104 SIE "WILLIAM JARDINE's ADDRESS. 



distinctly mixed, was exhibited by Captain Carpenter. Mr Parker 

 shewed a fine specimen of the water-rat {Arvicola ampliihia)^ with a pie- 

 bald fur ; and Dr Johnston produced a drawing of the Phylline hypoglossi, 

 taken from a large halibut caught in Berwick Bay. Dr Clarke read a 

 notice of an encounter between a hawk and bat, witnessed at Berwick 

 at noonday, in which the former was unsuccessful, from the rapid man- 

 ner in which the bat evaded the darts of its enemy, and the Doctor drew 

 attention to the exquisite sense which these curious animals appear so 

 peculiarly to possess. A very interesting table of the produce of the 

 fishery at Sandstel, kept by the late Mr Waite for a period of eighty- 

 ' two years up to 1818, was presented. From this table, it appears that 

 1745 was a year extremely unfavourable, 52 salmon only being taken ; 

 1764 and 1765 are the most abundant, above 15,000 and 17,000 being 

 severally taken. For the last ten years of the account, the take aver- 

 ages from 2000 to 6000 salmon, and from 3000 to 13,000 grilse. 



In July we have to regret that there was no meeting — an untoward 

 event, which we trust the zeal of the members will prevent any future 

 President the pain of recording. 



I have thus, gentlemen, very lightly sketched the results of the ex- 

 cursions and meetings of the last season, and I may be allowed to con- 

 gratulate the Club upon its advance and continued prosperity. It must 

 be considered, however, that we have had a season almost unexampled 

 in the recollection of most of us, for its low mean temperature and 

 general inclemency, both very viufavourable to the researches of the 

 out-door naturalist ; and the observations of some of our members on 

 the east coast remarkably coinciding with my own, made at a residence 

 on the opposite shores of the island, and situate nearly at the same 

 elevation and distance from the sea, shew that over the north of Eng- 

 land and south of Scotland, this unpropitious time has too uninter- 

 ruptedly spread. Many of you may have observed the late appearance 

 of the great proportion of the summer birds of passage. The song of 

 those welcome visitors, which alwaj^B conveys so many associations for 

 the returning year, was expected for nearly fourteen days in vain, and 

 when the arrival was proclaimed, it was soon perceived that some cause 

 had materially diminished the usual numbers of these travellers.* The 

 coleoptera, also, were much later in leaving their winter retreats, and 

 among the Lepidoptera, there has been a remarkable deficiency of the 

 GeometridcB, and of the greater portion of those Noctuadce, which feed 

 more particularly on the foliage of trees, circumstances that were per- 

 haps occasioned by the remarkably cold and parched weather which 



* It has been since remarked, that the departure of our summer birds of passage 

 his been unusually early. Before the 1st September most of the warblers had de- 

 parted, a few individuals only of S. trochUus remaining. Hirundo rustica, and urbica, 

 were not seen after the 20th September, nearly a month before their usual time of 

 departure. Cypseli have been recorded as rarely seen at aU, in many parts of the island. 



The fieldfare and redwing arrived between the 20th and 26th October, about a fort- 

 night before the average time of their accustomed arrival. — W. J., 14th Nov. 1836. 



