﻿December rjth, ipoj.] PROCEEDINGS. xxi 



The opinion expressed by Mr. F. Nicholson, F.Z.S., at a recent 

 meeting of the Society that birds rarely act as disseminators of 

 seeds, by voiding them in their excrement, is not in accord with 

 the experience ot many field naturalists. Nearly fifty years ago 

 Darwin proved (Origin of Species, chap, xii.) that certain seeds 

 extracted from the excrement of small birds germinated, as did 

 others from the ejecled pellets and the excrement of carnivorous 

 and piscivorous birds. The evidence of Wallace and other 

 observers may be cited to the same effect. It is perhaps worth 

 mentioning in this connection that in Mid-Cheshire during the 

 spell of hard weather at the end of November, an examination 

 of the excrement of various birds showed that entire and 

 apparently uninjured seeds are voided constantly. Redwings, 

 fieldfares, and other thrushes were compelled during the frost to 

 subsist largely upon hedgerow fruit, and entire seeds of the wild 

 rose (Rosa) and hawthorn (Cratcsgus), among others might have 

 been collected from their droppings by thousands. From the 

 excrement of smaller birds I obtained many undigested seeds of 

 the bramble (Rubus). I have often noticed entire seeds in the 

 excrement of wild ducks, birds of sustained and powerful flight. 

 Mr. Oldham also exhibited some of the seeds mentioned in 

 his note. 



Dr. W. E. Hoyle, F.R.S.E., read the following letter, con- 

 taining an account of an appearance of the Sea Serpent, which 

 he had received from Mr. C. Howard Tripp, of New Zealand : — 



September 16th, 1904. 

 About 6 years ago I was getting into the 8 a.m. Monday 

 train at Timaru, New Zealand, when, what at first appeared to 

 be a sooty albatross, seemed to drop on to the sea with a great 

 splash about 500 yards from me. The sea was calm, but the 

 sun was slightly in my eyes. However, as I had never seen an 

 albatross come down in that way before and disappear below 

 the surface, 1 watched the spot, and soon saw it come up again, and 

 then saw it was not an albatross, but the tail of some fish, as it 

 had a long, thin body attached to it. It came down again with a 

 great splash, disappeared and went up again, and then dis- 

 appeared entirely. I should say that the body attached to the 



