102 SIR WILLIAM JARDINe's ADDRESS. 



question was accidentally observed to rise from the situation of a wasp's 

 nest, wliicli it had been attempting to excavate, or in fact to a certain 

 extent had accomplished, and the large hole which had been scraped, 

 shewed that a much greater power could be employed, and that the 

 bird possessed organs much better fitted to remove the obstacles which 

 generally concealed its prey, than a superficial examination of the feet 

 and legs woidd warrant us in ascribing to it. A few hours afterwards, 

 the task was found to be entirely completed, the comb torn out and 

 cleared from the immature young ; and after-dissection proved that 

 at this season (autumn) at least, birds or mammalia formed no part of 

 the food. A steel-trap, baited with the comb, secured the aggressor 

 in the course of the next day, when we had returned to review the 

 scene of his previous havoc. The next paper was on the Architecture 

 of Holy Island Priory, by Dr Clarke, a place renowned in romance 

 and classic in our poetry ; and we would remark, that there are many 

 buildings of antiquity, which have yet been untouched by the pen of a 

 member. A meteorological paper, by Mr William Baird, concluded 

 our essays for the day — "Remarks on the Sea Tree," — a jjeculiar 

 arrangement of clouds well known to mariners under the above title. 

 The object of the paper was to shew the connexion between the different 

 forms of clouds and the weather, and it may be recollected that the 

 observations were detailed with the science of the meteorologist, and 

 the feeling of the poet. 



For my report of the remaining meetings, I regret that I shall be 

 obliged to have recourse to the minutes only, but the accuracy of our 

 secretary, I have little doubt, has left nothing wanting. In December, 

 the Club held its usual meeting at Berwick. Miss Hunter and Miss 

 Bell continued to increase the list of the Berwickshire Flora, by the 

 addition of some fungi not previously seen within its bounds. Agaricus 

 ruber, odor us, and radicatus, with Cyatlim vernicosus, were recorded. 

 The unusually stormy winter had already laid open some of the trea- 

 sures of the deep, and the heavy gales of November had discovered 

 some inhabitants which were not of every day occurrence. The Rev. 

 Mr A. Baird read a notice of PUuronectes hirtus, and of Brama marina, 

 cast ashore at the foot of Dunglass Dean.* Dr Johnston laid the foun- 

 dation of a Fauna, by reading a list of the zoophytes found on the 

 coast of Berwickshire and North Durham, and made some interesting 

 remarks upon the metamorphosis of the Crustacea. A series of the 

 curiously formed "Fairy-stones" were exhibited by Mr Grood, taken 

 from a clayey bank on the side of the Tweed below New Water-haugh, 

 and we wotdd here remind you of a paper on the formation of these 

 little nodules, which last year came before us, and is now printed in 



* It was after similar storms in the February following, that the interesting addi- 

 tion to our British fishes, Lutjanus riqjcstris, was procured, two specimens heing 

 thrown on shore in Berwick Bay, and another on the shore at Bamborough. — See 

 Mag. of Zool. and Bot. i. p. 167. 



