PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. IIQ 



laid. Those are now in my collection, and are all of a pale 

 blue colour. I may state that I have never seen similar eggs 

 in any other public or private collection elsewhere. 



On 29th May, 1856, I saw in Chopwell Wood nearly a 

 dozen cuckoos all on the wing together. They settled on a 

 large tree, and until that day I had no idea that cuckoos had 

 such a variety of strange notes ; I had never heard anything 

 like it. I took my first nest of the grasshopper warbler the 

 same day with six eggs, now in my collection. 



On 12th and 17th June, 1868, I saw numbers of glow 

 worms also in Chopwell, and heard what I thought to be the 

 nightingale. It was so dark, however, that I could not see 

 it. The song was very brief, but loud. 



I took a nest containing four eggs of the reed warbler in 

 the railway cutting between Blaydon and Derwenthaugh, in a 

 bed of willows nearly forty years ago. This I have most 

 carefully preserved in a case, and it is still as fresh, or nearly 

 so, as on that day. This bird I think had not been known to 

 breed on the north-east side of England before. 



June 28th, 1869, saw two specimens, male and female, of 

 the Painted Lady Butterfly on Barlow Fell. 



Of the tawny or wood owl I have known several nests 

 which I have generally found in holes of trees or cliffs, but 

 they breed in a variety of other places. In one instance I 

 took a nest of three eggs in a rabbit hole near Sherburn 

 Tower; on another occasion, 26th March, 1876, I saw one 

 sitting on her eggs in an old dog kennel ; these were ultimately 

 hatched all right, and I had the pleasure one evening of seeing 

 all the young ones sitting on a tree secure from harm's way. 

 This occurred in Chopwell Wood near the Woodman's cottage, 

 within a few yards of his door. My friend, Mr. Isaac Clark, 

 of Blaydon, informed me that he knew of one in the same 

 locality which took possession of a domestic fowl's nest in an 

 outhouse. In the latter instance unfortunately the bird was 

 not allowed to hatch her eggs. In Chopwell Wood, Mr. 

 Robinson, the gamekeeper, also disturbed an owl sitting on 

 five eggs on the ground under a bramble bush ; these I took 



