35 
so bad that I had the whole of the drawers removed, and 
replaced with drawers of baywood. Sometime afterwards, 
Mr. Carter advised me to have the cedar drawers sized and 
papered inside, and a new cabinet made to contain them ; 
accordingly he made me one to contain thirty drawers. 
These drawers were exposed to the air for twelve months, 
and very well sized inside, and papered, but the resinous 
vapour is still deposited on the objects in the drawers as 
before, and so far is a warning to every one never to use 
pencil cedar for such a purpose. I should not, however, 
have thought this matter worthy of mention before the 
Section, had it not been for the very curious and capricious 
way in which some objects are coated with this resin, while 
others are left entirely free, and for which I am totally 
unable to account. In shells the genera Conus and Oliva 
are never touched by it, nor are Cyprea or Mitra, whilst 
Helix , Bulimus, and Pecten, are coated- over; this is the 
case when there are specimens of these and other genera in 
the same drawer. As this deposit is on the genera I have 
named, and never on the others, it would seem to indicate 
that the texture of some shells would attract the vapour 
and not others. But in the case of birds’ eggs, the very 
strange manner in which some species are picked out as it 
were and others left, is most remarkable. In the owl’s 
eggs, for instance, the barn owl is always free, while the 
tawny owl is covered with the varnish, although side by 
side. The song thrush is never attacked, and the missel 
thrush always. 
Trays exhibiting these peculiarities were passed round 
for inspection. 
Mr. Sidebotham also sent a living Death’s Head Moth, 
bred from a pupa, which he had obtained at Lytham, and 
exhibited that the members might hear its curious cry or 
squeak when touched. 
Mr. H. A. Hurst deposited in the Library a copy of a 
rare botanical work by a Jesuit Priest, the Rev. J. Barrelier, 
