446 Report of Meetings. By the President. 



in Summer when they are engaged in breeding — May and June — but even 

 then there are always a few of them hanging about the quay; all through 

 the Winter they are abundant, and the same may be said of Spring and 

 Autumn. In Autumn after the breeding birds and their young have 

 come down from the inland lakes they congregate in immense flocks at 

 night to roost in company with other gulls — herring, lesser-blackbacked, 

 common, &c., upon the sands at Goswick and Holy Island, and probably 

 most of those that frequent Berwick Harbour during the day repair 

 thither at nightfall. 



Some few of them doubtless migrate towards the South during winter 

 but they are not perceptibly missed, their places being filled up by others. 



In winter of course they lose the black heads which render them so 

 conspicuous during summer, and it is still a point of much difference of 

 opinion as to whether this change is caused by moulting or by actual 

 change in colour of the feathers themselves. In the spring when 

 changing from white to black I have never had much chance of investiga- 

 ting the matter, but I have shot birds during the autumnal change, and 

 then their heads invariably showed signs of moulting, the black feathers 

 falling out and being replaced by white ones — and I see no reason for 

 supposing that the heads do not moult both in spring and autumn at the 

 same time as other parts of the body. 



During our drive through, the country it was noticed that the 

 foliage of the oak was distinctly in advance of that of the ash. 

 It generally is ; but the old adage 



' ' If the Oak's before the Ash 

 Then you'll only get a splash ; 

 If the Ash precedes the Oak, 

 Then you may expect a soak," 



was inevitably quoted, and the amount of credibility of which it 

 is deserving, came in for discussion. 



It would seem ungracious to dissect so time honoured a proverb ; 

 but is there any "reason in the rhyme," anything in the habits of 

 the two trees which enables them to indicate what sort of weather 

 may be expected in the future ? 



The "ak sends its roots deep down into the soil, and therefore 

 is not so dependent on a wet spring for the water supply which 

 may be necessary for early leafing, as the Ash, whose roots are 

 near the surface, and whose leafing, cceferis paribus, would be 

 quicker in a wet spring. Rain, therefore, does not affect the 

 Oak as much as it does the Ash ; so if the latter is pushed for- 

 ward quicker than usual, it merely shows that the " soak" has 

 prevailed, or is going on, but cannot justify the investiture of 

 prophetic powers. 



