REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 



97 



forins, some with one head and two bodies, 

 others "with double heads, some minus 

 wings, legs and eyes. He also mentioned 

 a most remarkable instance of the egg of 

 the Black -headed Gull, which he saw in 

 the season of 1864, the particulars of which 

 are as foUows. A friend of his returning 

 from a visit to Skoulton mere, near Iling- 

 ham (the favourite breeding resort of this 

 species, mentioned above), brought with 

 him several scores of eggs for the table ; he 

 obliged a neighbour with some, who, 

 eating one, one morning to his breakfast, 

 was much surprised when the spoon struck 

 against some hard substance, which proved 

 to be another egg in the interior. He had 

 an opportunity of seeing and examining 

 the egg, and observed that it was of the 

 usual size and colour. The parasite (if it 

 may be so termed) was laying in an oblique 

 position in the centre of the yelk, it was 

 about two inches long, and rather narrow, 

 being quite detached from the outer shell, 

 but exhibiting a similar hue and markings. 

 The explanation of this singular occurrence 

 was, that the inner egg was perfectly 

 formed first, but not being large enough 

 to provoke the uterus to exclusion, new 

 matter gathered round it for another egg, 

 and was the more easily supplied, because 

 so little was spent on the former. He 

 referred to a similar instance on record in 

 an old volume of the Gentleman's Magazine, 

 published in 1749, but in this instance the 

 shell of the inner egg was attached to that 

 of the outer. Messrs. J. Perry and J. 

 Pert also exhibited some malformed ex- 

 amples of bird's eggs, Mr. Gunn also 

 exhibited a collection of fossils consisting 

 of vertebrse and shells collected by Mr. 

 Franklin, at the Barton pits, near 

 Cambridge, which Mr, Bayfield kindly 

 described to the meeting. Many of the 

 specimens were in excellent preservation. 

 At the close of the meeting a vote of thanks 

 was passed to the various contributors. . 



A meeting was held October 8th, the 

 president in the chair, when the following 

 new members were admitted : Messrs. 



J, E. Barnes and W. H. Brooks, of Eaton, 

 near Norwich. The chairman read some 

 excellent extracts from a paper on ' ' The 

 Architecture and Transformations of the 

 various orders, of Insects," after which a 

 very interesting discussion took place. 

 Mr. Gunn exhibited a beautiful variety of 

 the Greenfinch shot at Bloefield,on the 5th 

 inst. : it was white, faintly tinged with 

 yellowish green. Several boxes of ento- 

 mological captures were also exhibited. 



HIGH WYCOMBE NATFEAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



The first evening meeting of the second 

 winter session, 1866-7, was held on the 

 9th ult. , at the house of the president, the 

 Eev. T. H. Browne. There was a large 

 attendance of members and friends, and a 

 number of interesting objects were ex- 

 hibited. An introductory paper was read 

 by the president, in which the approaching 

 departure of the secretary, Mr. UUyett, 

 was feelingly alluded to. The latter 

 gentleman then gave an interesting paper 

 on Geology, chiefly explanatory of various 

 erroneous notions commonly entertained 

 on the subject ; after which he formally 

 resigned his office as secretary. Mr. Brit- 

 ten, who was unanimously elected to the 

 vacant post, then read a short summary of 

 the progress made in the investigation of 

 the Botany of the district during the past 

 season, from which it appeared that the 

 "Wycombe Flora had been increased by the 

 following seven species : Cerastium arvense, 

 Vicia gracilis, Onopordum AcantMum, 

 Lactuca virosa, Erica cinerea, Cuscuta 

 Epithymum, Myosotis ccespitosa. The ob- 

 jects exhibited were then inspected, and 

 the meeting, after the usual vote of thanks 

 had been rendered, broke up. A full 

 report of this and subsequent meetings, 

 with selections from the papers read, will 

 be found in the Quarterly Magazine of the 

 Society. 



