Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 229 



woods they found Zinncea horealis, large quantities of Listera 

 cordata, and abundance of Goodyera repens, while in Gordon 

 Moss they noticed Catahrosa aquatica (a somewhat rare grass), 

 Stellaria glauca, Orchis incarnata, Utricularia minor, and several 

 Potamogetons. Mr Sadler found one specimen of moonwort 

 {Botrychium luna/ria) which measured 14 inches from the tip of 

 the spike to the root. The list of plants got, drawn up by Dr 

 Stuart and Mr Sadler, is too long to introduce here, but will be 

 given as a separate paper, along with the plants Mr Brotherston 

 had gathered in coming to the meeting, and subsequent dis- 

 coveries by the Eev. W. Stobbs. Dr Stuart has kindly supplied 

 me with his observations on the birds that were seen in the moss. 

 " Larks are plentiful here, having abundant shelter for nesting 

 in the rough cover in the bogs. While sheltering in a clump of 

 willows from a heavy shower, the attention of the members of 

 the Club was attracted by an extraordinary noise proceeding 

 from some bushes, quite close to where we were, as if produced 

 by a concert of grasshoppers. The noise resembled very much 

 that of a ratch fishing reel, when being wound. This sound was 

 the note of the grasshopper warbler [Sylvia Locustella), a very in- 

 teresting summer visitor. In former years I have heard it at 

 Ninewells, in the parish of Chirnside. This season it has been 

 heard in the Kirk Walk, Whitehall, and at Hammerball, Bla- 

 nerne, parish of Bunkle, within a few miles of Chirnside. This 

 bird is very shy, and takes good care not to show himself to 

 every one. By lying down in the wood at Ninewells and watch- 

 ing, I observed him come out of an alder bush surrounded by the 

 wood-rush, and run along the ground like a mouse to another 

 place of shelter. He is of a brown colour, and rather larger 

 than a hedge-sparrow. From the information of Mr Watson, it 

 has been observed this season at Chapel, near Dunse." [The 

 nest has been seen this season near Paxton, and at the margin 

 of the wood to the north, close beside Grant's House. It has 

 been long known in that vicinity, and its distribution extends to 

 the sides of the Pease dean. It was more numerous, before the 

 meadows at the side of the railway were cultivated, which was 

 about fifty years ago, before the era of railways.] *'In the bog 

 on the north of the Berwickshire railway, we also heard the 

 notes of several of the warblers. I caught a young sedge- 

 warbler {Sylvia Phragmitis), a very beautiful little bird. Its 



