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Transactions. 13 
4th December, 1885. 
Mr Barpour, 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 Huddersfield 
Natural History Society, also three engravings of the Ruthwell 
- Cross as a donation from Mr Black. 
Exhibits.—Mr T. Brown exhibited a case of Birds’ Eggs. The 
Secretary exhibited a Hydra (Hydra viride ) and the Sea Mouse 
(Aphrodite aculeata), and briefly described them. 
CoMMUNICATIONS. 
I. A List of the Birds of Tynron Parish. 
By Mr 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 sufticiently to 
make a paper interesting. The 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 the table is a Specimen of each 
bird’s egg, excepting the 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 rather 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 heathery 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 Hawk is rare, and its 
nest has not been seen for a year or two. Fifteen or twenty 
years ago their nests were common. Occasionally the common 
