502 Royal Society. 



In the woods of the counties Down, Antrim, and Fermanagh*, this 

 bird has occurred to me. Mr. J. V. Stewart notices it as found in 

 the north of the county of Donegal ; Mr. R. Ball, as met with about 

 Dublin and Youghal ; to the Rev. Thomas Knox it is known as 

 common in some parts of Westmeath, and about Killaloe ; by Mr. 

 R. Davis, jun., it is reported to be not uncommon in Tipperary ; and 

 that the species is common in Kerry, I was informed by the late 

 Mr. T. F. Neligan. Such of these birds as have come under my 

 observation, though apparently aware of my presence, never ex- 

 hibited any shyness, but admitted of a near approach, when it was 

 extremely interesting to observe the regular, quick, and business- 

 like manner in which they searched for their food. Now one would 

 appear moving in a straight line up the trunks of the largest pines, 

 from near the base until it would almost reach the summit ; then it 

 Avould be seen ascending the next tree to which it flew, by spirally 

 winding round it, the effect being much heightened by its breast, in 

 contrast with the dark-coloured bark, appearing of a silvery white- 

 ness. Mr. R. Ball has " known the creeper to be captured by boys 

 getting to the opposite side of a tree at the base of which it com- 

 menced feeding, and making a random stroke with a cap or hat, at 

 the place they supjiosed it had reached in its upward movement." 

 This species is generally stated by authors to live entirely on insects ; 

 but the stomachs of the only two I have examined, contained each, 

 in addition to such food, a few seeds of the common pine {Pinus syl- 

 vestris) : the specimens were shot in the month of January. Wil- 

 son, in his ' American Ornithology,' mentions his having found the 

 seeds of the pine-tree (of course a different species from P. sylvestris) 

 in the stomachs of individuals killed in the United States, and like- 

 wise " fragments of a fungus that vegetates on old wood." Mr. 

 Macgilli^Tay gives a very full and graphic description of the creeper, 

 ' Brit. Birds,' vol. iii. 



[To be continued.] 



PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



ROYAL. SOCIETY. 



Dec. 16, 1841, and Jan. 6, 1842. — A paper was read, entitled, 

 " On Fibre," by Martin Barry, M.D., F.R.SS. Lond. and Edin. 



The author observes, that, in the mature blood-corpuscle, there is 

 often seen a flat filament, already formed within the corpuscle. In 

 Mammalia, including Man, this filament is frequently annular ; some- 

 times the ring is divided at a certain part, and sometimes one ex- 

 tremity overlaps the other. This is still more the case in Birds, Am- 

 phibia, and Fishes, in which the filament is of such length as to con- 



* Here 1 have seen it close to llie house at Florence Court; and a friend 

 living near Belfast has observed tliis bird creeping up tlie yard-wall attach- 

 ed to his dwelling-house. There is in reality nothing remarkable in such 

 cases : they are mentioned, as some persons imagine that tlie creeper never 

 leaves the depth of woods. 



