Mr. J. Hardy on Silver Coins found at Blackburn. 259 



indeed, they may be seen feeding on the grasses or chickweed,near 

 wall-sides, on any fine day in summer. I re-introduce the subject 

 to state, that on the 22nd September, 1856, 1 met with Omaseus 

 melanarius and Calathus cisteloides, two of the insects previously 

 mentioned, the former as an ascertained, the latter as a probable 

 seed-feeder, devouring the grains of oats. Happening to pass 

 through an oat-field where some of the heads had fallen across 

 the foot-path and been trodden down, I saw first an Omaseus 

 and then a Calathus eagerly at work gnawing the seeds still 

 attached to the panicles ; the first at a ripe grain, the other at 

 one which was greenish and soft. Both had torn the chaff to 

 get at the grain. 



Additions to Berwickshire Mollusca. 



Conovulus bidentatus and Rjssoa cingillus occur toge- 

 ther, in a living state, under stones, mostly of red sandstone, 

 behind St. Helen's Church, near the high-water mark of ordi- 

 nary tides, and in about the same situations as those which 

 Aepys marinus and Micralymma marinum prefer. I find Helix 

 pulchella, which is accounted rare in this district, pretty frequent 

 among short herbage close on the seaside at Greenheugh, and 

 on the Bents near the mouth of the Pease Burn. 



On some Silver Coins found at Blackburn, in the Parish of Cock- 

 burnspath. By James Hardy. 



As the local antiquities of the Border district form a promi- 

 nent department of the Club's scheme, I beg to transmit a notice 

 of the discovery of a number of Coins in this vicinity, of some 

 historical interest. These coins were found on the farm of 

 Blackburn, in the parish of Cockburnspath, in the end of April 

 and the beginning of May 1856, by some labourers engaged in 

 field-work. They were obtained in a portion of a field that had 

 not been cultivated till recently, owing to the quantity of stones 

 with which it was encumbered. They were scattered about, but 

 had been originally enclosed in an earthenware vessel, of which 

 several fragments were observed. Altogether, about 200 coins 

 were picked up. Of these I had the opportunity of inspecting 

 two sets, said to be types of the series, the one of 17 selected 

 from 100 ; the other of 12. They are all silver pieces — shillings 

 I imagine, although some of them are exceedingly light and 

 thin — of the period of the struggle for Scottish independence in 

 the days of Wallace or Bruce. The coins have no dates, but 

 their age may in some measure be inferred, from two coins of 



