3924 Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. 



what is this to the case of a toad living for ages encased in rocks and trees ? This 

 would prove a much greater tenacity of life, but unfortunately no such examples have 

 ever come under the notice of a naturalist. 



Mr. Dalman, on the part of Mr. Miller, exhibited a box of insects, containing, 

 among others, a pair of Cassida splendidula, taken at West Wickham on May 1. 



Mr. Jones exhibited specimeus of Lithocolletis alnipaliella, from the leaves of the 

 alder.—/. T. N. 



Proceedings of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field Club. 



Anniversary Meeting, March 30, 1853. — The Ven. Archdeacon Thorp, Warden of 

 the University of Durham, President, in the chair. 



There was a very full attendance of Members, and the proceedings were commen- 

 ced by the delivery of the presidential Address of the Ven. Chairman, in which he re- 

 viewed the proceedings of the past year. The first field meeting of 1852, he said, had 

 been held at Lumley, on which occasion the members visited the castles of Lumbley 

 and Lambton, and the ancient Collegiate Church of Chester-le-Street — an edifice filled 

 with memorials of the past, and the former owners of these neighbouring feudal piles. 

 The second meeting was held on the 14th of June, at Featherston and Haltwihstle, 

 amid wild moorland scenery, adorned by the blooming heather, and watered by the 

 Tyne, which flowed there, a pure and shining stream. The Ven. President referred 

 to the association of those scenes with the memory of his early friend, the Kev. John 

 Hodgson, the historian ; and, after a just and eloquent tribute to his diligence, his 

 faithfulness, and the simplicity of his character, exhorted the younger members to imi- 

 tate his bright example. The third field meeting had been held on the 16ih of July, 

 at Castle Eden ; but the excitement attending the general election at that time, had 

 prevented many members of the club from joining the meeting. The fourth meeting 

 had been held at Bamborough, — a locality of peculiar attraction and interest. In the 

 neighbourhood might be mentioned Twizel House, and Spindleston Hills, the latter 

 associated with the romantic history of the Earl of Derwentwater ; and, beyond these, 

 was Holy Island, hallowed by the Priory of Lindisfarne and the Farn Islands, where 

 St. Cuthbert's Hermitage and Chapel were to be seen, not uncared for at the present 

 day ; while, on the mainland, the old historic Castle of Bamburgh yet stood in stately 

 pride, with the venerable church, whose history ascended to the earliest days of Chris- 

 tianity in Northumberland. The many attractive objects of this locality deserved, he 

 said, repeated visits from the members, more especially they ought to make a pilgrim- 

 age to Holy Island, and linger amidst memories which were in truth the history of the 

 English Church in its early days. The meeting at Bamburgh had been marked by 

 the reading of a paper by Mr. Albany Hancock, on the nidification of the stickleback, 

 a peculiarity which had been noticed by Aristotle, but not treated of by subsequent 

 writers. Dr. Thorp said that the well-known legend of the worm of Spindleston 

 offered a corroboration of the view suggested by his predecessor in that chair (Mr. 

 Tngham), in his address last year, that great reptiles, formerly inhabiting the primeval 

 forests, may have lingered in this country down to a comparatively late period, and 

 have given rise to the many popular traditions about dragons. The fifth and last meet- 



