120 president's address. 



and they are now in my collection. They may possibly be 

 the eggs of the short-eared owl, as I never knew of a long- 

 eared owl breeding in any other than in an old nest, and, 

 generally speaking, in a fir tree. 



The barn owl is now I fear and deeply regret seldom seen 

 in this locality ; I have one nest taken out of Derwent Bridge 

 at Gibside, in 1834, by my late friend Mr. Thomas Robson, 

 of Swalwell. Another nest in my possession was taken in 

 Ryton Church Steeple in 1858. I may mention that at that 

 time a large colony of jackdaws bred in the Church tower, 

 and had done so for many years previously. The materials 

 accumulated by these birds had at that time filled the base of 

 the tower with an almost solid mass of nests about four feet in 

 height. It was a remarkable, and to me a beautiful sight to 

 see all those on the top filled with their complement of eggs. 



Now the nesting of our little friend the long-tailed tit- 

 mouse presents some characteristics worthy of remark. On 

 three separate occasions on the banks of the River Derwent I 

 have disturbed and have seen three old birds fly out of a 

 single nest one after the other. How it is possible that they 

 can have been there with the eggs is one of those things most 

 difficult to understand. On another occasion I found one of 

 their nests in Gibside which had two entrances, one at the 

 back and one at the front. I kept this nest in a box with a 

 glass Hd for several years, but ultimately the moths obtained 

 an entrance and destroyed it. Another nest of this bird 

 found by me had been constructed almost entirely from a 

 copy of the Newcastle Weekly Express newspaper. 



The Northumberland Lakes and their neighbourhood were 

 my favourite hunting ground for several years. On one of 

 my visits I stayed at the "Twice Brewed" Inn for a week. 

 As I lay in bed there I could hear outside the notes of the 

 curlew, of the golden and green plovers, of the grouse, the 

 cuckoo, the lark, and of many others. It was here, in 1859, 

 I took my first eggs of the golden plover, curlew, snipe, 

 teal, coot, ring and water ouzel, and lesser black-back 

 gull. At this date Mr. John Hancock told me he had never 



