66 A CHAT ABOUT THE KESTREL. 
lord after a keeper had shot him. It enjoys bathing exceedingly, 
and when kept in captivity should be supplied with a large 
vessel of water every day in summer. It is believed to prefer 
taking possession of the nest of another bird, to building one of 
its own, though it does perform the latter act occasionally. The 
nests of the Rook and Magpie are preferred. The eggs are thickly 
mottled all over with rich brown markings, sometimes completely 
covered ; the first I received at Wycombe were brought to me 
as a Screech-Owl’s, and I saw several in a window in Marlow, 
which the proprietor was selling for Sparrowhawk’s, and he was 
not at all pleased when 1-said what they were. 
Hy. ULiyerr. 
Proccetlings of the Society. 
FOURTH WINTER SESSION, 1868—69. 
A hei first Evening Meeting was held on Tuesday, November 
the 24th, at the house of the President, the Rev. T. H. 
Browne, F.G.S., F.R.M.S. The exhibitions were numerous. 
In a glass tank was contained a living specimens of the Fresh- 
water Sponge (Spogia fluviatilis), taken from the river at 
Hughenden, where it is to be found only in one locality. There 
was a large collection of fossils lately obtained from the Purbeck 
and Lower Oolite formations in the neighbourhood of Wey- 
mouth. Amongst those especially noticed were fish and rep- 
tilian remains, and a large series of the ostrea acuminata from 
the Fuller’s earth, illustrating the great variety of forms which 
this oyster assumes. Attention was especially directed to a 
collection of shells belonging to the genus Pinna or Wing-shell 
family. There were specimens from British and foreign seas, 
and fossil specimens from different strata. These were intended 
to illustrate the formation of the shell of this mollusk. With the 
exception of the Pinna granulata from the Kimmeridge Clay, 
Wheatley, each specimen, when seen through the microscope, 
exhibited the prisms of which the external part of the shell is 
composed. Difference in size alone distinguishes them, and the 
want of that peculiar dark tint in the fossils which is so obser-~ 
vable in the recent forms. 
