316 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 



Edward Charlesworth, Esq., F.G.S. Between the fang and crown 

 of each tooth was a hole, like in form and position to that made 

 in such teeth at the present day by the South Sea Islanders, in 

 order to the fabrication of necklaces. The objects were all de- 

 scribed as from the Suffolk Crag, and, as they were sent to the 

 meeting by the Rev. W, Bird, without sufficient desci'iption or 

 time to prepare any connected account of them, Dr. Mitchinson 

 gave an extemporaneous address on the points at issue. These 

 were the means by which the perforations were made, and their 

 significance however or whenever made ; if by man, contem- 

 poraneously with the formation of the Suffolk Crag, it would carry 

 his antiquity back most wonderfully. But, admitting the holes 

 to have been the result of human agency, it would then have to 

 be determined when and how the teeth had got into that Crag ; 

 and, on the other hand, considering the siliceous teeth of certain 

 mollusks, and the well-known perforations made through very 

 refractory substances by other invertebrates, the precise signifi- 

 cance of these perforated sharks' teeth would require more exact 

 inquiry than could be afforded by the meeting. 



A Plague of Ticks. — Colonel Cox brought this important ques- 

 tion in an initiatory manner before the meeting, as he intended 

 to revert to the subject soon. He and Mr. Dowker described 

 these ticks as arachnids, occurring on sheep and lambs in dense 

 patches as big as a saucer, more scantily on young pheasants, and 

 occasionally on ferrets, but seldom on dogs. The effects on the 

 flocks and on the pheasants were so extensive and dreadful as to 

 strike aghast the bucolic and sporting minds. There were two 

 very different sorts of this tick — one bloated, of a leaden colour, 

 with red legs and occipital plate, and about as big as a small 

 horsebean ; the other altogether red, not at all bloated, and 

 scarcely a tenth of the size of the big specimens. Both sizes are 

 found on the sheep and lambs, but the biggest most numerously. 

 The little flat red ticks occur besides very plentifully in pastures, 

 as well as on or under the bark of trees and bushes. Dr. Kersey 

 confirmed these statements from his own observations ; and Mr. 

 Gulliver displayed, by dissections under the microscope, the testes 

 and spermatozoa, and the ovaries and ova, so as to show that all 

 the large bloated ticks were pregnant females, while the males 

 were found exclusively among the small red specimens. Theravages 

 of this tick were described as most destructive at Bifrons, Broom 

 Park, and elsewhere about Canterbury, as well as in other parts 

 of Kent. 



Orchis fusca, Neottia Nidus avis, Sfc. — Mr. James Reid exhi- 

 bited fine blooming specimens of these plants, gathered on the 

 29th of April, and remarked that this was probably an earlier 

 notice of the full bloom of the former orchis than had yet been 

 recorded. He also produced truly wild examples of Polygonatum 

 officinale and Convallaria majalis, both collected in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Canterbury. 



Water-beetle and Nest, — A female of HydropJiilus piceus and 



