54 Report of Meetings for 1879, by James Hardy. 



tombs at Marathon, September, 1834. 9. A bone arrow-head 

 found among the bones of Deer, Wild Boar, and Ox, in a rath 

 on the estate of John PuUar, Esq., C.M.Gr., Tipperary. 



Mr George Bolam informed the comioany that this week he had 

 shot a Pied Fly-catcher {Muscicapa atricapilla) in his father's 

 garden at Berwick. Dr Colville Brown exhibited three Poma- 

 rine Skuas {Lestris Pomarinus), shot that day, Oct. 15. This is a 

 species of unusual occurrence, but owing to a storm or some 

 occult cause, about that period, great numbers of these birds had 

 been driven from some high latitude, upon the eastern coasts of 

 Britain. Mr George Bolam obtained information that on the 

 14th Oct., one man at Spittal shot no fewer than 15 ; and other 

 persons killed 4 or 5 each. Mr Knight got two at Holy Island. 

 It was still more plentiful up the Frith of Forth. Mr Gray had 

 examined 32 specimens in Edinburgh, besides 3 or 4 Lestris 

 Buffoni, which appears to have arrived in company with the 

 Pomarines. Mr Harvey Brown writes that about that period. 

 Buff on' s Skuas had occiu'red in the Moray Frith ; and that he 

 had heard of 26 Pomarine Skuas in three weeks in the Frith of 

 Forth ; and many others elsewhere on the eastern coast. In 

 England it swarmed in the end of October and in November. In 

 a paper read to the Eoyal Physical Society of Edinburgh, Dr 

 Traquair recorded that m October and November specimens had 

 been shot at Dunbar, Longniddry, North Berwick, Portobello, 

 and Queensferry ; as well as at Dundee and North Uist. The 

 birds were generally in a state of exhaustion, and were very tame. 

 In the beginning of October large numbers were observed in the 

 Faroe Islands. 



The Club have deeply to regret the death of several of its 

 oldest members, as well as of others in the prime of life : — 1. Mr 

 Ealpli Forster, of Whitsome Hill, Berwickshire, who died at 

 Pome, 17th February, 1878, in the 44th year of his age, whose 

 mortal remains rest in the Protestant Cemetery there. 2. Lieut. ' 

 James H. Scott Douglas, Spring wood Park, a youth of great 

 promise, slain while on duty in the Zulu war as signal officer of 

 Lord Chelmsford's army, at the age of 26, July 1, 1879. 3. Mr 

 William Richardson, Alnwick, a zealous botanist, and the dis- 

 coverer of several rare plants in North Northumberland, who 

 died 18th April, 1879, in his 80th year. 4. Mr James Maid- 



