1 2 Address to the Members of 



succeeding anniversary, a summary of the communications 

 and researches of the members during the year; so that the 

 results of these may not be lost, and that their bearings and 

 connections may be pointed out. The review, also, may serve 

 to remind us of those departments of the natural history of 

 the county which have received the least notice and illus- 

 tration, and where, of course, our enquiries may be most 

 usefully directed in future. 



\_Birds.~] — At our meeting in July, it was mentioned that a 

 male bird of the rose-coloured ouzel * had been shot at West 

 Ord, in the vicinity of Berwick, on the 13th of that month, by 

 the Rev. Mr. Campbell. No previous instance of the occurrence 

 of this beautiful bird in North Durham is known ; and very 

 few instances of its occurrence in the north of England are on 

 record, f It is a summer visitant, coming to us at uncertain 

 intervals ; and (it may be conjectured) compelled, perhaps, 

 to make these parts by the force of some contrary storms : 

 and in this respect it resembles another bird, the Egyptian 

 goose :f, a small flock of which is recorded to have visited the 

 Tweed, at Carham, in the beginning of February last. § This 

 flock, as is conjectured by Mr. Selby, may probably have 

 made its escape from Gosforth, the seat of the Earl of Wemyss, 

 upon the Firth of Forth, where great numbers of these birds 

 are kept in the artificial pieces of water. || 



These are the only birds remarkable for their rarity, 

 which have occurred during the year ; for I do not remember 

 that any such was met with in our excursions. In that of 

 June, made to Langleyford, at the foot of Cheviot, our dis- 

 tinguished colleague, Mr. Selby, entertained some slight 

 hopes of meeting with the ring thrush \, which, it was sup- 

 posed, might breed near this sequestered hamlet : but the 

 information of the respectable tenant proved the contrary ; 

 for the bird is seen there only in the later autumnal months, 

 on its return from still more inland and more remote moors. 

 During our ascent of Hedgehope, on that day, the curlew f 

 first, and, somewhat higher up, the golden plover ** (uttering, 



* Pastor roseus Tern., Tardus roseus Lin. 



f Mr. Selby has a specimen, shot near Bamborough ; and two others 

 have been taken not far from Newcastle. (Trans. Newc. Soc, i. 263.) It 

 is singular that these were all males. 



t J v nas segyptiaca Lin., Chenalopex aegyptiaca Steph. 



§ Kelso Mail for Feb. 6. 1832; Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. v. p. 565. 



|J Trans. Newc. Soc, i. 290. Five were seen on the Fern Islands in 

 April, 1830; and in March, 1831, a female was killed near Berwick. (Ibid.) 



4- Tardus torquatus Lin. 



H Seolopax arquata Lin., Numenius arquata Lath., Whaap Prov. 



** Charadrius pluvialis Lin. 



