5^ Me selby's address. 



rivers. I may also mention that, in passing througli the woods of 

 the " Eetreat," several ring-oiizels {Menda torquata) were observed. 

 These had apparently just arrived from more southern climes, and 

 were then wending their way to those upland rocks and craggy dells, 

 their approjiriate summer retreats, there to be engaged in those 

 momentous offices connected with the reproduction of their species. 

 The wheat-ear [Saxicola (Enanthe), another of our summer visitants, 

 and one of the first harbingers of spring, was also seen flitting across 

 the moory waste, catching the attention of the ornithologist, as it flew 

 from stone to stone, by the conspicuous display of its snow-white rump. 

 The communications made to this meeting were 1st, A paper by Sir 

 William Jardine, on the hirling of the Solway, with some observations 

 on its habits and distribution ; and further shewing that this fish 

 appears to be identical with the silver-white of the river Tweed. By 

 most ichthyologists it has been considered a good species ; in which 

 opinion I am still inclined to concur, although, upon a late occasion it 

 was deemed by Monsieur Agassiz, an authority of great and acknow- 

 ledged weight, to be a variety only of the Sahno Trutta of Linn. 

 Further observations, therefore, upon its structu.re and habits, must 

 be carefully instituted, in order either to establish its claim, by 

 characters of sufficient importance, to a specific distinction, or, if found 

 wanting in them, to erase at once its name from the station it has 

 hitherto held in our systematic arrangements. The same gentleman 

 mentioned the fact of the alpine swift {Cypselus alpinus) having again 

 been killed in Ireland, and the occurrence of the Larm Salini in the 

 same country. He also adverted to the curious variety of the hare 

 found in that country, possessing a fur of a different quality and colour 

 from that of the common kind, and more analogous to that of the 

 alpine hare {Lepus variahiUs, Flem.) When first noticed, it was 

 supposed to be a distinct and undescribed species ; but farther observa- 

 tion leads to the conclusion, that it is only a marked variety of the 

 Lepus timidus, — intermediate stages, as it were, having been found, 

 which connect the extreme variety with the common ty^e. Mr 

 Henderson afterwards gave a portion of a meteorological register, 

 which he was requested to continue ; and after the exhibition of a rare 

 species of star-fish, the Ophiura granulata^ new to the Berwickshire 

 district, by Dr Johnston, the meeting was concluded by an interesting 

 notice from the same gentleman, of some Eoman funereal urns, recently 

 dug up at Murton, near Berwick. 



The first Summer Meeting in June, was held at Millfield, in the 

 richly cultivated vale of Till, but being at that time absent upon an 

 excui-sion to the wilds of Sutherland, I can only speak of the occur- 

 rences of the day, from the minutes of the Club. From these it 

 appears, that the anticipation of a dehghtful and productive walk, to 

 the hill of Yeavering-Bell, was, unfortimately, in a great measm-e 

 disappointed, towards noon, by a heavy and continued rain, which 



