62 Proceedings of the 



I had shortly before found a specimen, perhaps twelve or fourteen days 

 old. Whilst examining this beautiful little pair I obtained some excellent 

 Tiews of their parents, which came as near as they dared venture. I found 

 them more distinct in plumage from the ring plovjr than I had previously 

 supposed. The male bird had a little piece of black on each side of the- 

 neck, but not meeting in front, and so not forming a ring of black round 

 the neck, and consequently not giving the white above it any appearance 

 of a ring as in the ring plover. The female appeared to want these two 

 black markings on the neck altogether, and to be entirely white on the 

 front of the neck and breast. The flight struck me as rather more irregular 

 than that of the ring plover. 



After leaving these birds, and walking a little further eastward along 

 the beach, I was greatly i^leased at coming upon a colony of lesser terns, 

 another species that I had never seen before. The difference in size 

 between them and the common tern was very noticeable as they flew over- 

 head, and serves at once to identify them; the note was also totally 

 distinct, and somewhat resembled the word " weet." There were, I think, 

 about twelve or fifteen birds, and they kept nearly over one portion of the 

 shingle where there was more grass growing among the stones than 

 elsewhere. I searched long and carefully for their eggs, but in vain, and 

 have no doubt it was a week or two too early. 



Mr. J. B. Crosfield exhibited several large pieces of the decayed root 

 of a Scotch fir, tunnelled and bored into in all directions by a number of 

 the larvse of a large beetle, stated by Mr. Edward Saunders to be Prionus 

 coriarius. The portions of wood exhibited contained about six or eight of 

 these grubs, some of which were almost 2in. long. The tree in which they 

 were found was blown down in the grounds of Mrs. Wix, of Eeigate, from 

 whom the following letter was read, addressed to the Secretary : — 



" Isbells, Reigate, 8th December, 1880. 

 "Deak Sir, — 



''According to promise I send you some of the larva3 of the beetle 

 identified by Mr. Edward Saunders as the Prionus ooriarius, and some of the 

 root of the tree which they inhabited. The old Scotch fir was greatly dis- 

 figured by a heavy snowstorm followed by frost in January, 1866. From 

 that time ivy was encouraged to cover it. It subsequently lost many 

 branches and died, still standing with its mantle of ivy until the night of 

 the 27th of last October, when it was uprooted and fell during a gale of 

 wind and rain. It measured 44ft. in height, and between 8ft. and 9ft. in 

 circumference. During the process of removal the roots were observed to 

 be very much decayed and pulverised, and on examination nearly 100 of 

 these grubs, large aud small, were found in the various perforations, some of 

 the tunnels reaching 2ft. or 3ft. up the trunk of the tree, but none in the 

 pupa state. In one piece of wood you will find the creatures inhabiting tha 



