Hi 



C. Watertonhas warmly defended the starling's moral charac- 

 ter from the charge of robbing the dovecot of its eggs — a time- 

 honored calumny. 



This gradual progress of permanent bird settlement appears 

 so suggestive of intelligent action in a community, that it may 

 deserve renewed notice. 



Mr. Whitley exhibited some sections of "raised beaches," 

 and of gravel beds on hill tops, and in the fissures of limestone 

 rocks, for the purpose of showing the relationship which he con- 

 sidered existed between these beds. He was of opinion that 

 the materials of the so-called raised beaches had been washed 

 down from the land and not thrown up by the sea — that the ex- 

 posed sections were mainly those of the valley deposits cut back 

 by the action of the waves, and that the foreign materials, the flint 

 and basalt which they contained, indicated that the boulders and 

 sand belonged to the period of the northern drift. The gravel 

 bed on the top of the Hoe at Plymouth might be traced down 

 the slope of the hill into the fissures of the limestone rock, and 

 also formed a junction with the gravel bed on the coast-line, 

 often described as a "raised beach," and in which the bones of 

 the mammoth and other extinct animals had been found. At 

 Brixham also similar gravel formed the lowest bed of cavern 

 deposits, a trail of which was found on the hill outside the 

 cavern, with flint splinters like those in the cave ; the same trail 

 was also found on the top of Berry-head, and might be traced 

 down the side of the hill to the sea, forming in the cliff section 

 a stratum which had been described as a "raised beach." These 

 facts appeared to him to indicate that the so-called " raised 

 beaches," the upland gravels, and the lowest bed in the caverns, 

 all belonged to the same geological age, viz., the period of the 

 northern drift. It was, however, a subject which further research 

 might either modify or confirm. 



Mr. Hamilton James exhibited and described some siDecimens 

 of the Boryphora decem-lineata. He said that by the rapid course 

 which the Colorado potatoe beetle had made across the continent 

 of North America during the last few years, there was some 

 danger of it being imported into England. They had been seen 

 in pairs on the decks of Atlantic Steamers. It was possible, 

 however, that our damp climate might not agree with them. 



