TtEPoKTs OF Societies. 



141 



district lay within the second, or " mid-agrarian " chmatic zone of Mr. 

 H. C. Watson, but might perhaps on the south extend into the first, or 

 ^' infer-agrarian " zone, of which Clematis Vitalba was the characteristic 

 plant. Among the many distinct local types of plants included in the 

 district were mentioned the maritime plants of the tidal river banks, the 

 bog plants of the deep peat morass of Thorne Waste, and the somewhat 

 similar but distinct groups met with on the wet, sandy commons at 

 Riccall and Rawcliffe, and those again different, which grew in the boggy 

 ground by calcareous springs at Newbald and Askern ; the calcareous 

 floras of the chalk wolds, of the extensive woods on the Lincolnshire 

 oolites, and of the magnesian limestone hills about Wentbridge and 

 Conisborough ; the aquatic plants of the fen ditches in Marshland ; and 

 the sand-loving plants of the new red sandstone district about Snaith. 

 The author laid on the table a list of 600 species of flowering plants and 

 vascular cryptogams, all of which had been observed growing in the 

 district by members of the society ; 65 of the list were additions made 

 during the past year, some of them — as Carex divisa — being previously 

 unrecorded for Yorkshire. The total number of plant records made at 

 the excursions of the society during the past year was 640. Of the 600 

 plants of the district, 450 belonged to the British or British-English type 

 of distribution, 100 to the Germanic and English-Germanic or eastern 

 types, and a few to the Atlantic or western, and to the Scottish or 

 northern type. As regards citizenship, 540 were considered natives, 40 

 denizens or colonists, and 10 aliens. The paper was illustrated by 

 a number of dried specimens. A paper was read by Mr. Bunker, recorder 

 for Vertebrate Zoology, on The Birds of the Goole District." The 

 reader stated the object of his paper to be to give the society a list of the 

 birds he had noticed, with a few remarks on some of the more important 

 ones. The usual divisions or orders of birds were adhered to, viz., — 

 birds of prey, perchers, scratchers, waders, and swimmers. In the first 

 order hawks and owls were the chief birds mentioned. The fact of the 

 buzzard being now very rare, was referred to. Among the perchers, 

 chats, warblers, titmice, wagtails, pipits, crows, finches, buntings, wren, 

 cuckoo, and night jar were especially named, and references made to their 

 habits, voices, and nests, and the localities stated where some of them 

 had been seen. Several well-known birds were named as belonging to 

 the order of scratchers — as doves, partridges, and pheasants. A long list 

 of wading birds was read, including the heron, bittern (now very rare), 

 woodcock, snipes, sandpipers, grey phalarope (doubtful), curlew, plovers, 

 rails, and welter-hen. In the last order — that of swimming birds — were 

 mentioned wild geese and ducks, divers and gulls. Attention was called 

 to the fact that as the land becomes better drained and more cultivated, 

 the number of birds in this order decreases. 



Conversation A.L Meeting, March 13th. — Two flowering plants, new 

 to the district, were exhibited, Sison Amomum and Chrysosplenium oppo- 

 sitifolium. Dr. Parsons, F.G.S., exhibited a number of mosses collected 



