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Trnnsactions. 113 



4th Decemher, 1885. 



Mr Barbour, Vice-President, in the Chair. Thirty-six 

 members present. 



Donations. — Mr Rutherford presented two photographs of 

 places visited at the Summer Excursions. The Secretary laid on 

 the table Part II. of the Transactions of the Hudderstield 

 Natural History Society, also three engravings of the Ruthwell 

 Cross as a donation from Mr Black. 



JExhibits. — Mr T. Brown exhibited a case of Birds' Eggs. The 

 Secretary exhibited a Hydra (Hydra viridej and the Sea Mouse 

 (Aphrodite aculeataj, and briefly described them. 



CoMMrxiCATioxs. 



I. A List of the Birds of Tynron Parish. 



By jNIr T. Brown. 



It was rather reluctantly that I consented to read a paper to 

 our Society, not from any unwillingness to serve it, but because 

 I did not consider that I had studied any subject sufliciently to 

 make a paper interesting. Tlie Secretary would not be said nay, 

 however, so I have prepared a list of the birds of Tynron, with 

 remarks on some of them. On tlie table is a specimen of each 

 bird's egg, excepting tiie Short-eared Owl, Barn Owl, Redwing, 

 Marsh Tit, and Goldfinch. Where the eggs of any species vary 

 much, there are two or more. I purpose giving first those birds that 

 have been known to nest in the parish, then those that have not. 

 The list contains 86 birds, very nearly a quarter of those on the 

 British list, which is ratlier a large number, considering the size of 

 the parish; but the variety in the ground may account for this, the 

 upper part being bare moorland and the lower part well wooded 

 and chiefly cultivated land. Birds that frequent water are poorly 

 represented, there being nothing worthy of the name of a loch. 

 Probably the list is not complete, as last summer I found two 

 birds nesting of which I was not previously aware. 



The first bird on the list is the Merlin, which is rare. A pair 

 nested for many years on the steep lieathery slope of a wild moun- 

 tain glen, but they have not been seen since 1883. The Kestrel 

 is yearly becoming less numerous, still a few pairs breed, gener- 

 ally on ledges of the rocks. The Sparrow Ilatok is rare, and its 

 nest has not been seen for a year or two. Fifteen or twenty 

 yera-s ago their nests were common. Occasionally the common 



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