winter months papers are read and discussed at the periodical meetings of the members held at Dudley.
The Society now numbers 14 honorary members, together with the Presidents and Secretaries of the various other societies in the neighbourhood, and 148 ordinary members. The subscription is 10s. 6d. annually. The funds are in a flourishing condition,
For the first two years the President was Lord Lyttelton. From 1864 to 1870 the Earl of Dudley was President; and since that time the Presidents have been:—Professor Ramsay, 1871; E. F. Smith, Esq., 1872; Rev. J. II. Thompson, 1873; William Madeley, Esq., 1874; Charles Cochrane, Esq., 1875, 1876, and 1877.
Mr. John Jones was Honorary Secretary for six years; Mr. W. Madeley, for five years; in 1873, Mr. E. Terry; and since 1874, Mr. E. B. Marten, Pedmore, near Stourbridge.
The practical benefits which hare flowed from this Society are thoroughly realised and valued throughout the South Staffordshire Mining District, and its beneficial influence is felt over a still wider area.
Correspondence.
Black-backed Gull.—A fine specimen of the black-backed gull was shot at Allesley, near Coventry, in December last, having doubtless been driven inland by a storm. Its plumage was a dull white, mottled with greyish brown, and no black about it except the bill. This shows that it was an immature specimen, as it acquires the black back from which it derives its name at the age of four years.—John Gulson.
Water-fowl.—With the advent of winter various water-fowl have again visited, for brief periods, the larger sheets of water around Birmingham. At the Edgbaston Reservoir, Mr. Wyatt informed me that several Herons (Ardea cinerea, L.) have been seen within the last few weeks; as also a fine flight (forty-six) of a duck which I presume to be Mareca Penelope, L. During December, Mr. Dixon, of the Lower Grounds, Aston, records the arrival, on the pools of that place, of several Little Grebe, (Podiceps minor, L.,) as many us four being observed at one time.—A. M. B.
Mildness of The Season.—On Christmas Day last, I gathered in my garden, at Moseley, Worcestershire, (500 feet above sea level, subsoil gravel,} a very respectable out-door posy, consisting of several sorts of chrysanthemums, three kinds of roses, mignonette, pansies, violets, primroses, polyanthuses, clematises, Christmas roses, (Heleborus niger, ) yellow jasmine, wall flowers, and ten-week stocks, I do not remember ever before gathering so many tender flowers in a situation so exposed, so late In the year.—E W. B.
Mounting.—There is one question to which I have tried in vain to get an answer, but which may, perhaps, meet with a reply, through your pages. Some years ago, I believe, the accomplished microscopists of the Birmingham Natural History Society gave a series of lessons on mounting of various kinds to the younger members, In these I was not privileged to share. My question is, would not a second series he useful now? here must br many fresh members, and among them some, like
