20 



On this comiuunication, IVli-. Edmunds remarked that tlie grass alluded to is 

 said to be distasteful to cattle, although sheep are very fond of it ; and perhaps 

 its unusual prevalence in this instance may have been partly caused by cattle 

 having been turned into the meadows early in the season. If they rejected the 

 Avena, while they cropped the other grasses, it would naturally be in excess of 

 them at the time of flowering. He merely threw that out as a conjectural cause 

 in addition to the drought as suggested by Mr. Purchas. 



THE GIRL BUNTING ; THE NIGHTINGALE, &c. 



The President, referring to the excellent remarks of the Rev. W. S. Symonda, 

 at the foi'mer meeting, as to the desirableness of members noticing every circum- 

 stance bearing upon the natural history of the district, observed that he had this 

 year noticed a bird rare in this county, the cirl bunting, a bird resembling slightly, 

 but somewhat larger than, a yellovi'-hammer. The fern-owl, too, had become 

 much more common this year in his neighbourhood than had previously been 

 known, somewhat to the alarm of the old women. (Laughter). 



The Rev. W. S. Symonds wished to know how far westward the nightingale s 

 range extended. 



The President did not know how far westward, but to the southwest he 

 believed the neighbourhood of Abergavenny was the limit. He might add that 

 in his neighbourhood the nightingales had been more numerous this year than for 

 many years past. He believed that in this county they were mostly heard in the 

 valley of the Wye. 



DECOMPOSITION OF SULPHURETTED HYDROGEN BY 

 HEREFORDSHIRE MARL.-THE CHOLERA. 



THE ORIGIN AND USE OF PEROXIDE OF IRON IN THE 

 OLD RED SANDSTONE. 



By Dr. Rowan. 



After briefly adverting to the importance of its bearing upon agricultural 

 chemistry. Dr. Rowan proceeded : — 



Finding myself located upon the Old Red Sandstone formation, whose 

 agricultural character does not rank so high as other and more recent deposits, I 

 was anxious, if possible, to go beyond what I found written in books, to discover 

 the true chemical elements of which the strata was composed, with a view to the 

 determination of what the soils might derive from the ancient rock, out of the 

 debris of which they were formed, and by ascertaining of which elements the 

 rock was deficient, to suggest the best mode of supplying that deficiency. In the 

 course of this investigation two things were manifest, namely, a great abundance 

 of peroxide of iron, and a deficiency of phosphoric acid. The latter I attribute to 

 the scarcity of fossil remains, and to the fact that those fossils that are discovered 

 are the remains of fish, the bones and scales of which are composed chiefly of the 

 carbonate of lime, and not, like the reptilia and mammalia, composed of the 

 phosphate of lime. 



