lii rROCEEDIXGS OF THE 



7. Extract of a letter from Mr. H. George Fordham, F.G.S., to 

 the Secretary, on the Partridge removing her eggs when in danger 

 of being hatched. 



Mr. Fordham, referring to Mr. Littleboy's account of a parti-idge removing 

 her eggs,* and to the discussiou which occurred on the subject, t quoted the 

 following extract from Yarrell's ' British Lirds,' 2nd edition, vol. ii, p. 372 : — 



" A gentleman living near Spilsby, in Lincolnshire, was one day riding over 

 his farm and superintending his ploughmen, who w'ere ploughing a piece of fallow 

 laud. He saw a partridge glide olf her nest so near the foot of one of his plough- 

 horses that he thought the eggs must be crushed ; this, however, was not the 

 case ; but he found that the old bird was on the point of hatching, as several of 

 the eggs were beginning to chip. He saw the old bird return to her nest the 

 instant he left the spot. It was evident that the next round of the plough must 

 bury the eggs and nest in the furrow. His surprise was great when, returning 

 with the plough, he came to the spot, and saw the nest indeed, but the eggs and 

 bird were gone. An idea struck him that she had removed her eggs ; and he 

 found her, before he left the field, sitting under the hedge upon twenty-one eggs, 

 and she brought off nineteen birds. The round of ploughing had occupied about 

 twenty minutes, in which time she, probably assisted by the cock bird, had 

 removed the twenty-one eggs to a distance of about forty yards." 



8. A letter from Mr. Eobert Hanbury, Poles, Ware, to the 

 Secretary, on the probable cause of the recent destruction of chestnut 

 trees on his property. 



A damaged branch of one of these trees being handed round, it was the 

 general opinion that the injury was done by squirrels. 



9. "On the Micro-Megascope." Ey Arthur Cottam, P.R.A.S. 

 {Vide^. 252.) 



The President said that the Hydrographer at the Admiralty, who 

 had just returned from Cyprus, had given him a bag of mud which 

 had been brought up by an anchor from a depth of 4|- fathoms in 

 the harbour of Famagosta, which he had been surveying. Mr. 

 Cottam being interested in the Diatomacefe, he would hand the bag 

 to him for examination, only asking him to give them notes on any 

 discoveries he might make. 



Numerous objects of interest were exhibited, including fossils 

 from the Wenlock Shale recently discovered at the New iiiver 

 Company's boring at "Ware, exhibited by Mr. Etheridge ; fossils 

 from the Gault and Wenlock Shale from the same boring, exhibited 

 by Mr. Hopkinson in illustration of his paper; fossils from the 

 Chalk at AV afford, exhibited by Mr. Herbert Wailes ; fossils from 

 the London Clay at Bushey, and from gravel pits at Watford, 

 exhibited by Dr. Brett ; pottery (probably Eoman) from ancient 

 pottery Avorks which have been discovered on the site of the Alden- 

 ham Grammar School, exhibited by Dr. Brett ; a section at the 

 Oxhey Cutting of the London and North-Western Railway, pre- 

 sented to the Society by the Rev. J. C. Clutterbuck ; photographs 

 of diatoms presented by Mr. J. Vincent Elsden ; and a badger shot 

 in Long Spring AVood, exhibited by the Earl of Essex. 



* ' Transactions,' Vol. II, pp. 29 and 35. f lb. p. xi. 



