264 president's address. 



be overclouded, though no rain fell. Near to Mr. Rich's 

 house are the interesting ruins of a fourteenth century peel 

 castle, said to be the first of a line of towers extending to 

 Warkworth, and which formed a barrier against the Scottish 

 borderers. Much of the accumulated debris has been removed 

 by Mr. Rich, who contemplates a restoration of the building. 

 The great arched vault on the ground floor no doubt was 

 used for the storing of cattle in troublous times. The walls 

 appear to be about five feet thick. The floor above the vault 

 laid with stone slabs was no doubt a place of residence. 

 There are no indications as to where the fireplace stood, but 

 probably the fire was in the centre of the room, the smoke 

 being allowed to escape through a hole in the gable. The 

 stone sink in the wall was the means of discharging the house 

 slops from the room to the ground. We then proceeded on 

 the invitation of Mr. Rich to his residence. Inspecting the 

 exterior of the house, we were very much pleased to notice 

 the encouragement Mr. Rich had given to the House Martins. 

 The time was too late for us to expect to see the nesting of 

 the birds, though two heads were obtruded from one nest. 

 Underneath a small bay window in the gable of the house we 

 observed no less than six nests, and a seventh had fallen to 

 the ground. Underneath the eaves of a very few feet of 

 spouting we found an equal number. At the back of the 

 house were about 30 nests. These we were informed had all 

 been tenanted this year. Swifts too had nested numerously 

 in the old walls of the peel, but had left about three weeks 

 before. Under the coping stones of a wall Mr. Rich had left 

 circular openings, and these had all been tenanted by Tits 

 and Redstarts. After inspecting Mr. Rich's excellently 

 mounted specimens of birds and his birds' eggs, and par- 

 taking of afternoon tea which had been provided for us, 

 a vote of thanks was accorded to our host for his kindly 

 consideration; and driving back to Rothbury we got the 

 4.35 p.m. train, and reached Newcastle at half-past six. 



In the collection I was much interested to find the eggs of 

 the Ringed Plover, which had been taken by the side of the 



