138 REPOKTS. 



Weather-lore is a particularly interesting- phase of 

 popular l)eli(^f, and Gnernsej seems to he specially rich in 

 prover})ial Avlsdom of this character. Mr. J. S. Hocart has 

 kindly gathered together many of these old examy)les of rural 

 ohservation, which he has embodied in a valuable paper 

 to which we listened with great pleasure at one of our recent 

 meetings, and which when printed, will form a welcome 

 accession to the past year's Tvdnsactions. 



Folk-etymology is another very interesting branch of the 

 subject, dealing with the curious changes that words and 

 names have undergone in form and meaning, through false 

 derivation, or mistaken analogy. This presents a mine that 

 is well worth Avorking. 



Some of you may remember that rather more than thirty 

 years ago the late Sir Edgar MacCulloch contributed to 

 Notefi and Queries a list of Guernsey place-names which 

 had thus got changed into English words of somewhat similar 

 sound, by workmen who had come over and settled here, and to 

 whom the original Norman-French had no intelligible 

 meaning, Sir Edgar cites, among others ( A'. ^ Q., 5th s ii. 90, 

 Aug. 1, 1874) : Rocquaine, changed into Hock-end; Lancresse, 

 into Loncj Crease; Hougue-a-la-Perre into Ugly Pier; La 

 Tcherotterie fan old word signifying a tannery) corrupted 

 into Cherry-free, with which it had really no connection at all, 

 and Cat el into Kettle or Cattle. 



T had intended to touch upon one or two other matters 

 connected with our local Folklore, but I must reserve what I 

 have to say for some future occasion. 



J. LiNWOOD Pitts, Sec. Folklore Sect. 



Report of the Ornithological Section. 



The most interesting discovery made this year in connec- 

 tion Avith our local bird-fauna is a series of notes in the 

 handwriting of the late Sir Edgar MacCulloch, Avho con- 

 tributed a good deal of information to Cecil Smith for use in 

 his Birds of Guernsey. These notes are written on a loose 

 slip of paper found in a copy of Smith's book that formerly 

 belonged to Sir Edgar, and is now in the library of the 

 Intermediate School. I am indebted to Mr. G. Barry for the 

 loan of the original slip. As far as I can make out, these 

 memoranda are the personal recollections of another ornitho- 

 logist, and most probably Sir Edgar MacCulloch intended to 

 utilise them for a communication to the Zoologist^ or some 



