REV. MR CLARk'fl ADDRESS. 123 



seen with its dingy yellow flowers and purple streaks, said to be 

 the characteristic livery of poisonous plants. The party did not 

 enter the ruined pile of Lindisfame, having visited it on former 

 occasions, and of which an interesting account by Dr Clarke has 

 been published in the Transactions of the Club. On the way to 

 the toNvn, they were fortunate in meeting Mr Donaldson Selby and 

 his son, who had been prevented joining the party at breakf&st. 

 On the sandy links, Erythr^a littoralis was again seen, and the 

 Trifolium scabrum, but nothing in the Club's field of observation 

 occurred, which they had not previously noticed. After obtaining 

 •ome refreshment at the inn, a waggon, in the name of a noddy, 

 on the recommendation of Mr Selby, who had ridden over on 

 horseback, was now hired to convey the party across the wet 

 sands to their rendezvous, which was reached at four o'clock, and 

 a keen appetite, found fortunately by the way, gave a relish to 

 the good things provided, with hospitable profusion, for their 

 dinner. During the ramble, flocks of starlings were observed, 

 making their circular and short flights in dense masses, which 

 gave Mr Brodrick an opportunity of stating, that there was a 

 light and a dark variety, constant in their markings, and not aris- 

 ing from any distinction of sex. The light variety he had not 

 noticed in the north of England. Of the insects captured, none 

 seemed to be rare, or new to the district. As the party walked 

 along, beds of cockles and other common shells were observed on the 

 coast to the south of Fenham, raised several feet above the present 

 high water mark. The beds were twelve or fifteen inches in thick- 

 ness, and indicated the former flow of the tide to at least that 

 height. 



The communications read to the meeting were : — 1 . Notice of 

 an Egyptian goose, shot by Mr George Thompson in February 

 last, about the Leet on the west side of the village of Swinton. 

 2. A letter from Sir Thomas Tancred, detailing the particulars of 

 a swarm of worms, which were supposed to have been lifted into 

 the air by some means, and again dropped with rain in the garden 

 of a gentleman in a village near Cirencester. 3. Notice of Ulva c/«- 

 fractay being the spawn of a molluscous animal. 4. Notice of 

 a paper on the Berwickshire Entomostraea, by Dr W. Baird. 



Mr Donaldson Selby exhibited two Saxon Styca, one of Edilred 



