the summer of 1817 Mr. Youell had four young 

 birds of the Teal (Anas Crecca, Linn.), which were 

 hatched at Rudham in Norfolk. 



From minute observations on the male birds of the 

 Godwit (Limosa rufa, Temminck), killed at different 

 periods, Mr. Youell is convinced that they do not 

 change the colour of their plumage in spring by shoot- 

 ing their feathers, but that the change is effected by 

 the cinereous feathers themselves becoming bay ; for 

 he has frequently observed upon the same individual 

 cinereous feathers more or less blotched with bay 

 colour. 



Mr. Youell has also ascertained that the Pochard 

 (Anas ferina, Linn.) breeds on Scoulton-mere in Nor- 

 folk, where several were seen in May last sitting on 

 their nests, and with the young nearly excluded. 

 May 2. Mr. William Ross, F.L.S. announced in a Letter to 

 the Secretary, that on the 6th of December last he dis- 

 covered a species of Cyclamen in flower, and growing 

 in great abundance in a wood on Alderdown Farm, in 

 the parish of Sandhurst in Kent, on a poor yellow 

 sandy loam soil. The flowers were red, white, and 

 purple. Mr. Ross considers this to be the Cyclamen 

 europceum of Engl. Bot. (C. heeler if olium, Smith Com- 

 pend. Flor. Brit.) and what is known among gardeners 

 by the name of C. autumnale. 

 \ Read a Letter from Mr. J. Youell of Yarmouth, in 



which 





