Reports of Societies. 



125 



of Woodhall, reports the great grey gull, kestrel, fieldfares, and thrush, 

 all rarely seen this winter until the breaking up of the first and second 

 frost. Jan. 11th, ISIr. W. Talbot, of Wakefield, reports the occurrence of 

 the great-crested grebe, red-throated diver (immature), and little grebe, 

 on pools and streams between that town and Barnsley ; with rare birds 

 as well as plants, locality not always given, so as to give less temptation 

 to extirpate them. Jan. 24th, Mr. Hailstone reports that flocks of twenty 

 or more of Canadian geese came from !^y ostell. He was disturbed recently 

 by alarm cries of the waterfowl from the island on which Walton Hall is 

 built, and on approaching he found a mallard caught by its beak in a rat 

 trap which it had dragged upon the ice. When rescued, the other birds 

 became quiet. It seems to him and to us something like reasoning 

 intelligence. A friend reports examining, in a bird-shop at Doncaster, a 

 rough-legged buzzard, and a weasel, partly decomposed, which it had 

 swallowed recently. Mr. KeU reports the little grebe in a pool near Silk- 

 stone, Feb. 19th, chaffinches singing joyously at the Limes, near 

 Barnsley. — T. Lister. 



Bradford Naturalists' Society. — Meeting Jan. 6th. — The president 

 delivered his inaugural address from the chair, reviewing briefly the 

 present position of the society and its objects, and throwing out some 

 valuable hints regarding future operations. He suggested the formation 

 of collections of objects of natural history, for the use of the society, and 

 strongly recommended members to take up the investigation of some of 

 the more obscure orders of the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Mr. 

 West gave the first of a valuable series of demonstrations of the characters 

 of the natural orders of British plants, dealing with the orders Banun- 

 culaceae, Berberidaceae, Xymphasaceas, Papaverace£e, Fumariacese, and 

 Cruciferae. 



Meetlntg, J an. 20th, the president in the chair. — Mr. J. A. Douglas, 

 F.R.M.S., read an interesting paper on Flame." 



Meeting, Feb. 3rd, the president in the chair. — Mr. H. T. Soppitt 

 read a paper on ''Fungi," describing their structure and classification, 

 and showing the distance these organisms are from flowering plants. He 

 described their method of reproduction and growth, illustrated by black- 

 board diagrams and coloured charts of many macro-fungi, both edible 

 and poisonous. A number of slides of minute fungi were exhibited 

 under the microscope to illustrate the remarks on the micro-fungi. — J. 

 W. Carter, Sec. 



Ella>T)-cc::m-Greetla2s'd Naturalists' Society. — Meeting Feb. 2nd. — 

 The president, Mr. C. C. Hanson, gave his inaugui-al address. Mr. J. 

 E. Garside exhibited a merlin. The Saturday afternoon rambles were 

 fixed for the coming season. On Jan. 15th Mr. John Lumb, of Greet- 

 land, shot a beautiful adult male specimen of the long-eared owl in North 

 Dean Wood — a very rare occurrence. — W. H. Stott, Sec. 



