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: 


THE ZOOLOGIST FOR 1873. 


SEcoND SERrES, pp. 3341—3804. 


E. NEWMAN, PRINTER, 9, DEVONSHIRE STREET, 


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THE 


ZLOOLOGIST: 


A 


POPULAR MISCELLANY 


OF 


NATURAL HISTORY. 


CONDUCTED BY 


EDWARD NEWMAN, F.L.S., F.Z.5., 


MEMB, IMP. L.-C, ACAD, 


SECOND SERIES.—VOLUME THE EIGHTH. 


LON DOWN: 


JOHN VAN VOORST, 1, PATERNOSTER ROW. 


M.DCCC.LXXII. 


The charms that mind delights to trace 
Are those that glow in Nature’s face, 
The only beauties that withstand 

The touch of Time’s destroying hand. 


I love thee, Nature, as a child 
Loves the dear mother that beguiled 
Its many tedious hours of pain, 

And soothed it into health again. 


I love thee on the mountain wild, 
The verdant valley, or the mild 
Cool margin of some silvery stream, 
Whose waters in the sunlight gleam. 


I love at noon the twilight shade 
The gently waving trees have made— 
To sit, and let my spirit roam 

And visit Nature in her home. 


Tll never, Nature, bid farewell 
To thee; thou in my brain shalt dwell, 
Till mind shall have outgrown its clay, 
And left its garment to decay. 

J. W. 


PREFACE. 


—_o— 


Srxrren years have elapsed since anything like a Preface has 
appeared in an annual volume of the ‘ Zoologist’: sixteen years ! 
it is a considerable portion of a life! During that period the parent 
work, that from which the ‘ Zoologist’ descended, has been revived, 
and has met with unparalleled success. 

‘Tue Entomotocist’ was projected and commenced in October, 
1840, the first number being published on the 1st of November of 
that year. The First Volume, consisting of twenty-six sixpenny 
numbers, was completed on the 1st of December, 1842, with the 
following announcement :— 

“«The Entomologist,’ under its present title, will now cease ; 
but the spirit of the work, more particularly as regards those brief 
but highly interesting communications which my correspondents 
have from time to time contributed to the chapter intituled Varieties, 
will be continued in the pages of the ‘ Zoologist.’ ” 

This combination existed for twenty years, during which the 
‘ Zoologist’ gradually increased in bulk until it could no longer suffice 
for the requirements of all branches of Zoology, and a periodical 
exclusively entomological became a manifest necessity. 

As a matter of course, the abstraction of the entomological matter 
from the pages of the ‘ Zoologist’ impoverished that journal to a con- 
siderable extent; it was a competing line under the same direction ; 
apparently a suicidal measure; an absurdity: the result, however, 
has not been altogether unsatisfactory. Although the contributors 
and subscribers to the ‘ Zoologist’ have slightly decreased, those to the 
‘Entomologist,’ during the eight years of its renewed lease of life, 
have increased fourfold and are still increasing ; and thus a multitude 
of young and energetic naturalists have been actually called into 
existence. 

It cannot and need not be concealed that the circulation of the 
’ ‘Zoologist’ has also been diminished by its opposition to the seductive 
and popular hypothesis of Evolution so ably and unceasingly advocated 
by Mr. Darwin and his followers. Nothing, I admit, is gained by this 


ieee PREFACE. 


opposition ; however adverse appear the speculations of the Evyolu- 
tionist to the narrower views and aspirations of the Factist, and 
however strenuous the advocacy of either, no advocate will convince 
his opponent of error, yet will always remain in the enjoyment of his 
own views. It might be relevant, as an addendum to this allusion 
to a prevalent belief, to complain of the persecution the ‘ Zoologist’ 
has suffered, as it were, ‘‘ for conscience sake,’’ but ‘the querulous” 
can never be “the dignified,’-—can never command respect; and it is 
a satisfaction to know that in all ages of the world persecution has 
been the weapon of error, and has always failed to accomplish its 
object, the suppression of truth. 

Then with regard to the value of communications published during 
the present year, there is no ground for regret. Passing by the vast 
amount of reliable facts communicated in shorter notices, the longer 
contributions of Mr. Balkwill on system, Mr. Cordeaux on the birds 
of Lincolnshire, Rev. A. E. Eaton on Spitsbergen, Dr. Gray on British 
Cetacea, Mr. Harting on British Heronries, Mr. Gervase Mathew on 
flying fish, Mr. Potts on the night parrot of New Zealand, with very 
many others, must ever be regarded as permanent additions to the 
store of zoological knowledge. 

The publication during the present year of Dr. Wyville Thomson’s 
narrative of the dredging cruises of H.M.SS. ‘ Lightning’ and ‘ Por- 
cupine’ must be regarded as developing a most important era in | 
zoological science: this work will not only be regarded as a vast 
revelation of fact,—though in this respect it stands almost un- 
rivalled,— but it will also serve to dissipate a large amount of 
speculation and error, and will all but inaugurate a new science; 
it may be said to have ploughed, and ploughed deeply, a field 
of Zoology far more productive than any that had been previously 
tilled: there seems no limit to the additions which this phase of 
discovery will make to our knowledge of Zoology, and it teaches, 
moreover, that many of those creatures hitherto supposed to be 
extinct, are still living on to gladden the eyes of the truth-seeker 
and reward his perseverance : it shows that ‘finality’’ in Science is 
a dream, the dream of the indolent, and that the best knowledge 
is that which shows us how little we know. 

Epwarp Newman, 


CONTENTS. 


ALPHABETICAL LIST 


Auprey, H. W. W. 
Late nesting of starlings, 3368; 
Heronry near Salisbury, 3369 
Barttey, Henry F. 
British heronries, 3369; Kingfisher 
and hawk at sea, 3491 
BaLkwiti, FRANcIis Hancock 
A difficulty for Darwinists, 3581, 
3698 
Beck, T. 
Peregrine near Scarborough, 3802 
Bond, FREDERICK 
Goshawk at Hampstead, 
cuckoo, 3368 
Borrer, W. 
Cuckoo’s egg, 3579 
Bowersank, J. S., LL.D., F.R.S. 
Callionymus Lyra at St. Leonard’s, 
8495; Beaumaris shark and 
boar-fish at Hastings, 38617; 
Angel-fish at St. Leonard’s, 
3653; Scyllarus arctus at St. 
Leonard’s, 3654; Ommastrephes 
sagittatus off Hastings, 3773 
Boyts, FREDERICK 
Late nesting of the ring doye, 
' Heronries in East Yorkshire, 
3369; Rednecked phalarope in 
East Yorkshire, Wild geese, 3371; 
Siskins in East Yorkshire, 3413; 
Hared and rednecked grebes in 
East Yorkshire, 3413 
Bresg, C. R., M.D. 
Orangelegged hobby, &c., 3688; 
‘Larus cachinnans, 3695 
Briees, T. R. ARCHER 


Late 


The cil bunting an autumnal 
songster, 83772 
BRIGHTWELL, L. 
Bravery of a Muscovy, 3413 
Brooks, A. B. 
Gadwall in Ireland, 3493 


OF CONTRIBUTORS. 


Brown, J. A. HAaRvIE 
Curlew sandpiper, ruffs and reeves, 
&e., 3803 
Burney, Rev. Henry 
British heronries, 3651 
Butier, A. G. 

Strange nest for the hedgespar- 
row, 3615; Birdsnesting and 
the Wild Birds Protection Act, 
3642 

CAMBRIDGE. Rey. O. P., M.A. 

Wild Birds Protection Act, 3576, 

3632 
Carey, C. B. 

Notes from Guernsey, 3367; Dis- 
tinctive marks of the redlegged 
and Barbary partridges, 3453; 
Large lobster, 3654; Montagu’s 
harrier at Alderney, 3688 

Cocks, A. H. 
The wild cat not a myth, 3574 
Corsin, G. BENTLEY 

Stoat in winter, 8447; Cream- 
coloured mole, 8448; LEHavrly 
nesting of birds, 3452; Lizard- 
eating pheasant, 3453; Large 
otter, 8487; Hawfinch and 
brambling at Ringwood, 8491; 
Gray phalarope and pike, 3492, 
3529; Perception in the lower 
animals, 3523; Varieties of rat, 
3525; Eggs of the cuckoo, 3528 ; 
Voracity of pike, 3617; The 
nightingale, 3646; Migration of 
the sky lark, 3647 ; Whimbrel in 
the New Forest, 8651; Wild duck 
and leech, Wild-fowl at Ring- 
wood, 8652; Blackbird nesting 
on the ground, 3733; Dartford 
warbler, 83734; Vipers in the New 
Forest, 3736 ; Hawfinch breeding 
in the New Forest, 8772 


Vlil 


CoRrDEAUX, JOHN 

Ornithological notes from North Lin- 
colnshire, 3400, 3464, 3556, 3684, 
8781; Common cormorant and 
herring gull returning to nest at 
Flamborough Head, 3530; Notes 
at sea, 3599; On the migration 
and habits of the curlew sand- 
piper (Tringa  subarquata, 
Giuldenstaedt), 3720 

CornisH, THOMAS 

Lumpfish or lumpsucker, 3532; 
Pilot-fish off Penzance, 3653; 
Octopus vulgaris at Penzance, 
8654; Rare fishes at Penzance, 
8697; Bottlenosed whales off 
Penzance, 3722 

DALGLeIsH, JOHN J. 
Hybrid between the common pigeon 
and turtle dove, 3651 
Dix, THomas (the late) 
A happy family, 3452 
Dous.Lepay, Henry 

The eggs of the cuckoo, 3472; 

Ray’s wagtail, 3490 
Durnrorp, H. 

Glaucous gull at Southwold, Suffolk, 
Blackthroated diver in Suffolk, 
8413; Ferruginous ducks and 
gadwalls in Leadenhall Market, 
8492; Arrival of spring migrants, 
&e., 3526; Dark variety of the 
common snipe, 3529; Waders fly- 
ing at dusk, 3530; Ornithological 
notes, 8601; Ornithological notes 
from Lancashire, 3612, 38800; 
Remarkable posture of the Nor- 
folk plover, 3693; Captain Feil- 
den’s criticisms on Mr. Durnford’s 
“Ornithological Notes,” 3694; 
Nesting of the Sandwich tern on 
Walney Island, 3773; Rats eating 
pigs, Ornithological notes from 
Suffolk during August, 3797; 
Notes from Longparish, Hants, 


3799 
Baron, Rev. A. E., MA. 

Notes on the Fauna of Spitsbergen, 

3762 
Frinpen, Capt. H. W. 

Nesting of the redwing in North 
Yorkshire, 8411; Criticisms on 
Mr. Durnford’s ‘ Ornithological 
Notes,” 3641, 3735 

GATCOMBE, JOHN 

Otters near Plymouth, 8365; Orni- 
thological notes from Devon, 
Cornwall, &c., 8392, 3442, 3466, 


CONTENTS. 


3562, 3628, 38716, 8783; Large 
otter near Plymouth, 3566; A 
new heronry in Cornwall, 3693 ; 
Fox shark off the coast of Corn- 
wall, 3697 

Gray, Dr. J. E., F.R.S., &e. 

Catalogue of the whales and dol- 
phins (Cetacea) inhabiting or in- 
cidentally visiting the seas sur- 
rounding the British islands, 
8357, 3421 

Greeson, C. 8. 

Abundance of snow buntings, song 
thrushes and bramblings in the 
North, 3490 

Gurney, J. H. 

Firecrested regulus at Torquay, 
3490; Note on the early assump- 
tion of breeding plumage in the 
bridled and foolish guillemots 
and great northern diver, 3493; 
Note on the waterhen, 3580; 
Anecdote of a kingfisher, 3616; 
Note on the cuckoo and pied 
wagtail, 3648; Waterhens nest- 
ing in trees, 3652; Note on rare 
birds obtained near Flamborough 
Head, 3802 

Gurney, J. H., jun. 

Ornithological notes from Norfolk, 
3354, 3402; Osprey at Hemp- 
stead, 3367 

Haprietp, Capt. Henry 

The cuckoo, 3579; Arrival of spring 

migrants, &e., 3614 
Hame., Eopert D. 

Blackheaded gulls and fieldfares, 
3530; Ornithological notes from 
Tamworth, 3801 

Hart, W. E. 
Heronries in Ulster, 3454 


Harrtine, J. E. ° 
British heronries, 8404; The cuc- 
koo, 3648 
Heaton, W. H. 
Heronries—errata, 5454 : 


Hersert, WituiAmM H. 

Leach’s petrel and black tern near 
Newbury, 3455; Great gray 
shrike near Newbury, 3489 

Hewitson, W. C. 

The theory of Dr. Baldamus as 

regards the cuckoo’s egg, 3468 
Hornsy, Hueu P. 

Heavy hares in North Lancashire, 
8448; Notes from North Lanca- 
shire, 8451; Birds observed at 
St. Michael’s-on-the-Wyre, 380] 


CONTENTS. 


Hiieret, Baron A. von 

Waxwing in Hampshire, Food of 
the chough, 8368; Hider duck 
at Christchurch, 3371; Ornitho- 
logical notes from Lancashire, 
8612 

KeEMpsTER, JOHN 

Redstart nesting on the ground, 

3646 
Kerr, J. W. 

Heronries in Denbighshire and 
Merionethshire, 8369; Ornitho- 
logical notes from North Wales 
for the summer and autumn of 
1872, 3409 

Lister, T. 

Rare birds near Barnsley, 3687 
Lurr, W. A. 

The Channel Islands Fauna, 3367 
Macrag, Rey. J. & Tworrny, Rey. D. 

Appearance of an animal, believed 
to be that which is called the 
Norwegian sea serpent, on the 
Western Coast of Scotland, in 
August, 1872, 3517 

Martuew, Gervass F., R.N. 

Sea-lion at dinner, 3447; Gulls of 
Valparaiso, 3491; Natural-His- 
tory notes from Coquimbo, 3578 ; 
A few notes on flying fish, 3737 ; 
Natural-History notes from Ho- 
nolulu, 3759 

Matuew, Rey. Murray A., M.A. 

Bohemian waxwing at Bishop’s 
Lydeard, 3452; Gray phalarope 
in winter plumage, 3454; Wax- 
wings at Bishop’s Lydeard, 3490 ; 
Cuckoo’s eggs, 3528 

MENNELL, Henry T. 
The Channel Islands Fauna, 3367 
Murton, JAMES 

Redlegged partridge plentiful in 

East Kent, 3692 
Newman, Epwarp 

Death of Thomas Dix, 3380; The 
Chillingham bull, 3409; Molo- 
thrus sericeus in Devon, 8411; 
Supposed redwing’s eggs, 3489 ; 
Crocus-blossoms cut off in their 
prime, Serialia growing on a hip- 
pocampus, 3494; Callionymus 
Lyra in the aquarium of the 
Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 
8495; Perception in the lower 
animals, 3522; Cuckoo’s eggs, 
3528; Zoology of the Royal 
Academy, 38567; Stock dove 
breeding in confinement, 3690; 


4 
1X 


Lakes Albert and Tanganyika, 
3699; The flamingo killed in the 
Isle of Sheppey, 8736; Death of 
the porpoise in the Brighton 
aquarium, 3804 

Newton, Prof. AtrreD, M.A., &e. 

Second supplementary report on 
the extinct birds of the Mas- 
carene Islands, 8448; Arctic 
auguries, 8449; On the colour of 
the fauces in nestling warblers, 
8527; Wild Birds Protection Act, 
8611 

Ocinvy, WattErR T. 

Sclavonian grebe and great black 
woodpecker in Norfolk, 8372; 
Yellowhammer’s nest in a fruit 
tree against a wall, 3688 

Pacret, Emma M. 
Australian flying squirrel breeding 
in confinement, 3526 
Penny, C. F., R.N. 
Shark and pilot-fish, 3658 
Ports, T. H. 

Observations on the Natural His- 
tory of the night parrot of New 
ge (kakapo of the Maories), 

62 


Power, F. D. 
Summer visitants in West Cum- 
berland, 3643 
Pryer, H. 
Large squid exhibited in Japan, 
38591 


ReEEks, HENRY 
Little bustard in Hants, 3491 
Ropp, Epwarp HEarLE 

The common wood pigeon and 
stock dove, 3452; Iceland gull at 
Mount’s Bay, 3455; Note on the 
cirl bunting, 3803 

Ropkg, G. T. 

Singular situation for a squirrel, 
3408; Semi-aquatic habits of the 
common shrew, 3525; White 
stork in Suffolk, 8580; Notes 
from Leiston, Suffolk, 8606; 
Mice in East Suffolk, 38610; 
Nesting of the woodcock in Suf- 
folk, 3616; A dog eating stoats, 
3640 

Row ey, GRorGE Dawson, M.A. 

The theory of Dr. Baldamus as 

regards the cuckoo’s egg, 3470 
ScLATER, JOHN 

Bats flying at noon, 8365; Oxnitho- 
logical notes from Castle Eden, 
3439; Strange conduct in a hare, 


b 


8524; Blackbird nesting on the 
eround, 3645; Starling’s nest 
under ground, 3647; Starling’s 
mode of feeding, 3648 

Smuz, A. H. 

Otter in the Thames, 3797; Green- 
shank and common tern in Ox- 
fordshire, 3803 

SuirH, Rev. ALFRED CHARLES, M.A. 


Some additional remarks on the 


question of the colouring of cuc- 
koo’s eggs, 3433; Supplementary 
remarks on the propagation of 
the cuckoo, 3473; Further re- 
marks on the colouring of cuc- 
koo’s eggs, 3511; A few last 
words on the cuckoo question, 
3723 
Situ, Ceci. 

Pinkfooted goose, 3413; Guillemot 
moulting its quill-feathers, 3454 ; 
Ornithological notes from Somer- 
setshire, 3624 

SouTHWELL, THOMAS 

Large otter, 3407; King crab off 

the Dutch coast, 3740 ~ 
STaFFoRD, WILLIAM 

Ornithological notes from Godal- 

ming, 3788 
SrEVENSON, Henry 

Ornithological notes from Norfolk, 

8354, 8402, 3558, 3711; Polish 


CONTENTS. 


swan, 3372; Memoir of the late 
Thomas Dix, 8775 
Tatton, T. EH. 
Waterhens nesting in trees, 3692 
THOMASSON, JOHN P. 
Late swallows, 3369 
THuRN, EvERARD F. Iu 
Sea woodcock, 3371 
Tuck, JULIAN G. 
Notes from Aldeburgh, Suffolk, 3799 
Tworrny, Rey. D. 
The supposed ns serpent, 3804 
WALKER, Rev. F. A., M. 
A visit to Corsica, 8551, 3598 
WEIR, J. JENNER 
The Channel Islands Fauna, 3366 
WuHartTon, C. ByGRAVE ~ 

Ray’s wagtail in Hertfordshire in 
the winter, 3455, 8526; Nidifica- 
tion of the kingfisher, 3527 

WHITAKER, J., jun. 

Shorteared owl in Nottingham- 
shire, Great gray shrike, 3489 ; 
Spotted redshank, 3492; Glau- 
cous gull in Mottinghaaathiee, 
3493 ; “Arrival of spring birds in 
Nottinghamshire, 3614 

Wuire, Rey. J. H., M.A. 
Large stur geen in the Ouse, 38803 
Winter, W. 8S 

Little auk cat Manx shearwater 

near Birmingham, 3413 


ALPHABETICAL -LIST OF SUBJECTS. 


Aliama Desmarestii, 3432 

Ambush, lying in, 3345; moonlight, 
3346 

Anatomy of the Negro, 3640 

Andersson, John Charles (the late), 
‘Notes on the Birds of Damara 
Land and the Adjacent Countries 
of Southern Africa,’ 3341 

Anecdote of a kingfisher, 3616 

Angel-fish at St. Leonard’s, 3653 

Animals; lower, perception in the, 
3488, 3522, 3523 

Aquarium, Brighton, notes from the, 
3634; Marine, of the Crystal Palace 
Aquarium Company (Limited), Of- 
ficial Handbook to the, 3661, 3701, 
8741; Brighton, 3697 


Aquila bifasciata and A. orientalis, 
8643 

Areocerus coffee at Basle, 3533 

Arctic auguries, 3449 

Auk, little, near Birmingham, 3413; 
in Durham, 38442;  razorbilled, 
3599 

‘Autumns on the Spey,’ 8479 


Balena britannica, 3261 

mysticetus, id., 8771 

Balenide, 3360 

Balenoptera rostrata, 3364 

Balenopteride, 3364 

Balenopteridea, 3361 

Bats flying at noon, 3365; in bam- 
boo, 3524 


CONTENTS. 


Beluga catodon, 3430 

Belugide, 3429 

Benedenia Knoxii, 3362 

Bird of Paradise, new, 3689 

Birds, of Egypt, 3381; small, feeding 
off heaps of sea-weed, 3398; extinct, 
of the Mascarene Islands, second 
supplementary report on, 3448; 
new fossil, with teeth in both jaws, 
3451; early nesting of, 3452; on 
the Flats, 8556; that breed on Wal- 
ney Island, 3603; attracted by light- 
houses, 3613; spring, arrival of in 
Nottinghamshire, 3614; in the Isle 
of Wight, id.; near Weston-super- 
Mare, 3626; dead, at sea, 3643; 
rare, near Barnsley, 3687; Euro- 
pean, introduction of in the United 
States for economic purposes, 3696; 
relation between the colour and 
geographical distribution of, 3790 ; 
observed at St. Michael’s-on-the- 
Wyre, 3801; rare, obtained near 
Flamborough Head, 3802 

Birdsnesting and the Wild Birds Pro- 
tection Act, 3642 

Birds’ nests, transposition of eggs in, 
3625 

‘ Birds of the Humber District,’ 3541 

Bittern, 3558 

Blackbird, 8464; nesting on the 
ground, 3645, 3733 

Blackeap, 3627 

Black-fish, 3427 

Boar-fish at Hastings, 3617 

Bottle-nose, 3425; white-sided, 3426; 
white-beaked, zd. 

‘Brambling at Ringwood, 3491 

Bramblings, abundance of in the 
North, 3490 

Breeding season, 3346 

British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, Report of the 
“Close Time”? Committee of, 3727 

Bull, Chillingham, 3409 

Bunting, cirl, an autumnal songster, 
3772; note on, 3803 

snow, 8399 

Buntings, snow, abundance of in the 
North, 3490 

Bustard, little, in Hants, 3491; in 
Suffolk, 3692 


Callionymus Lyra at St. Leonard’s, 
8495; in the aquarium at Syden- 
ham, id. 

Canis lagopus, 3769 

— lupus, 3768 


Cat, wild, 83482; not a myth, 3574 

Catodon macrocephalus, 3423 

Catodontide, id. 

Cetacea, 3359 

Chiffchaff, 3625 

Chough, food of, 8368; Cornish, 
3444 ; 


Clymenia Euphrosyne, 3425 

Cordeaux, John, ‘ Birds of the Hum- 
ber District,’ 3541 

Cormorant, common, returning to 
nest at Flamborough Head, 35380; 
fishing, 3696 

Cormorants, colony of, 3602 

Corsica, a visit to, 3551, 3593 

Crab, king, off the Dutch coast, 3740 

Crayfish, sea, successful breeding of 
3638 

Crocus-blossoms cut off in their prime, 
3494 

Crotchet, the gardening, 8661; on 
lung-breathing, 3663 

Crow, carrion, 3558, 3601 

hooded, 3685, 3781 

Cuckoo, 3501, 8579, 3648; late, 3368; 
question, 3473; supplementary re- 
marks on the propagation of the, 
id.; egg of, 3579; and pied wag- 
tail, 3648 

Cuckoo’s eggs, some additional re- 
marks on the question of the 
colouring of, 3433; the theory of 
Dr. Baldamus as regards, 3468, 
3470, 3472; further remarks on the 
colouring of, 3511, 3528; a few last 
words on, 3723 

Cuckow’s eggs, 3505 

Curlew, 86038 

Curlews, stone, feeding at night, 3800 

Cuvierius Sibbaldii, 3363 


Darwinists, a difficulty for, 3581, 
3654, 3698 

Delphinide, 8424 

Delphinoidea, id. 

Delphinus delphis, 3425 

Denticete, 3421 

Dipper, 3410, 3467 

Diver, blackthroated, 3418, 3446, 3599 

great northern, early assump- 
tion of breeding plumage in, 3493 

— northern, 3399, 3442, 3444 

redthroated, 3599 

Dix, Thomas, death of, 3880; memoir 
of the late, 3775 

Dog eating stoats, 3640 

Dolphin, 3425 

Eschricht’s, 8426 


xii 


Dolphins and whales, 3357, 3421 

Dotterel, 3684; ring, and limpet, 3396 

Dove, ring, late nesting of, 3369 

stock, 3684; breeding in con- 
finement, 3690; and common wood 
pigeon, 3452 

— turtle, 3684; and common 
pigeon, hybrid between, 3651 

Dozmare Pool, a visit to, 3394 

Drepanornis Albertisii, 3689 

Duck, eider, at Christchurch, 3371 

— Muscovy, bravery of a, 3413 

—~ summer, 3396 

— wild, and leech, 3652 

Ducks, ferruginous, in Leadenhall 
Market, 3492 

wild, 3465 

Dunlin, 3605, 3798, 3801 


Eagle, sea, in Jersey, 3411; near 
Yarmouth, 3712 

whitetailed, near Rye, 3411 

Egg, blackbird’s, variety of, 3558 

Eggs of the cuckoo, 3433, 3468, 3470, 
8472, 3473, 3505, 3511, 3528, 3579; 
of redwing, supposed, 3489; in 
birds’ nests, transposition of, 3625 

Electra acuta, 3426 

Entomological Society, proceedings 
of, 3372, 3414, 3455, 3497, 3532, 
8618, 3655 

Epiodontidx, 3431 

Eschrichtius robustus, 3862 

Euphrosyne, 3425 

Evening call after bed-time, 3346 


Falco vespertinus, abundance of, 3350 

Family, a happy, 3452 

Fauna, Channel Islands, 3366, 3367 ; 
of Spitsbergen, notes on, 3762 

Fieldfares, 3530, 38557 

Finch, serin, at Brighton, 3526 

Fish, flying, a few notes on, 3737 

Fishes, rare, at Penzance, 3697 

Flamingo in the Isle of Sheppey, 3693, 
3736 

Flat-back, 3364 


Gadwall in Ireland, 3493 

Gadwalls in Leadenhall Market, 3492 
Gannet, 3441, 3444 

Geese, wild, 3371 

Globiocephalide, 3428 
Globiocephalus aftfinis, id. 

svineval, id. 
Goosander, 3559 

Goose, pinkfooted, 3412, 3627 
Goshawk at Hampstead, 3368 


CONTENTS. 


Grampide, 3427 

Grampus, id. 

Grampus Cuvieri, id. 

Grebe, eared, in East Yorkshire, 8413 
ereat crested, 3560, 3712 
little, 3798 

rednecked, in East Yorkshire, 


8413 


Sclavonian, in Norfolk, 8372 

Greenfinch, 3559 

Greenshank in Oxfordshire, 3803 

Grouse, Pallas’ sand, 3801 

Guillemot, 3599, 3601, 8716; moulting 
its quill-feathers, 3392, 3454 

——— black, 3446 

Guillemots, bridled and foolish, early 
assumption of breeding plumage 
in, 8493 

Gull, blackheaded, 3398, 3467, 3603, 
3613 

—— glaucous, 3413, 3445, 3493 

— herring, 3467, 3601, 3628; re- 
turning to nest at Flamborough 
Head, 3530 

— Iceland, 3395, 3455 

—— kittiwake, 3399 

— lesser blackbacked, 3393 

— little, 3716 

Gulls, blackbacked, 3442 

—  b)lackheaded, 3530 

—— glaucous, 3441 

— grayheaded, 
3493 

— herring, 3394 


off Valparaiso, — 


‘Handbook to the Birds of Egypt,’ 
8381 

Hare, strange conduct in a, 3524 

Hares, heavy, in North Lancashire, 
3448 

Harrier, 
3688 

‘Harvesting Ants 
Spiders,’ 3676 

Hawfinch, 8397, 3403, 3491, 3561, 
3624; breeding in the New Forest, 
3772 

Hawk feeding on bats, 3350; at sea, 
3491 

Hedgesparrow, strange nest for the, 
8615 

Heron, night, in Jersey, 3616 

Heronries, British, 3369, 3404, 3651; 
in Denbighshire and Merioneth- 
shire, 3369; in East Yorkshire, id.; 
in Ulster, 3454 

Heronry near Salisbury, 3369; new, 
in Cornwall, 3693 


Montagu’s, at Alderney, 


and Trapdoor 


CONTENTS. 


Hippocampus, Serialia growing on a, 
3494 


Hippopotamus, young, 3366; pigmy 
(not Guy Fawkes), 3487 

Hobby, orangelegged, in Essex, 3615, 
3688 

Hoolook, 3524 

Hoopoe, a climbing, 3352 

Humuming-bird moth and robin, 3396 

Humpback, 3361 

Hybrid between common pigeon and 
turtle dove, id. 

Hyperoodon butzkopf, 3431 

Hyperoodontide, 3480 


Trrisor erythrorhynchus, 3352 
Jackdaw, pied, 3398 


Kakapo of the Maories, 3621 

Kestrel, 3444, 3467, 3797 

Kaller, broad-nosed, 3429 

sharp-nosed, id. 

Kingfisher at sea, 3491; nidification 
of, 3527; belted, feeding habits of, 
id.; anecdote of a, 3616; nest of, 
3713 

Kingfishers, 3383 

Kite, 3410 

Knox, A. E., M.A., F.L.S., &c., 
‘Autumns on the Spey,’ 3479 


Lagenocetus latifrons, 3431 

Lagenorhynchus albirostris, 3426 

Lakes Tanganyika and Albert Ny- 
anza, supposed identity of, 3639, 
3699 


‘Landrail, 3626 

Lark, sky, varieties of, 3412, 3800; 
migration of, 3647 

— wood, 3392 

Larus cachinnans, 3695 

Leech and wild duck, 3652 

Leucopleurus arcticus, 3426 

Lighthouse, Cromer, 3356, 3402 

Limpet and ring dotterel, 3396 

Linnet, 3466 

Lion, an American fossil, 3364 

Lloyd, W. A., ‘ Official Handbook to 
the Marine Aquarium of the Crystal 
Palace Aquarium Company (Lim- 
ited),’ 3661, 8701, 3741 

Lobster, a huge, 8618; large, 3654 

spiny, successful breeding of, 


3638 
Lord, J. K., death of, 3380 
Lumpfish or lumpsucker, 3532 


Mackerel, difficulty with, 3636 

Mammals, 3766 

Mammoth, another frozen, 8408; still 
in the land of the living, 3731 

Martin, house, 3599, 3715 

Martins, late breeding of, 3801 

Martins, sand, and swallows, 3625 

Megaptera longimana, 3361 

Megapteridex, 3361 

Merlin, 3410, 3466 

Mice in East Suffolk, 3610 

Migrants, autumn, 3356; spring, ar- 
rival of, 3526, 3711; nocturnal, 
8712, 3715, 3799 

Migration of the sky lark, 3647 

Moggridge, J. Traherne, ‘ Harvesting 
Ants and Trapdoor Spiders; Notes 
and Observations on their Habits 
and Dwellings,’ 3676 

Mole, cream-coloured, 3448 

Molothrus sericeus in Devon, 3411 

Monodon monoceros, 3430 

Muscovy, bravery of a, 3413 

Mysticetes, 3359 


Narwhal, 3430 

Natural-History notes 
quimbo, 3578; 
3759 

Negro, anatomy of the, 3640 

Nest, strange, for the hedgesparrow, 
8615; of starling, under ground, 
3647; of yellowhammer in a fruit 
tree against a wall, 3688; of king- 
fisher, 3713; of swallow, id. 

Nesting of the woodcock in Suffolk, 
3616; of the blackbird on the 
ground, 3645, 3733; of the redstart 
on the ground, 8646; of waterhens 
in trees, 8652, 8692; of missel 
thrushes in rocks, 3688; of wild 
pigeons in a stable, 3691; of the 
Sandwich tern on Walney Island, 
Island, 8773 

Nightingale, 3646 

Nose, led by the, 3349 

Notes from Guernsey, 3367; Natural- 
History, from Coquimbo, 3578; at 
sea, 3599; on birds that breed on 
Walney Island, 3603; from Leiston, 
Suffolk, 3606; from the Brighton 
aquarium, 3634; on the Fauna of 
Spitsbergen, 3762; from Aldeburgh, 
Suffolk, 8799; from Longparish, 
Hants, id. 

Nutcracker in Somersetshire, 3689 


from Co- 
from Honolulu, 


X1V 


Octopus vulgaris at Penzance, 3654 

Ommastrephes sagittatus off Hast- 
ings, 3773 

Oological expedition to Holyhead 
Island, 3601 

Orca latirostris, 3429 

stenorhyncha, id. 

Orcadex, 3428 

Ornithological notes from Norfolk, 
3354, 3402, 3558, 3711; from Devon, 
Cornwall, &¢., 3392, 8783; from 
North Lincolnshire, 3400, 3464, 
3556, 3684, 8781; from North 
Wales, 3409; from Castle Eden, 
3439; from Devon and Cornwall, 
3442, 3466, 3562, 3716; from North 
Lancashire, 3451; from Holyhead 
Tsland, 3601; from Walney Island, 
3603; from Lancashire, 3612, 3800; 
from Longparish, Hants, 3614; 
from Somersetshire, 3624; from 
Devonshire, 3628; Mr. Durnford’s, 
criticisms on, 38641, 3735; Captain 
Feilden’s criticisms on Mr. Durn- 
ford’s, 3694; from Godalming, 3788 ; 
from Suffolk, during August, 3797 ; 
from Tamworth, 3801 

Osprey at Hempstead, 3367 

Ostrich-farming at the Cape, 3530, 
3692 

Otter, large, 3407, 3487, 3566; in the 
Thames, 3797 

Otters near Plymouth, 3365 

Owl, brown, 3398 

— shorteared, 3400, 3465, 3489 

white or barn, 3685 

Oystercatcher, 3602, 3604 

Ozognathus cornutus, habits of, 3875 


Palinurus vulgaris, 3638 

Papilionide, variations of neuration 
observed in certain, 3377 

Parrot, night, of New Zealand, ob- 
servations on the Natural History 
of, 3621 

Partridge, redlegged, plentiful in East 
Kent, 3692 

Partridges attracted by gaslight, 3355 

——— redlegged and Barbary, 
distinctive marks of, 3453 

Peregrine near Scarborough, 3802 

Petrel, forktailed, 3400, 3443 

fulmar, 3440 

Leach’s, 3455 

storm, 3443 

Petrorhynchus cavirostris, 8431 

Phalarope, gray, 3396, 3445; in winter 
plumage, 3454; and pike, 3492, 3529 


CONTENTS. 


Phalarope, rednecked, 3395; in East 
Yorkshire, 3371 

Pheasant, lizard-eating, 3453 

Phocena communis, 3427 

Phocide, 3769 

Physalide, 3362 

Physalus Antiquorum, 3363 

—_— Dugeridii, zd. - 

Physeter tursio, 3424 

Physeteride, 3423 

Physeteroidea, 7d. 

Pigeon, common, and turtle dove, 
hybrid between, 3651 

wood, 3402; and stock dove, 
3452; eating snails, 3799 

Pigeons, 3383 

wild, nesting in a stable, 


3691 

Pigs, rats eating, 3797 

Pike and gray phalarope, 3492, 3529; 
voracity of, 3617 

Pilot-fish off Penzance, 8653; and 
shark, id. 

Pipit, meadow, 3465 

rock, 3397 

Plover, golden, 3401, 3409 

gray, 3782 

green, 3464 

Norfolk, remarkable posture 

of, 3693 

ringed, 8604, 3613, 3800 

Pochard, 8686 

Porpoise, 3427; in the Brighton 
aquarium, death of, 3804 : 

Possession Island, 3531 ~ 

Pseudorea crassidens, 3427 

Puffin, 3445 


Rail, water, 3401 

Rangifer tarandus, 3770 

Rat, varieties of, 3525 

Rats eating pigs, 8797 

Raven, 8393, 3443 

Razor-back, 3363 

Razorbill, 3446, 3467, 3601, 3624, 
3716, 3798 

Redpoll, mealy, 3402 

Redshank, 3686 

— _ spotted, 3492 

Redstart, 3624, 3627 

—— black, 3443 

Redwing nesting in North Yorkshire, 
3411; supposed eggs of, 3489 

Regulus, firecrested, at Torquay, 3490 

Rhinoceros, birth of a, in London, 8365 

Robin and humming-bird moth, 3396 

ard waar carnivorous taste in a, 


CONTENTS. 


Rooks and gulls, 3393 

Rooks eating acorns, 3800 
Rorqual, great northern, 3363 
—— broadbilled, 3364 
Rudolphius laticeps, id. 

Ruffs and reeves, 3803 


Salmon, large, 3618 

Sanderling, 3393, 8602, 3605, 3801 

Sandpiper, curlew, 3803; migration 
and habits of, 3720 

————. green, 3714, 3715, 3798, 
8800 

——— purple, 3400, 3443 

Saxby, Dr., death of, 3700 

Scoter, 3399, 3599 

Scyllarus arctus at St. Leonard’s, 3654 

Sea-lion at dinner, 3447 

Sea-serpent, Norwegian, appearance 
of an animal believed to be that 
which is called the, on the Western 
Coast of Scotland, 3517; the sup- 
posed, 3804 

Serialia growing on a hippocampus, 
3494 

Shag, 3442 

Shark, Beaumaris, at Hastings, 3617; 
and pilot-fish, 3653 

fox, off the coast of Cornwall, 


3697 

Shearwater, Manx, near Birmingham, 
3413 

Shelley, G. E., F.G.S., Z.S., &e., «A 
Handbook to the Birds of Egypt,’ 
3381 

Shieldrake, 3559, 3604, 3800 

Shrew, common, semi-aquatie habits 

: of, 3525 

Shrike, great gray, 3441, 3489 

Sibbaldius borealis, 3364 

Siskin, 3399, 3410 

Siskins in East Yorkshire, 3412 

Skua, pomatorhine, 3600 

— Richardson’s, 3399 

Snails, wood pigeon eating, 3799 

Snake, large, 3696 

Snipe, 8558; common, dark variety 
of, 83529; fawn-coloured variety of, 
3559; young, 3614 

Snipes, 3394 

Sparrowhawk, 3716 

Sparrows, 3397 

Spherocephalus incrassatus, 3428 

Spoonbill, 3712 

Squid, large, exhibited in Japan, 3591 

Squirrel, Australian flying, breeding 
in confinement, 3526 


singular situation for a, 3408 


XV 


| Stag, Chinese, lately at the Zoological 


Gardens, 3352 

Starling, 8392; nest of, under ground, 
3647; mode of feeding of, 3648; 
white, 8714 

| Starlings, late nesting of, 3368 

| Stint, Temminck’s, 3716 

| Stoat in winter, 3447 

| Stoats, a dog eating, 3640 

Stork, white, in Suffolk, 3580; near 
Yarmouth, 3712 

Sturgeon, large, in the Ouse, 3803 

Swallow, chimney, 3600; nest of, 
8718 

Swallows, late, 8369; and sand mar- 
tins, 3625 

Swan, Polish, 3372 

Swans, black, 83492 

Swift, 3600, 3684, 3714, 3715 

Swifts, extraordinary flight of, 3690 


Taste, the lecture on, 3663 

Tern, arctic, 3605 

black, 8455 

common, 3605, 3798, 3800 

lesser, 3606, 3798, 3800, 3801 

Sandwich, 3605; nesting on 
Walney Island, 3773 

Terns, 3600, 3716 

whitewinged black, 3712 

Thrushes, missel, nesting in rocks, 
3688 


song, abundance of in the 

North, 3490 

Tit, longtailed, 3401, 3558 

Tribolium ferrugineum in ground- 
nuts, 3534 : 

Trilobite, a recent, 3372 

Tringa subarquata, 3720 

Turnstone, 3605, 3687 

Tursio truncatus, 3425 


Ungulate, enormous fossil, 3446 
Ursus maritimus, 3767 


Variety of the common snipe, 3529; 
of blackbird’s egg, 8558; of the 
snipe, 3559, 8614; of the thrush, 
3559; of the chaffinch, id.; of 
woodcock, 8712, 3718; of starling, 
3714; of sky lark, 3800 

Varieties of the sky lark, 3412; of 
rat, 3525 

Vipers in the New Forest, 3736 

Visitants, summer, in West Cumber- 
land, 3643 


Waders flying at dusk, 35380 


j 
XV1 


Wagtail, pied, and cuckoo, 3648 

Ray’s, 3490; in Hertford- 

shire, in the winter, 3455, 3526 

white, 3557 

Warbler, Dartford, 8734 

Warblers, nestling, colour of the 
fauces in, 3527 

Waterhen, note on the, 3580 

Waterhens nesting in trees, 3652, 3692 

Waxwing in Hampshire, 3368; in 
Norfolk, 3403, 3559; Bohemian, at 
Bishop’s Lydeard, 3452 

Waxwings, 3440; at Bishop’s Lyde- 
ard, 8490; Bohemian, near Pick- 
ering, 3452 

Whale, goose, 3431 

Griiso, 3362 

Orkney, 3363 

pilot, 3428 

sperm, 3423 

thick-palated pilot, 3428 

white, 3430 

Whales, bottlenosed, off Penzance, | 
3722 


finner, 8362 
humpbacked, 3361 
pike, 3364 
right, 38360; 
notes on, 3461 
toothed, 3421 
whalebone, 38359 
Whales and dolphins, catalogue of, 
inhabiting or incidentally visiting 
the seas surrounding the British 
Islands, 3357, 3421 


and sperm, | 


CONTENTS. 


Wheatear, 3398, 3557 

Whimbrel in the New Forest, 3651; 
in North Lincolnshire, 3686 

Whitethroat, common, 3600 

—————__ lesser, id. 

Wigeon, 3444 

Wild Birds Protection Act, 3575, 3576, 
3611, 38632, 3642 

Wild-fowl, 3559; at Ringwood, Hants, 
3652 

Winter visitants, arrival of, 3396 

Woodcock at Clapton, 3529; nesting 
of in Suffolk, 3616 

Woodcock, sea, 3371; perfectly white, 
38712 

Woodcocks, 3410, 3782 

Woodpecker, green, 3393, 3466 

—— great black, in Norfolk, 


3371 
——— lesser spotted at Taun- 
ton, 3412; peculiarity of roosting ° 
observed in a, 3616 
Wren, willow, 3627 


Yellowhammer’s nest in a fruit tree 
against a wall, 3688 


Ziphiide, 3482 

Ziphioidea, 3430 

Ziphius Sowerbiensis, 3432 

Zoological Gardens, 3494 

Zoology of Mr. Stanley’s New African’ 
lake, 83408; of the Royal Academy, 
3567 ; 


THE ZOOLOGIST 


FOR 


lotices of Hew Books, 


Notes on the Birds of Damara Land and the Adjacent 
Countries of South-Western Africa. By the late CHARLES 
JoHn Anversson. Arranged and Edited by Joun HENRY 
Gurney. London: Van Voorst. 1872. Demy 8vo, 
394 pp. letter-press, three outline litho. plates and a map. 


Tue Birds of Africa—but before I say anything of her birds I must 
say a word or two of Africa herself, and yet another subject inter- 
venes and takes precedence even of Africa herself. I mean the maps: 
the first step towards an intelligible appreciation of Africa would 
be the publication of entirely new maps, in which all rivers, lakes, 
mountains and cities, the site of which is either absolutely ficti- 
tious or in the slightest degree suppositious, should be entirely 
obliterated. Wherever the surveyor has laid down a single feature, 
whether natural or artificial, the Suez Canal or the Table Mountain 
at the Cape, every ‘ot and tittle of his work should be religiously 
preserved. With these subtractions and additions we should have 
a map which to the sincere truth-seeker would be an inestimable 
boon: we may perhaps hope that our remote posterity may enjoy 
such a boon; we of the present generation certainly shall not. At 
present we content ourselves with Africa as depicted by the historian 
from very flimsy materials, or by the poet who, after the method of 
his craft, has drawn largely on his imagination. From the historian 
and the poet, as illustrated by modern travellers, we find evidence 
sufficient to convince the most sceptical of philosophers that the 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. B 


8342 THE ZooLoGisT—JANUARY, 1873. 


human race in Africa, after attaining the highest state of so-called 
civilization as attested by architecture, evidence that cannot be 
gainsaid, has yielded gradually and grudgingly to the inevitable 
process of decay to which every unit, family or nation must sooner 
or later succumb, and that Nature, after Copt, Moor, Arab, Kelt 
and Teuton have contested the soil with her inch by inch, has con- 
quered them all and promises to reign supreme from the Mediter- 
ranean to the Cape. The Sphinx—riddle or wreck, defying or 
deriding the mutilations of time, Kelt and Teuton—is yielding to 
the silent advance of sand; the elephant, once the submissive slave 
of Hanno and Hannibal, has thrown off the yoke of man and ranges 
at liberty through the length and breadth of the land. I am aware 
there is what may be called a fringe of civilization all round her sea- 
board; but we must contemplate the land-marks set up thousands of 
years ago, if we would understand and appreciate what is meant 
by “her ancient civilization,” and we must watch year by year the 
progress of the sand around the architectural splendours of Karnac 
and Edfou to understand the irresistible yet silent strength which 
Nature is exerting to regain her own. The most gigantic and suc- 
cessful enterprise of modern times, an enterprise so vast that the 
sober-minded believed it impossible, is but the faint echo, the 
diluted copy of a labour accomplished centuries on centuries before, ’ 
a labour which Nature had in her irresistible persistency determined 
to obliterate. Africa is now the paradise of the naturalist, the 
paradise of the beasts and the birds he delights to seek and to 
study. 

The Birds of Africa—but I must keep them waiting yet a moment 
longer, for the Nile, that problem and puzzle of all historical 
generations, has not yet been so much as mentioned, and the Nile 
was the cherished mystery of my boyhood: twenty years before I 
can recollect, James Bruce had issued his four ponderous volumes, 
which, to take his own valuation, were “the most magnHieese 
present in that line ever made by a subject to a sovereign.” In 
1815 Mungo Park’s second journey was published by Wishaw, and 
attracted a great deal of attention, and I was old enough to feel 
jealous of a reputation which seemed an interference with that of 
the magnificent Bruce: my school Geography, a very humble 
volume divided into numbered paragraphs, and bound in smooth 
red leather without lettering or ornamentation of any kind, assured 
me that “the source of the Nile was finally settled on the 14th of 


THE ZooLocist—JANUARY, 1873. 3343 


November, 1770, by James Bruce, a Scottish gentleman of inde- 
pendent property and a lineal descendant of the kings of Scotland :” 
and it added, by way of parenthesis, “In Egypt it never rains.” I 
believed both. I was jealous of Mungo Park. I thought his was an 
undue interference with my Scottish hero; but as time wore on I read 
of other discoveries of these Nile sources by the Portuguese and by 
Jesuits in their zeal for propagandism; and I read of Nile discoveries 
thousands of years before the Portuguese were a nation or the Jesuits 
a Society, and I have lived to an era when the “ final settlement” of 
Bruce is forgotten and when discoveries of the source of the Nile 
are common. Familiarity begets contempt, and we now read in the 
columns of the ‘Times’ the announcement of these discoveries 
with just as much interest as the birth of a hippopotamus in the 
Zoological Gardens. In fact, Africa has become a “curiosity,” 
and now that an Englishman has settled himself comfortably in the 
interior, and an American has shown how easy it is to visit him, we 
may reasonably expect that Mr. Cook will annually lead a company 
of fashionable ennuiés to “knock and ring” at the door of the 
voluntary exile, and that a “ Month at Ujiji” will become as familiar 
an expression as a “ Summer in Norway” or a “ Winter in Rome.” 
The only questions for solution and the only matters for wonder- 
ment will be, “ How did Livingstone conceal himself for so long a 
period? Why did he not communicate with his friends? Why 
have we Englishmen who professed so warm an interest in his 
safety been allowed to receive no intelligence of his where- 
abouts ?” 

The Birds of Africa—could they appreciate their advantages— 
ought to consider themselves particularly fortunate in the number 
and ability of their historians. Andersson, Burchell, Chapman, 
Des Murs, Finsch, Gurney, Hartlaub, Layard, Levaillant, Miiller, 
Riippell, Sharpe, Shelley, Andrew Smith, A. C. Smith, Swainson, 
Tristram, Van Heuglin, Waterhouse, and many others, have each 
contributed a chapter to the general stock of African bird-lore, not 
only to their own honour but to the great advantage of Science. 
Although 1 do not contemplate going through this long list 
alphabetically, I will begin with the first. 

Charles John Andersson, a Swede by birth, was educated at the 
public high school in Wenersborg, and was afterwards a student in 

» the University of Lund for a single term: he does not seem to have 
studied deeply or to have attained any proficiency in literature; his 


$344 Tue Zoo.ocist—J. ANUARY, 1873. 


taste led him in rather an opposite direction,—hunting and travel,— 
and from his own statement it appears his aspirations were, at a very 
early period, turned towards Africa. At the age of twenty-two this 
aspiration became a settled purpose, and he came to England in 
1849, and sold some specimens of Natural History, living and dead, 
in order to raise the necessary funds. In this very year Livingstone 
made his journey to Lake N’gami by way of the great Kalahari 
Desert, and found that to the north of South-Western Africa was a 
well-watered country abounding in animal and vegetable life. This 
discovery roused the enthusiasm of young Andersson and many 
others, more especially Francis Galton, who volunteered to bear 
Andersson’s expenses as well as to keep him company in an ex- 
pedition similar to that which Livingstone had made with so much 
success. Andersson and Galton sailed from England in April, 1850, 
and reached the Cape of Good Hope in the following August. 
Their first expedition into the interior was from Walwitsh Bay, 
and appears to have been undertaken with the object of purchasing 
oxen trained as well to the saddle as the yoke. In this, on the 
very threshold of their Natural-History campaign, they had a taste 
of the ordinary concomitants of a wandering life in South-Western 
Africa—burning heat, extreme thirst, attacks by lions, which either 
devoured their horses and cattle or drove them to a distance from . 
the encampment. On their return from this experimental trip 
Andersson had his first personal encounter with the king of beasts: 
he had lodged a ball in the lion’s body ; aware that he was hit, yet 
by no means disabled, the lion turned about and faced his enemy, 
who dropped on one knee preparing to give him the second barrel. 
The lion made his spring, but passed clean over his opponent, 
leaving him unscathed. A few moments afterwards the lion was 
found dead near the spot: the first ball had been enough for him. 

After many wearisome and irksome delays, their final start 
for Lake N’gami was made in March, 1851, and in May they reached 
Ovampo, and made a stay of six weeks, during which Andersson 
made his observations on the country and its inhabitants, and 
shortly after Galton succumbed to the toil and troubles of the 
journey, the obstructions of the natives, the disabled state of the 
oxen and wagons, and determined on taking the first opportunity 
of returning to Europe. 

After a fatiguing journey, the travellers arrived at Tunobis on 
the 3rd of October, and here for the first time Andersson became 


THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1873. $345 


fully aware of the richness of Africa. Here he found wild animals 
innumerable; with two companions he bagged thirty rhinoceros, 
and afterwards, when quite alone, eight others fell to his rifle, 
besides other large game. Galton took with him to England about 
five hundred bird-skins, the whole of Andersson’s collection, and 
Andersson took up the project which Galton had abandoned of 
penetrating to Lake N’gami in company with Hans Larsen, a Dane, 
a hunter of the first order, possessing a perfect knowledge of the 
country, herculean strength and an iron constitution. This toil- 
some journey was relieved by adventures more sensational than any 
that have been served up to us by what are called the ladies’ novels 
of the period. I will make a few extracts. 


Lying in Ambush.— At Kobis, one of the nearest stations to N’gami, 
Andersson had, he himself tells us, his surfeit of shooting. On this and 
many other occasions he adopted a system of hunting that in South-west 
Africa, during the dry season, is especially successful, namely, to lie in 
ambush at night near to some pool. During the daytime the larger animals 
are dispersed over a wide tract of country, sometimes of many miles in 
extent, but at night they resort to the water to quench their thirst; and if 
at such times the hunter knows his business, he has the opportunity of 
obtaining much large game. These night-haunts, however, are attended 
with greater peril than those by day. Andersson was accustomed to 
ensconce himself in a so-called skarm or screen, that is, a small circular 
enclosure, six or eight feet in diameter, the walls usually consisting of loose 
stones, being about two feet in height; but this afforded him scarcely any 
protection, and he must, besides, if he would count on a sure shot, allow the 
beast to approach to within a few paces before firing. We believe that the 
hunter is never so unprotected against savage animals as in such nocturnal 
combats. Andersson, indeed, on the first night of his stay in Kobis, was, 
on three several occasions, in imminent peril of his life. First came an 
elephant, without his being aware of his approach, and with lowered trunk 
stood directly over him: that he could save himself as he did, by throwing 
himself backwards on the ground and discharging his piece upwards at 
random, is what could only happen once in a thousand times. A while 
afterwards, he shot at and wounded a black rhinoceros; and when subse- 
quently he left the skirm to look after another of those animals he had fired 
at and struck, he was fiercely attacked by the first rhinoceros, cast headlong 
to the earth, and had his right thigh ripped up. Lastly, when at sunrise, 
he attempted to aid his boy, Kamapyu, who, whilst searching for his master, 
was attacked by the same beast, Andersson again escaped death, as by a 
miracle: for just as he was on the point of being impaled on its sharp horn, 
the rhinoceros fell dead from its numerous wounds.”—P. ix. 


3346 THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1873. 


Almost in the following page we find an account of an evening 
call, which terminated in a manner perfectly satisfactory to the 
visited, and relieved the visitor from the necessity of complaining 
of his reception. 


An Evening Call after Bed-time.—* This little expedition was not without 
its sporting result. One night he chanced to fall asleep in his skarm, when 
his mind became impressed with a confused sense of danger: whilst between 
sleeping and waking, he could not make out the nature of the peril; but on 
coming fully to himself, he distinctly heard the breathing of an animal 
immediately near his place of concealment, and a sound somewhat resembling 
the purring of a cat. A lion had crept close up to him as quietly as possible, 
but still not unnoticed by his dangerous neighbour. Andersson seized his 
gun, which was lying ready close by his side, aimed at the dark heap before 
him, and fired. The beast’s roarings and convulsive movements showed 
plainly that the ball had told. It was not, however, until daylight, that 
Andersson yentured forth from his skarm to ascertain the effect of his shot; 
when he found, to his great satisfaction, the lion lying dead at no great 
distance.”—P. xii. 


Returning for a moment to lying in ambush, I think it is impos- 
sible not to differ from our traveller as to the advantages of studying 
Nature in a moonlight ambush. 


Moonlight Ambush.—* A moonlight ambush by a pool, well frequented 
by wild animals, is worth all the other modes of enjoying a gun put 
together. In the first place there is something mysterious and thrilling in 
finding oneself the secret and unsuspected spectator of the wild movements, 
habits and propensities of the denizens of Nature’s varied and wonderful 
menagerie,—no high feeding, no barred gates, no harsh and cruel keeper's 
voice having yet enervated, damped or destroyed the elasticity, buoyancy and 
frolicsomeness of animal life. And then the intense excitement between 
each expected arrival! The distant footstep, now heard distinctly rattling 
over a rugged surface, now gently vibrating on the strained ear as it treads 
on softer ground: it may be that of a small antelope or an elephant, of a 
wild boar or a rhinoceros, of a gnu or a giraffe, of a jackal ora lion. And 
then what opportunities present themselves of observing the habits and 
peculiarities of each species, and even of individuals; to say nothing of the 
terrible battles that take place, and can so rarely be witnessed in the day- 
time. I have certainly learnt more of the untamed life of savage beasts in 
a single night's tableau vivant than during months of toilsome wanderings 
in the broad light of the sun.”—P. xv. 


I fear some critic will exclaim that these paragraphs are very 
unornithological; but how can I help this? the author has written 


THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1873. 3347 


them, his able Editor has reproduced them, and I have enjoyed 
them: why, then, should I hesitate to reprint them for the delecta- 
tion of my readers? But I must bid adieu to this warfare between 
the aggressor and the aborigines, only observing that I fail to see 
the advantage of making so heavy a bag of rhinoceros. I have more 
than once been asked the question, when butterfly hunting in the 
Herefordshire woods, “ Are they good to eat?” I would fain ask 
the rhinoceros-hunter who slays these cumbersome brutes in this 
wholesale manner, “ Are they good to eat?” but it were to no pur- 
pose: he has removed to a country whence no answer is returned. 
Andersson’s career, however, is far from being one of indiscriminate 
slaughter. He paid great attention to Natural History for its own 
sake, especially to the nesting and migration of birds—attention 
which is only possible for one who is almost a resident: the con- 
linuous observations necessary for this are denied to the hasty 
traveller who passes rapidly from site to site, from ocean to ocean, 
well knowing that hereafter he will see each no more: we are, there- 
fore, especially indebted to a man who has devoted his time and 
- talents to such observations as those which follow. The connection 
of insect-life with migration, a subject misunderstood or overlooked 
by our earlier naturalists, is simply and clearly set before us in an 
admirable passage which cannot be studied too attentively by our 
rising ornithologists. 


Breeding Season.—* The pairing and breeding season of birds in Damara, 
Namaqua, and parts adjacent, depends much, if not entirely, on the falling 
of the rains; that is, the breeding season is late or early according to late 
or early rains. From November to May is probably the chief period of 
incubation ; but very many birds pair as early as September: owls, bee- 
eaters and grouse are amongst the earliest breeders. Near the sea-coast, or 
gather those portions of it where the periodical rivers have their embouchures, 
the breeding season is somewhat different, or, perhaps it would be more 
correct to say, occurs later in the year. The cause is simple: rain rarely or 
never falls in those parts; and it is not until long after the rivers (having 
their sources and origin in the distant interior) have subsided, that the 
Scanty vegetation recovers from its ‘torpor ;’ and with it returns the insect- 
life, which enables the parent birds to seek and obtain suitable sustenance 
for their tender broods. The moulting season begins with the return of the 
wet season. It is during the rainy time of the year that the greatest variety 
of birds is to be observed ; for, though all but deserts during the dry season, 
Damara and Namaqua Land, from their peculiar positions, &c., are then a 
regular paradise to the feathered tribes, the insect- and reptile-life being at 


8348 THE ZooLoGistT—JANUARY, 1873. 


that period exceedingly prolific. Swarms of migratory hawks and kites may 
then be observed in pursuit of the myriads of Termites which at this season 
infest the air, but at the same time brighten it, as it were, with innumerable 
silvery dots and streaks, as their gorgeous wings and white bodies encounter 
the fiery sunlight. Here and there a flock of storks may be observed busily 
chasing the devastating locusts, or performing graceful gyrations in the air ; 
and whilst the temporary rain-pools often abound with rare and handsome 
water-fowl, the shores are frequented by the elegant heron, the lively sand- 
piper, the graceful avocet, and the gorgeous flamingo. The Atlantic on the 
west, the Orange River to the south, the Okavango River, and the Lake 
N’gami, with the watersheds to the north and east, contribute chiefly to these 
large and varied annual incursions and migrations.”—P. xxix. 
It will be seen that all these passages are from the introductory 
portion of the work: I now proceed to the systematic part, in which 
the species are treated sertalim, and shall make a few more extracts 
before I close the book: the quotations are all from the earlier part 
of the volume, and these give a better and more impartial view than 
had I culled the sensational only; indeed those who seek this 
element in Natural History will I trust be satisfied with the per- 
sonal adventures already selected from the Introduction. It is im- 
possible to read the selections which follow without perceiving that 
the writer was as careful and guarded in his conclusions as he was 
diligent and untiring in observing. The readers of the ‘ Zoologist’ 
will be sure to recollect the once-attractive controversy between 
Waterton and certain American ornithologists on the question 
whether in its search for carrion the vulture is led by the eye or 
by the nose. Waterton’s admirable papers read as fresh as when 
they were written, but one feels it impossible to go with him in all 
his conclusions. It is difficult to believe that if the vulture is led 
by scent alone, he would indulge in those aérial gyrations which 
have attracted the notice of all travellers: when distance has 
reduced him to a mere speck in the sky, a mote in the sunbeam, he 
will infallibly descend to a éarcase from which life has even recently 
departed; the scent of the dead animal could scarcely ascend to 
those upper regions of air: there must have been the exercise of a 
second sense, and most probably that of sight. Waterton’s great 
talent for sarcasm often amuses without convincing, and we are 
willing to enjoy his satire when we fail to see the force of his 
reasoning: Andersson graphically records his experience, and 
leaves his readers at liberty to draw their own conclusions. The 
manner in which his vultures followed each other reminds one of 


THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1873. 3349 


the conduct of hounds when one has given tongue: it is no longer 
necessary that each should hit the scent; with the majority it 
becomes a game of “ follow the leader.” 


Led by the Nose.—*I believe naturalists are not quite agreed as to 
whether vultures hunt by sight, by scent, or by both faculties combined. I 
have myself no doubt that they employ the one sense as well as the other 
in finding their prey, though I feel inclined to give sight the preference ; 
and I had once a very striking proof of how they employ their vision in 
guiding them to carrion,—in this instance, however, not so much by the 
actual sight of the carrion (though the first discovery probably originated in 
that way) as by another singular contrivance. Early one morning—as I 
was toiling up the ascent of a somewhat elevated ridge of hills, with the view 
of obtaining bearings for my travelling-map, and before arriving at the 
summit—lI observed several vultures desdending near me; but thinking I 
had merely disturbed them from their lofty perch, I did not take any 
particular notice of their appearance, as the event was one of usual 
occurrence; but on gaining my destination I found that the birds were not 
coming merely from the hill-summit, but from an indefinite distance on the 
other side. This circumstance, coupled with the recollection that I had 
‘wounded a zebra on the preceding day, in the direction towards which the 
vultures were winging their way, caused me to pay more attention. The 
flight of the vultures was low, at least five hundred to a thousand feet below 
the summit of the mountain; and on arriving near the base they would 
abruptly rise, without deviating from their direct course; and no sooner was 
the obstacle in their way thus surmounted than they again depressed their 
flight. Those vultures which I saw could not have themselves seen the 
carrion, but simply hunted in direct sight of one another. There was a 
numerous arrival; and although I could not always detect the next bird, as 
soon as I lost sight of the previous one, yet, when at length it did come 
into view, it never seemed uncertain about its course. Having finished my 
observations I descended, and proceeded in the direction which the vultures 
had pursued; and after about half an hour’s rapid walking, I found, as I 
anticipated, the carcase of a zebra, with a numerous company of vultures 
busily discussing it.”—P. 3. 


The next passage, treating of the numbers of a hawk which is of 
excessive rarity in this country, would exceed all belief, but for the 
strictly trustworthy character of the writer. One is lost in wonder 
in endeavouring to solve the question, “ Where can such a host 
of birds of prey find food?” But the solution appears simple 
when we hear it: they feed exclusively, or nearly so, on white ants 
and locusts, and the supply of both these insects is inexhaustible. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. c 


8350 THE ZooLocistT—JANvARY, 1873. 


Abundance of Falco vespertinus.— This pretty falcon strongly resembles 
the hobby, both in form and habits, but is much more numerous. It usually 
arrives in Damara and Great Namaqua Land about the rainy season, and 
again retires northwards upon the approach of the dry season. During these 
annual visits it is exceedingly abundant, and may be counted by hundreds 
and by thousands; nay, their numbers at times exceed all belief. On one © 
particular occasion a friend of mine and myself attempted to form a rough 
approximation to the number of these birds actually within sight, and of the 
black- and yellow-billed kites, with which they appeared to be mixed up in 
about equal proportions. Taking a small section of the sky, we came to 
the conclusion, by counting and estimating, that there were at least ten 
thousand individuals ; and, as the heavens above and all around us appeared 
to be darkened by a living mass of kites and hawks, we set down the aggre- 
gate number, immediately within our view, at fifty thousand, feeling at the 
same time that we were probably below the mark.”—P. 15. 


Still more remarkable than these multitudes of hawks, is the 
discovery of a bird of prey (Machzramphus Anderssoni of Gurney) 
which feeds exclusively on bats. 

Hawk Feeding on Bats.—“On the 10th March, 1865, I obtained one 
specimen, a female, of this singular bird, at Objimbinque, Damara Land. 
It was shot by my servant, who observed another,—probably the male: I 
imagine that I have myself observed it once or twice in the neighbourhood 
of Objimbinque just before dusk. When brought to me, I instinctively 
suspected the bird to be a feeder at dusk or at night, and called out: “ Why, 
that fellow is likely to feed on bats!” And, truly enough, so it turned out; 
for on dissection an undigested bat was found in the stomach. And in 
another specimen, subsequently killed by Axel, there were several bats in 
the stomach.”—P. 23. 

We now arrive at a bird whose figure and character are familiar 
to every ornithologist, although he may not have made acquaint- 
ance with the living bird. The existence of such birds as the 
secretary and the gariame seem to me exactly the link required to 
support my view of the arrangement of birds, in which I proposed 
to make the gymnogenous Gralle follow the Accipitres. One 
always likes to find a support to a favourite crotchet, even though 
it be no stronger than a reed; but neither our Author nor his 
Editor alludes to that guestio vexala—the natural arrangement of 
birds: and the pen-and-ink sketch I am about to cite has a 
different merit and attraction: it is from the life. 

Le Mangeur de Serpents The secretary bird is found sparingly in 
Great Namaqua and Damara Land, and on the plains of Ondonga in the 


THE ZooLoctist—JaNuarRy, 1873. 3351 


Ovampo country: it also occurs about Lake Ngami. It spends most of its 
time upon the ground, rarely, if ever, taking to the wing; and if compelled 
to do so, it is only for very short flights, as it seems to prefer seeking its 
safety by means of its long legs, which are admirably adapted for running. 
’ Its swiftness is wonderful, and it actually seems to skim the ground when 
briskly pursued ; sometimes, however, this confidence in its legs costs the 
bird its life, when the well-mounted horseman, aware of its terrestrial 
propensities, steadily pursues it, until it becomes too much exhausted to avail 
itself of its wings, and ultimately falls a prey to its enemy. When undis- 
turbed it usually stalks about with considerable ease, grace, and dignity ; 
but it is difficult to approach, as its long legs and neck, and its habit of 
frequenting open and exposed localities, enable it to espy an enemy at a 
great distance, and thus to guard against any sudden surprise. When seen 
making steadily for a particular point, it may sometimes be successfully cut 
off by pressing forward rapidly across its path, as on such occasions, instead 
of deviating from its straight course, it trusts to its legs for outstripping its 
pursuer by holding on at all risks,—in this respect resembling the ostrich. 
The food of the secretary bird is very various, consisting of snakes, lizards, 
tortoises, mice, rats, insects of almost every kind, and even young birds; 
but these latter, I believe, it only devours when distressed by hunger; for 
amongst the old Dutch colonists it was frequently kept in captivity as an 
excellent mediator in the poultry-yard, as well as a protector to the young 
fowls from the attacks of snakes, rats, &c. Many snakes show fight when 
attacked by the secretary bird ; and it is a most amusing and ludicrous sight 
to witness a combat between such different opponents; the bird, however, 
invariably comes off victorious, after a short but desperate resistance: the 
reptile hisses and darts at the secretary, which not only skilfully wards off 
the attack, but, by a rapid succession of violent blows from its formidably- 
armed wings, generally succeeds in a short time in prostrating its wily 
enemy ; and sometimes a well-directed blow on the vertebree of the snake at 
once ends the combat. As soon as this is accomplished the bird dexterously 
seizes its fallen enemy in its bill, and, after having well tossed it backwards 
and forwards, finally puts an end to the death-struggle by transfixing the 
brain with its powerful beak.”—P. 34. 


One more quotation, and I have done; too happy if I have 
succeeded in inducing others to purchase a work that has been so 
amusing and instructive to myself. I cannot close the volume 
without bearing my testimony to the skill and thoroughness with 
which the Editor has performed his part of the task. It is fitting 
that an energetic and enterprising man, like Andersson, should 
have such a monument built to his memory by so able an architect 
as Mr. Gurney. 


3352 THE ZOOLOGIST—JANUARY, 1873. 


A Climbing Hoopoe (Trrisor erythrorhynchus).—* It lives in small flocks, 
probably consisting of entire families which frequent trees, chiefly of the 
larger kinds, and examine them most assiduously in search of insects and 
their larve, which they extract from crevices in the wood and from beneath 
the bark. These birds climb like woodpeckers, and their long tails come 
into constant contact with the rough surface of the trees, by which the tail- 
feathers are much injured. When they have finished their examination of 
one tree, they move to the next convenient one; but not all together, as a 
short interval generally elapses after the departure of each individual. The 
moment flight is decided on, they utter harsh discordant cries or chatterings, 
which are continued until they are safely lodged in their new quarters: 
these harsh notes are also heard when they conceive themselves in danger 
from either man, beast, or bird; and they thus often betray their presence.” 
—P. 65. 

Epwarp NEWMAN. 


The Chinese Stag lately at the Zoological Gardens. 


[The interest excited by the arrival, residence and death of the Chinese 
stag at the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park justifies the reprinting of 
the very elaborate description and details respecting him which appeared in 
the ‘ Transactions of the Zoological Society’ for 1871. It is from the pen: 
of the talented Secretary, Mr. Sclater, and forms part of a valuable paper 
«On certain Species of Deer now or lately living in the Society’s Menagerie.” 
The death of this stag, from acute inflammation of the intestines, was 
announced in the September number of the ‘ Zoologist,’ and nothing remains 
for us but to regret a loss which we cannot suppose will be readily repaired. 
It gives one rather an exalted idea of those Emperors of China, who main- 
tained hundreds, or probably thousands, of these noble animals expressly 
for the chase.— Edward Newman. | 


Tuis fine animal is one of the many zoological discoveries which 
are due to the researches of M. le Pére Armand David, Missionary 
of the Congregation of Lazarists at Pekin, an active correspondent 
of the Museum of Natural History of the Jardin des Plantes, and a 
Correspondent Member of this Society. M. David first made known 
the existence of this deer in 1865, in a letter addressed to Professor 
Milne-Edwards, having become acquainted with it by looking over 
the wall of the Imperial Hunting Park, in which it is kept in a 
semi-domestic state. This park is situated about two miles south 
of Pekin, and is called the Nan-hai-tsze, or “Southern Marsh.” No 


THE ZooLocisT—JANUARY, 1873. 3353 


European is allowed to enter it. It is stated to contain deer of 
different species, and herds of Antilope gutturosa, besides the 
Elaphures. M. David saw from the wall more than a hundred of 
the last-named animal, which he describes as resembling a “ long- 
tailed reindeer with very large horns.” At that time he was 
unable, in spite of every effort, to get specimens of it; but, being 
acquainted with some of the Tartar soldiers who mounted guard in 
the park, subsequently succeeded in obtaining the examples upon 
which M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards founded his description of this 
remarkable animal. Shortly after this M. Henri de Bellonet, Chargé 
d’Affaires of the French Legation at Pekin, managed to procure a 
pair of Elaphures from the Imperial Park, and kept them for nearly 
two years ina court near the Embassy in that city. Upon his 
return to Paris, in the summer of 1867, M. de Bellonet, having 
heard of our applications to our correspondents at Pekin to obtain 
living examples of this animal, was kind enough to place this pair 
at the disposal of the Society upon our undertaking the expense of 
their removal to this country. This the Council willingly agreed 
to, and application was at once made to H. E. Sir Rutherford 
Alcock and our other correspondents at Pekin to make arrange- 
ments for their transport. Unfortunately, however, these animals 
died before this could be effected; but the skin and skeleton of the 
male were carefully preserved under Sir Rutherford Alcock’s 
directions, and forwarded to the Society along with two pairs of the 
shed horns of the same animal. They were exhibited at our 
meeting on November 12, 1868, after which the skin was deposited 
in the British Museum and the skeleton and horns in the Museum 
of the Royal College of Surgeons. Meanwhile Sir Rutherford 
Alcock lost no time in making application to the Chinese 
authorities for other specimens, and, after interviews with Prince 
Kung and other high officials, ultimately succeeded in procuring 
several young pairs, one of which reached the Society’s Gardens 
in perfect health and condition on the 2nd of August last. The 
general aspects of the Elaphure is much more like that of the true 
Cervi than I had anticipated from the description and figure of 
M. Milne-Edwards. ‘The only two very noticeable points of dis- 
tinction, besides the horns of the male, which are not at present 
shown in our animals, are the rather larger and heavier legs, the 
longer and more expanding toes, and the long tail. The latter 
character, however, seems to me to have been somewhat exaggerated 


3354 THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1873. 


in M. Milne-Edward’s figures, the tail in our specimen not nearly 
reaching the hocks, and, though of somewhat different form, being 
really little, if any, longer than that of the fallow deer and some of 
the American deer (such as Cervus virginianus), The muffle of 
Elaphurus, as M. Milne-Edwards has already stated, is quite naked 
and moist, as in the true Cervi. The lachrymal sinus is small, and 
the eye also remarkably small. The muzzle is terminated by a 
good many straggling bristles, as in C. Duvaucelli. The insides of 
the ears in this deer are very closely filled with dense hairs. 
I cannot ascertain positively whether the usual gland on the outer 
side of the metatarsus is present or not in this deer; but it is 
certainly not very highly developed. On the whole, I find no 
character to take this species out of the genus Cervus as I think 
it ought to be understood. The Elaphure is no doubt very distinct 
in the form of its horns from any other described species of the 
genus, and should be placed in a section by itself, just as Rusa, 
Axis, Hyelaphus, and the numerous other (so-called) genera of some 
authors. Those who regard these subordinate groups as generic 
will likewise use Elaphurus as a genus. To me its nearest ally 
seems to be perhaps the Barasingha (C. duvaucelli), which has 
likewise a long muzzle terminated with outstanding hairs, and 
rather long expanding toes. Like the Barasingha, the Elaphure » 
is in all probability an inhabitant of marshes and wet grounds. 
Mr. Swinhoe informs me that the young Cervus Davidianus is 
spotted with white like other true Cervi at its birth, and retains the 
spotted dress about three months, when these markings gradually 
disappear. 


Ornithological Notes from Norfolk. 
By Henry STEVENSON, and J. H. GuRNEY, jun., Esqrs, 


(Continued from Zool. 8, $. 3320.) 


OCTOBER. 

Redlegged Partridge.—A young redlegged partridge, with white 
or whitish wings, was shot near here on the 7th, but being unfor- 
tunately absent when it was brought to my house I did not see 
it.—G. 

Marsh Harrier.—An immature male, with yellow head, was shot 
at Hickling on the 12th. (See Gunn, Zool. 8.8. 3323.) 


Tue ZooLtocist—Janvuary, 1873. $355 


Gannet.—Several were shot off Yarmouth during the early part 
of the month.—G. 

Great Gray Shrike.—A male was shot at Burgh, near Yarmouth, 
on the 23rd. (See Zool. S. 8. 3323.) 

Pomatorhine Skua.—Three seen off Yarmouth on the 8th.—G. 

Mealy Redpoll.—An adult male, with rosy breast and rich car- 
mine patch on the head, was netted at Yarmouth on the 8th, with 
common linnets. This species has not been seen by our bird- 
catchers for several winters. . 

Teal.—On the 10th one was found in the village, dead, from no 
apparent cause, and where one would have least expected such a 
bird.—G. 

Redthroated Diver.—A fine example, with the red throat of the 
summer plumage still perfect, and only a few white feathers show- 
ing in the region of the eyes and bill, was brought to Norwich on 
the 8th. This bird was in such a state of moult that it could not 
have flown, having shed all its old primary quills, and the new 
ones being too short for use. 

Gray Phalarope.—One seen on the 12th at Yarmouth, swimming 
in the breakers, just off the south denes.—G. 

Slorm Petrel.—Three specimens were sent to Norwich for 
preservation on the 2nd; and on the 12th a quantity were seen by 
Mr. Preston, outside the Scroby sand, at Yarmouth.—G. 

Peregrine.—On the 17th the keeper saw a peregrine.—G. 

Blackbird.—On the 19th a handsome pied blackbird was sent 
to Mr. Gunn from Weston.—G. 

Quail.—A single bird was sent to Norwich, to be stuffed, in the 
last week of this month. 

Jackdaw.—On the 24th I saw a pied jackdaw in the flesh, at 
Mr. Cole’s, and was informed that it had been in confinement 
eighteen years.—G. 

Partridges attracted by Gas-lights.—On the 24th five English 
partridges flew violently against the back of a house in Davey 
Place, close to the Norwich market. It was getting dusk at the 
time, about half-past five in the afternoon. These birds, most 
likely flushed outside the city, were evidently attracted by gas- 
lights in a room at the back of the house, and dashed, both 
against the window and wall, with force enough to stun themselves. 
They fell on a lean-to roof beneath, from whence two were taken 
in a landing-net, one recovered and flew away, and two, scrambling 


3356 THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1873. 


into the yard below, were also captured. Not the least remarkable 
part of the story is the fact of their choosing a bird-stuffer’s house 
for this rash act. 

Swift.—I saw the last swift at Thorpe market on the 8rd.—G. 

Little Bittern—On the 15th a little bittern was shot near 
Bungay, by Mr. Mann.—G. 

Cromer Lighthouse—On the 4th a willow wren and about 
twenty sky larks flew against the lighthouse. Also the keeper 
caught an owl, which may either have been attracted by the light, 
or by the larks, which were fluttering against the light. On the 5th 
a goldcrest; wind N.E. On the 7th a starling and two thrushes ; 
W.S.W., cloudy and misty. The former was killed, the latter got 
away. Many birds strike the glass, but have strength left to get 
away: on the 10th a jack snipe, which had done so I have no 
doubt, was picked up in a garden at the foot of the hill on which 
the lighthouse stands. On the 20th two goldcrests—S.W., fog ; 
their gizzards were empty, as if they had come off a long voyage— 
and a very good immature ring ouzel. On the 24th, a wren and a 
robin; S.S.W. On the 28th, a chaffinch; W.S.W., gloomy.—G. 

Shoveler Duck.—A young female, no doubt bred in this county, 
was sent up to Norwich during the first week of this month. 

Autumn Migrants—On the 7th, gray crows were seen off 
Cromer, by a gentleman who was fishing at sea. The same day 
they were first seen off Yarmouth, where some settled on the 
paddle-box of a steamer, exbausted with their long flight; and 
hundreds of rooks, and larks, and starlings, together with a few 
jackdaws and three tree sparrows, were observed about twenty 
miles from the shore, the wind being from the east, all bent on the 
same errand,—the accomplishment of the great autumnal migra- 
tion. On the 11th, the same observer writes that there was a check 
in the migratory tide:—“ No small birds crossing, only a few 
rooks; I suppose they knéw of the gale of wind that was coming 
on; I saw two drowned rooks about twenty miles from the land.” 
But on the 14th, being again at sea from 4 A.M. until 8 P.M., he 
saw more :—“ There were rooks, gray crows, starlings, larks, chaf- 
finches, and tree sparrows, crossing, but the day being fine they 
did not seem tired; and the only birds that came to rest on board 
were a few tree sparrows.” Iam well aware that this species will 
not unfrequently alight on vessels in the North Sea, and occasion- 
ally in great flocks.—G. 


THE ZooLocist—JANUARY, 1873. 8357 


Catalogue of the Whales and Dolphins (Cetacea) inhabiting or 
incidentally visiting the Seas surrounding the British Islands, 
By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., &c. 


THE study of the cetaceous animals of these islands has been 
gradually improving, and although I believe we have much to learn, 
yet we have a better knowledge of them than of the whales of 
any other country; no doubt this is partly owing to our insular 
position. The accounts of these animals:in our British Faunas are 
mere compilations, and Dr. Fleming is the only author of such a 
work who appears to have seen a British whale in the flesh. 
Turton, in 1807, indicates eighteen species, which are reduced by 
Fleming (in 1828) to sixteen, and by Jenyns (in 1835) and Bell (in 
1837) to fourteen species, the latter regarding three or four speci- 
mens which had been treated as distinct species by other authors, 
as a single species, without any more reason than his predecessors 
had had for separating them. In the ‘Annals and Magazine of 
Natural History’ for 1846 (xvii. p. 82) I gave a list of the British 
Cetacea, containing seventeen species, which I had the opportunity 
of personally examining, either entire or in osteological remains, 
sufficient to enable me to determine them. In this paper I record 
for the first time as British, Megaptera longimana (erroneously 
printed “longipinna”), Lagenorhynchus albirostris, and Grampus 
Cuvierii, considering it and Delphinus Rissoanus and D. griseus as 
the same species. In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ 
for 1847 (p. 117) I published some additional observations on the 
“Cetacea of the British Islands,” in which I pointed out how the 
skeleton of Dr. Knox’s Balena maxima-borealis differed from that 
of Physalus Antiquorum, and should be called Physalus borealis, 
which Prof. Turner has lately shown is the same as P. Sibbaldii. 
In the ‘ Proceedings of the Zoological Society’ for 1864 I published 
a paper on the “Cetacea which have been observed in the Seas 
surrounding the British Islands,” in which I attempted to condense 
all the original matter in the various works on the British whales 
and dolphins and the results of my examination of all the specimens 
I could collect. In this paper I described thirty species, belonging 
to twenty genera, and illustrated it with figures of the more cha- 
racteristic bones. More lately Professors Flower, Turner and 
Burmeister have paid much attention to the anatomy of these 
animals. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. “D 


3358 THE ZooLocist—JANUARY, 1873. 


The French and Belgian naturalists are very far behind in the 
knowledge of these animals, as is proved by the names of the plates 
in the ‘ Ostéographie de Cétacés, and especially by the text of the 
‘Whalebone Whales,’ by M. Van Beneden, which is the only part 
of the text printed. M. Eschricht did some good work on the 
common arctic whales, but he wanted specimens, and was very fond 
of theoretical speculations from very few materials. Lillejeborg, 
in the ‘ Nova Acta Upsal.’ (1867), described all the Swedish whales, 
translating the British Museum Catalogue of Cetacea, as far as 
it regards the Swedish species, and making additions to it; Prof. 
Malm, in the Konigl. Svensk. Akad. Handl.’ (ix. 1870) has described 
all the specimens of Cetacea and their bones which are in the 
Swedish Museums: he uses the ‘ Catalogue of Cetacea in the British 
Museum’ as the basis of his work, and describing some new species 
and figuring them, and specimens of parts not before described or 
figured; and they certainly are the two best foreign authors on this 
subject. I think this shows that the English zoologists hold a good 
place among the students of Cetacea. 

It may be observed that the number of Cetacea found in England 
is much greater than those recorded on the Continent; thus Nilsson, 
in his Scandinavian Fauna, only enumerates sixteen, and Schlegel, 
in his ‘Fauna of Holland,’ only ten species, against the English 
thirty; but no doubt this arises from their having been more in- 
dustriously collected and carefully observed in this country. Since 
1864 I have examined many specimens and their skeletons, and 
been able to define the characters of the genera and species more 
accurately and to obtain more knowledge of their geographical 
distribution ; by this means I have increased the number of species 
to thirty-three. 

Whales and dolphins chiefly live and exclusively breed in 
sheltered bays and in shallow waters on the shores or over raised 
banks in the ocean. The deep ocean appears to be a barrier which 
only stragglers pass, a circumstance entirely overlooked by M. Van 
Beneden, in his ‘Geographical Distribution of Whalebone Whales,’ 
who believes that each species inhabits a defined belt across the 
ocean. The species which inhabit and chiefly breed in the Arctic 
Seas migrate southwards, some individuals keeping to the eastern 
or European, and others to the western or American hemisphere, so 
that some species of these whales are found on the shores of both 
Europe and America. The species that live and breed in the 


THE ZooLoctst—JANvuARY, 1873. 3359 


Mediterranean, when they pass out of the Straits of Gibraltar, do 

not at once cross the Atlantic Ocean, as they ought, according to 

Van Beneden’s theory, but naturally, with their desire to keep to 

the shore, come north and keep along the coasts of Portugal, Spain 

and France, until they reach the south coast of England, where the 
greater number have been observed. Some of them pass to the 
east and up the German Ocean, and others to the west coasts of 

Great Britain and Ireland, some even reaching the northern end of 

the gulf-stream. This explains how Petrorhynchus cavirostris, bred 

in the Mediterranean, sometimes occurs at Shetland, and at others 
in the German Ocean. 

Thave used the names as in my Catalogues, and have only added 
a few synonyms, because they are given at length in my ‘ Catalogue 
of Seals and Whales in the British Museum’ (8vo, 1866), with 
numerous figures in the text, and more modern ones in the 
‘Supplement to the Catalogue’ (1871), which are sold at a very 
small price. 

Order CETACEA. 

Teeth all similar, conical, sometimes not developed, when the palate 
is furnished with transverse plates of baleen or whalebone. 
‘Body fish-shaped, smooth, bald. Limbs clawless; fore limbs 
fin-shaped; hinder united, forming a forked horizontal fin. 
Nostrils enlarged into blowers. Teats two inguinal. Car- 
nivorous. 

Section I. MysticeTeEs (or Whalebone Whales).— Head large, de- 
pressed. Teeth rudimentary; they never cut the gums. Palate 
with transverse, fringed, horny plates of baleen. Nostrils 
separate, longitudinal. Gullet very contracted. Tympanic 
bones simple, large, cochleate, attached to an expanding 
peristic bone, which forms part of the skull. 

The whalebone whales, or Mysticetes, inhabiting the northern 
hemisphere, live and breed essentially in the colder parts of it, and 
the southern parts of England seem to be the limits of their migra- 
tion; and the great increase of traffic of ships, and especially steam 
vessels, on the more temperate parts of the sea, appears to restrict 
their visits, and especially their breeding, more to the arctic portion ; 
thus some whales which were formerly said to be common on the 
coast of Britain, as the right whale, no longer visit this country. 

The humpbacked whale (Megaptera), the razor-back (Physalus 
Antiquorum), and the pike whale (Balenoptera rostrata) perhaps 


3360 Tue ZooLocist—JANvuaRY, 1873. 


breed here in the quiet bays; at any rate, they visit this country 
almost every year, the two latter following the herrings and perhaps 
the mackerel, and often ascending the large rivers, the pike whale 
having been found as high up the Thames as London Bridge. 
Perhaps the great northern rorqual (Cuviertus Sibbaldii) and the 
broad-beaked rorqual (Rudolphius laticeps) have the same habit as 
the razor-back, but they have not been so often seen. It is not so 
easy to know the geographical distribution of the gigantic flat-back 
(Sibbaldius borealis), which has only occurred twice, once in the 
southern parts of the Southern Ocean, and again on the south part 
of England. It has never been recorded as found in the North Sea, 
and therefore one is not sure what is its native locality, but one 
may make certain that an animal upwards of a hundred feet long 
does not breed in the much-disturbed German Ocean. The skeleton 
of the adult specimen was exhibited in London, Paris, and other 
European capitals, then in America, from whence it migrated to 
the Crimea, and it is now in the Museum at St. Petersburg. A 
skeleton seen by so many persons in all countries, and figured 
several times, still remains unique, whereas if it had occurred else- 
where it would have attracted attention. Unfortunately, the young 
specimen at Charmouth appears to be lost; it is said to have left 
that place to come to London, but I have not been able to trace it 
further, or to verify the idea that it is the same as the one shown at 
Charing Cross or a species allied to it. 


Sub-order I. BALANOIDEA. 


Head large. Body stout. Dorsal fin none. Chest and belly smooth, 
without plaits. Pectoral fin broad, truncated; fingers five, 
graduated. Arm-bones very short, thick ; radius and humerus 
of equal length. Baleen elongate, slender. Tympanic bones 
rhombic. Cervical vertebre united. 


Family I. Batzninz (Right Whales).—Head very large, and 
body short. Dorsal fin none. Belly smooth. Baleen elongate, 
slender. Vertebre of the neck anchylosed. Pectoral fin broad, 
truncated at the end; fingers five. Tympanic bone rhombic; 
maxillary bones narrow. 

i. BaLzna.—Baleen thin, polished with a thick enamel on each 
side, and a fine elongate slender fringe. Cervical vertebra united 
by their bodies into one mass. 


Tue ZooLocist—JANUARY, 1873. $361 


1. Balena mysticetus (Right Whale).— Inhabits North Seas ; 
Greenland; said formerly to have been an occasional visitor. 
Peterhead, 1682; Sibbald. Zetland; Barclay. Skeleton from 
Greenland (Mus. Roy, Coll. Surg.) and dried foetus (Mus. Hull and 
Liverpool). 

2. Balena britannica. Balena mysticetus, var., Gray, Cat. 
Seals and Whales, 1866, p. 83, fig. 3 (cervical vertebra), copied as 
Balzna biscayensis, Van Beneden, Ostéog. Cetac. t. vii. fig. 7. 
MacLeayius britannicus, Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1870, 
vi. pp. 198 and 204; Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 46.—Inhabits 
British Channel. Cervical vertebra, dredged up at Lyme Regis, 
in the British Museum. 


The British Museum has just received a skeleton of MacLeayius 
australiensis, which shows that there is a very great difference 
between its cervical vertebre and that of M. britannicus from Lyme 
Regis, which has caused me to make it into a different genus. 


Sub-order I]. BAL“ NOPTERIDEA. 


Head moderate. Body elongate. Dorsal fin distinct, rarely 
- wanting. Belly longitndinally plaited, rarely smooth. Baleen 
short, broad. Maxillary bones broad. Pectoral fin lanceolate ; 
arms elongate; radius and ulna much longer than the humerus. 
Fingers four, subequal. Vertebre of the neck free or partially 
united. Tympanic bones oblong or ovate. 


Family Il. Mecarrerip® {(Humpbacked Whales).— Dorsal fin 
low, broad. Pectoral fin very long, with four very long fingers of 
many phalanges. Vertebre 50 or 60. Cervical vertebra often 
anchylosed. Lateral process of the axis rarely ossified. Neural 
canal large, high, triangular. Ribs 14 or 15. 

’ i. MrecapTera.—Blade-bone without acromion or coracoid pro- 
cess. Body of cervical vertebre subcircular. 

1. Megaptera longimana (The Humpback). Inhabits North Sea. 
Newcastle; Johnston. Fcoetus from Greenland (Brit. Mus.) Var. 
Morei, Gray, |. c., p. 122. Inhabits estuary of the Dee. 1863; 
J. More. Skeleton of female (Free Museum, Liverpool). 

ii. Escuricutius. — Blade-bone with large coracoid process. 
Body of cervical yertebre separate, small, roundish oblong. The 
neural canal very broad and high.—Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, 
1866, p. 182, f. 21 (bones). 


3362 THE ZooLocist—JANuaRY, 1873. 


1. Eschrichtius robustus (Grasé Whale). Inhabits North Sea. 
Skeleton found buried in Denmark (Lillejeborg). Coast of Devon- 
shire (fifth vertebra cast ashore, Babbicomb Bay, 1861); Pengelly 
(cast in Brit. Mus.). Not observed in a living state, and may be 
extinct, like several other whales the remains of which are found 
in the alluvian deposits of Holland and Belgium. 


Family II. Paysatrp™ (Finner Whales).—Dorsal fin high, erect, 
compressed, falcate, about three-fourths of the entire length from 
the nose. Pectoral fin moderate, with four short fingers of four or 
six phalanges. Vertebra 55 or 64. Cervical vertebre not anchy- 
losed. Neural canal oblong transverse. 


* Vertebre 60 to 64. First rib single ended. 
? i. BENEDENIA.— Rostrum of skull narrow, attenuated, with 
straight slanting edges. Second cervical vertebra with two short 
truncated lateral processes. The first rib single-headed. 


i= 
Yi} A] } 
iy 


BeyepentA Kyoxr (skull in the British Museum). 


1. Benedenia Knoxii. Inhabits North Sea. Coast of Wales 
(1846, 38 feet long); perhaps the young of Balenoptera Antiquorum, 
as I first described it. 


ii. PaysaLus.—Rostrum of the skull narrow, attenuated, with 
straight sloping sides. Second cervical vertebra with a broad lateral 
process, with a large perforation at the base. Lateral rings as long 
as the diameter of the body of the vertebra. First rib single-headed. 
Sternum trifoliate, with a long slender hind process. Fingers 
shorter than the fore-arm bones. Scapula very broad; acromion 
and coracoid process well developed. 


THE ZooLOGIST—JANUARY, 1873. 3363 


1. Physalus Antiquorum (Razor-back), Flower, P. Z. $., 1869, 
p- 604, pl. 47 (male). Ribs 14—14.—Inhabits North Sea. Visits 
the British seas annually. Coast of Hampshire, 1842. Plymouth, 
1831 (skeleton Brit. Mus.); 1863 (skeleton Alexandra Park). 
Length 60 to 70 feet. I took Eschricht to see the skeleton cast 
ashore at Blackgang Chine in 1842, to try to convince him that it 
was different from the finner whales. 

2. Physalus Dugeridii (Orkney Whale), Heddle, P. Z. S., 1836, 
p- 187, f.44,45. Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 158, figs. 33—35. 
—Inhabits North Sea. Orkneys; Heddle. Cervical and dorsal 
vertebre and baleen in Brit. Mus. Length 50 fect. ; 

iii. Cuvrertus.— Rostrum of the skull broad, the outer sides 
arched, especially in front. The second cervical vertebra with two 
short thick lateral processes. First rib single-headed. Sternum 
oblong-ovate, transverse. Hands elongate; fingers slender; second 
finger much longer than the fore-arm bone. Scapula with a broad 
acromion and rudimentary coracoid. 

1. Cuvierius Sibbaldii (Great Northern Rorqual), Knox, Jardine’s 
Library, t. vi. B. borealis, Gray. C. latirostris, Flower, P. Z.S., 
1864, p.410; Gray,l.c.,p.165. Physalus Sibbaldii, Gray, 1.c., 110, 
fig. 36. Balenoplera Sibbaldii, Van Beneden, Ostéog. Cetac. t. xii. 
and xiii. fig. 25 to 34. B. Caroline, Malm, t. 44.—Inhabits North 
Sea. North Berwick, 1831; Know (skeleton in Mus. Edinburgh). 
Humber (skeleton of young, 50 feet long, in Mus. Hull). Lon- 
donderry ; Turner. In 1847 I had the opportunity of examining 
the skeleton of a large male whale, 78 feet long, which Dr. Knox 
described as Balena maxima-borealis, then suspended in the 
Zoological Gardens, Edinburgh, and pointed out its difference 
from the skeleton of Physalus Antiquorum, and proposed to call it 
P. borealis (P. Z. S. 1847, p. 117). Professor Turner, who has 
lately had the opportunity of examining the skeleton more closely, 
Says it is the same as Cuvierius Sibbaldii. 


** Verlebre 58—60. First and second ribs double-headed; second 
cervical vertebra with a broad lateral process perforated at 
the base. Lower jaw compressed with distinct coronoid 
process. 

iv. Rupo.puius.— Dorsal fin compressed falcate, two-thirds the 
entire length from the nose. Ribs 13—13; first rib short, dilated 
at the external end. Sternum elongate, not narrow at the posterior 


$364 THE ZooLocist—JANUARY, 1873. 


lobe. Fingers elongate, the second finger rather shorter than the 
fore-arm bone. Scapula very broad, with a large broad acromion 
process and a moderate coracoid one. 

1. Rudolphius laticeps (Broad-beaked Rorqual), Gray, Synopsis 
Whales and Dolphins, p.3. Szbbaldius laticeps, Gray, 1.¢., p. 170, 
figs. 37, 38 (skull and ribs).—Inhabits North Sea between Holland 
and England. Skeleton Mus. Berlin (31 feet long) and Leyden. 

v. SIBBALDIUs.—Dorsal fin very small, far behind, and placed on 
a thick prominence. Ribs 14—14; first short sternal end very 
broad and deeply notched.” Sternum trifoliate, with a short broad 
hinder lobe. Scapula broad, with very long acromion and short 
slender coracoid process. Fingers —? J 

1. Sibbaldius borealis (Flat-back). Balenoptera boops, Yarrell, 
P.Z.S., 1840, p.11. B.tenuirostris, Sweeting, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1840, 
iv. p.342.—Inhabits German Ocean between Belgium and England; 
1827 (skeleton now at St. Petersburg, 102 feet long). British 
Channel, Charmouth, Dorsetshire, 1840 (female 41 feet long). 


Family III. BaL2znoprrrip& (Pike Whales).—Dorsal fin high, 
erect, compressed about two-thirds of the entire length from the 
nose. Pectoral fin moderate, with four short fingers. Vertebre 50; 
cervical vertebra sometimes anchylosed. Neural canal broad, 
trigonal. Ribs 11—11. The second cervical vertebra with a broad 
lateral expansion, perforated at the base. First rib single-headed. 
Lower jaw with a conical coronoid process. 

i. BALZNOPTERA.—The lower lateral processes of the third to 
the seventh cervical vertebre with an angular projection on the 
lower edge. Fingers short, the length of the fore-arm bone. 
Scapula broad ; acromion and coracoid elongate, slender. 

1. Balenoptera rostrata (Pike Whale). Balena minor, Knox. 
—Inhabits North Sea, ascending rivers. ‘Thames, common; 
Humber, &c. Stuffed specimen (British Museum). This species 
is at once known by its small size, and the large white patch on 
the upper surface at the base of the pectoral fin. 


J. E. Gray. 
(To be continued.) 


An American Fossil Lion.—Professor Leidy has described a new species 
of lion, under the name of Felis augustus, from fragments of teeth and jaws 
found in Nebraska. It is about the size of a large tiger. 


THE ZooLoGisT—JANUARY, 1873. 3365 


Otters near Plymouth.—Not long since a large otter was seen close to an 
enclosed pool kept as a store-pond for marine animals intended for the 
Crystal Palace Aquarium. Otters are not at all uncommon among the rocks 
in Plymouth Sound, and I well remember watching one with a telescope 
for a quarter of an hour as it was fishing in the sea quite fifty yards from 
the shore. It swam about in a kind of circle, constantly diving just like a 
cormorant, and bringing up a fish almost every time, which if small was 
eaten in the water, but if large was brought to a rock and, there devoured ; 
then the otter would again swim off and fish as befére. During the quarter 
of an hour I saw it catch no less than twelve fish. About a week since a 
friend of mine went to inspect a wreck lying on the rocks in Mount Batten 
Bay, when he observed some boys pelting something with stones, and on 
going to see what it was, he found that they had killed one otter and 
another was at the last gasp. As they were fine animals he purchased 
them both and had them stuffed. No doubt the surf, during the late 
tremendous gales, had driven them from hiding-places among the rocks. 
—John Gatcombe; 8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth, 
December 6, 1872. 

Bats flying at Noon.—Within the last fortnight I have, on five different 
days, observed a shorteared bat flying between the hours of 11 a.m. and 
1.30 p.m. in the bright sunshine, catching insects with the greatest ease, 
and bold enough to come within a yard of my head. I tried several times 
to knock it down when coming towards me, but it always swerved quickly to 
one side. The first time I saw a bat fly in the sunshine was on the 18th 
of March last year at noon. I have noticed that the days were all mild, 
and each time there was a continuous rain during the preceding night. In 
future I shall consider the expression “blind as a bat” to: mean quickness 
of sight.—J. Sclater ; Castle Eden Castle, Durham, November 7, 1872. 

[Other instances have repeatedly been recorded in the ‘ Zoologist. —E. N.] 

Birth of a Rhinoceros in London.—This unprecedented event occurred 
in the London Docks on the evening of the 6th of December, and we learn 
the following particulars from the obliging keeper Mr. John Warncken. 
The two animals, mother and child, are the property of Mr. Rice, naturalist, 
of Grove Street, Commercial Road. The mother was taken in a pitfall, 
and was shipped, with a male of the same species, from Singapore, in the 
steamship “ Orchis.” The ship encountered such heavy seas on the voyage 
that the strong teak cage of the male was broken in, and the occupant was 
either killed or died from injuries received. After a passage of seventy-three 
days, the vessel arrived in the Victoria Docks, and before the survivor could 
be removed from deck she gave birth to this young one. The period of 
gestation, hitherto unknown, has, we believe, now been ascertained to be 
nine months. Mr. Bartlett, of the Zoological Gardens, was at once sent for, 
and under his superintendence the “little stranger” was removed in blankets. 


SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. E 


3366 Tue ZooLocisT—JANUARY, 1878. 


to Mr. Rice's premises. The mother soon afterwards arrived in a van, and 
the young one was fed with her milk. This is the only nourishment it 
takes; but it is so strong and vigorous that it applies to the mother 
repeatedly, and the keeper (who sleeps all night with it) informed us that it 
had sucked no less than seven times during the night previous to our visit. 
Descending some steps into a dark stable, we could see by the dim light of 
a bull’s-eye lantern that the further end had been partitioned off, and covered 
with sacking to exclude the light. In this compartment the old rhinoceros 
was lying down, while the young one, pretty strong on its legs, was walking 
slowly towards us, and making for a square opening that led into a separate 
chamber in which a feather-bed had been placed for its especial benefit. The 
opening through which it entered is too small to admit the mother, although 
the keeper, who shares its feather-bed, informed us that the dam comes to 
the opening and looks in affectionately at her infant while it sleeps. She is 
very quiet, and seems little to think-that with one toss of her strong and 
sharp horn she could send cradle and keeper through the roof of the stable. 
As we peeped in at a small aperture, the keeper holding the light down for 
us, the young one walked up deliberately to the lantern, and gave us an 
excellent view. In appearance it reminds one of the young hippopotamus, 
but has a longer head, and apparently stands higher on its legs. The face 
is bare, with just a rudiment of horn, but the body is covered with black 
hair. The ears are long and directed backwards, although occasionally 
twitched perpendicularly with a quasi-nervous movement.—Correspondent of 
the ‘ Field.’ 

[The species to which this interesting mother and child belong is supposed 
to be R. sumatranus, but there has been such stumbling about the name of 
the two-horned species of Asiatic rhinoceros, that I think it best to say little 
on this head.—_Edward Newman. 

The Young Hippopotamus. — This inmate of the “ Zoo” continues in 
good health and grows rapidly. 


The Channel Islands Fauna.—The question of what islands should be 
included as British Islands, in treating of their productions in making 
collections, either zoological or botanical, is more complicated than at first 
sight would appear. The term “ United Kingdom of Great Britain and 
Ireland” excludes the Isle of Man, which is as much a dependency as the 
Channel Islands and Heligoland. But the Isle of Man, geographically, 
should certainly be included, and the Channel Islands and Heligoland 
excluded. On the other hand, the Orkneys and Shetlands should certainly 
be included, both geographically and politically, beyond a doubt, and the 
Faroe Islands would certainly be included were it not for their political 
separation. The latter, geographically, belong to the same series as the 
other islands in the North of Scotland, the only difference being that the 


Tue ZooLocist—JANUARY, 1873. 8367 


Kings of Norway and Denmark have long ago given up the Shetlands; the 
latter retains the Fzroes, but I apprehend that if he followed the same course 
with the latter isles all naturalists would haye no choice but to include them. 
The whole question is a satire on making collections in districts politically 
united, which do not include the whole of the group of islands geographically, 
but on the other hand include districts that geographically belong to other 
countries, the Channel Islands being strictly French islands and the 
island of Heligoland strictly German. I may observe that some of the 
Channel Islands, the Chansee Archipelago, for instance, are French both 
geographically and politically. Could the English Channel Islands be 
included and the French excluded ?—J. Jenner Weir. 

The Channel Islands Fauna.—In reading with interest the discussion in 
the pages of the ‘ Zoologist’ as to the propriety of including the birds of the 
Channel Islands in the British list, I notice that a strong contrast is drawn 
between the treatment accorded to the Flora and the Fauna of these islands, 
apparently in forgetfulness of the fact that by conchologists (land and marine), 
and I believe also by the students of most branches of marine Zoology, the 
inhabitants of the Channel Islands have long since been “ annexed” to the 
British Fauna.—Henry T. Mennell ; London, December 9, 1872. 

The Channel Islands Fauna.—I am glad you have given your approval 
to the proposition that the Channel Islands should be included in the 
Fauna of the United Kingdom. I am sure that a great many naturalists 
who annually visit these islands will be pleased with this decision. The 
Channel Islands are not so rich in Lepidoptera as Mr. Birchall would lead 
us to suppose. They have been already well worked in this department by 
resident entomologists without any very grand results in the shape of new 
British species, although some of the rarer British species are of common 
occurrence. You are mistaken in giving Guernsey as a locality for Daplidice; 
it is a species which never occurs here, although tolerably common in Jersey; 
but even there they are not to be captured by the hundred.—W. A. Luff’; 
Mansell Street, Guernsey. 

Notes from Guernsey.— There have been very few birds about this 
autumn, except turnstones; these are very plentiful. The shags also are 
numerous. I saw, at Mr. Couch’s, on the 7th of November, two shell 
parrots, in the flesh, which had been shot in the island; a flock of them 
has been seen: last year also several were shot: it is a pity they are not 
let alone, we might then have them even more frequently than now: 
I have not been able to ascertain if they breed here. The swallows left us 
very late; I noticed them collecting on the 17th of October, and they left 
between the 17th and 20th—C. B. Carey; Candie, Guernsey. 

Osprey at Hempstead.—During the first week of August the keeper at 
Hempstead shot at a large hawk as it flew off a tree. He could not mark 
where it went down, and it was spoiled when he found it. It proved to be 


3368 TuE ZooLocist—January, 1878. 


an osprey, and probably a male from its small size. We have two which 
were killed at Hempstead in 1827 and 1867. Of the first my father gives 
me the following note :—* It took a large perch from the decoy-pond, with 
which it settled on an adjacent post, on the top of which a steel trap was 
set, which caught it by one foot.” The second has been recorded in the 
‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 872), as having been shot on the 13th of June, but the 
date on the back of the case is May 26th. The keeper saw it about for 
some ten days before he caught it, and shot at it once ineffectually. It was 
trapped by the left leg, in the same manner, and nearly in the same place, 
as the other one, and a small fish lay beside it—J. H. Gurney, jun.; 
Northrepps, Norwich. 

Goshawk at Hampstead.—A few days ago Mr. Burton, of Wardour Street, 
Oxford Street, showed me a fine young male that was captured in Hamp- 
stead on the 8rd of September: it had been struck down by the blow of a 
stone or stick. From the beautiful state of the plumage, it does not seem 
to have been an escaped bird; but I noticed that the claws were rather 
worn: I think this is rarely the case with a truly wild bird. It would be 
interesting to know if any one has lost such a bird in the neighbourhood.— 
Frederick Bond; 208, Adelaide Road, October 1, 1872. 

Waxwing in Hampshire.—Messrs. W. Hart & Son, naturalists, in Christ- 
church, have kindly informed me that a female waxwing was killed near the 
above-mentioned town, and brought to them, in the flesh, on the 23rd inst. 
The appearance of this beautiful species in this country is, I believe, considered 
to be the sign of a severe winter.—A. von Hiigel ; Stonyhurst, Nov. 25, 1872. 

Late Nesting of Starlings.—On the 22nd of October a pair of old starlings 

were seen by two of our servants enticing their young ones out of a nest 
where they had already reared two broods. Their previous behaviour had 
aroused suspicions, both in myself and others, that they were again breeding. 
This has occurred about eleven miles from the instance recorded by my friend 
Mr. Corbin in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 8313).—H. W. W. Aubrey ; Reetory, 
Hule, near Salisbury. 

Food of the Chough.—The stomach of a chough which I dissected a few 
days ago was, with the exception of a few small bits of quartz, exclusively 
filled with the remains of Coleoptera, especially of Geotrupes stercorarius. 
It seems extraordinary how a bird can at this time of the year manage to 
find such a quantity of insects. Of the above species alone I counted ten 
elytra, and there were many more of the smaller kinds of beetles, which I 
was unable to identify. The bird in question was killed at New Quay, in 
Cornwall, on the 22nd instant.—A. von Hiigel ; November 25, 1872. 

Late Cuckoo.—On the 29th of September a fine young bird was captured 
in a garden in this road by a cat, and kindly sent up to me. I think 
I never saw any bird so covered with fat; it has, however, made a very good 
skin —F. Bond; Adelaide Road. 


THE ZooLocist—JANuARY, 1873. 3369 


Late Swallows.—I saw seven swallows here on the 29th of October: 
there were many more on the 25th. No martins had been visible for some 
time previous.—John P. Thomasson; Bolton, Lancashire. 

Late Nesting of the Ring Dove.—On the 2nd of November a lad returned 
from one of the common pastures of this town with an old ring dove and a 
young nestling. It appears he had seen the old bird leave the nest, and, 
waiting its return, shot it with a catapult; he then climbed up to the nest 
and brought home the young one, which he is endeavouring to rear. It is 
well known that ring doves nest all the summer long, commencing early in 
the spring, and continuing to have young until October. I think the 
instance under notice later than usual, and perhaps worth mention.— 
F’. Boyes ; Beverley. 

Heronry near Salisbury.—In addition to the heronries already reported, 
allow me to state that there is a small one, consisting, according to the 
keeper's account, of about five nests, in some fine beeches in Longford Park, 
the seat of Earl Radnor, near Salisbury. I have reason to think that this 
must have been lately established.—H. W. W. Aubrey. 

Heronries in Denbighshire and Merionethshire——Among the heronries 
mentioned in Mr. Harting’s interesting list I do not notice the following, 
which I know to exist, viz.—One at Vorlas Hall, Denbighshre (Mr. Wynn 
Finch); one at Glyn Hall, Merionethshire (Mr. Ormsby Gore); and a few 
nests at Rug Hall, Merionethshire (The Hon. Charles Wynn).—VW. J. Kerr ; 
Maesmor, Corwen, Denbighshire, North Wales. 

British Heronries.—Observing that Mr. Harting’s recent list did not 
include a colony I had seen, in 1867, in Woolverston Park (Mr. Berners), 
on the (proper) right bank of the Orwell, I walked there, with a friend from 
Ipswich, last week, to look for the nests. After much inquiry,—evidently 
impressing the natives that we were a couple of escaped lunatics,—the gude- 
wife of the “Cat” Lodge informed us that it was two years since the last 
nest was built there. Disgusted at their continued persecution, by being 
shot at and robbed of their eggs, the birds had concluded to cross the river to 
Orwell Park, exactly opposite, where Colonel Tomline protects them from all 
annoyance. On the following day, by climbing the narrow slip of bank left 
between Orwell Park fencing and the river at high tide, we were enabled to 
count sixty to seventy nests: there may have been more out of view, but 
the park is not accessible to the public, and but little of it can be seen from 
the river-bank. Only a few herons were to be seen fishing in the pools left 
in the river at low water, though in summer time I have seen fifty or more 
between Ipswich and Harwich: they did not mind the steamer, and some- 
times a sociable bird would keep the boat company close alongside for some 
distance.—Henry F’. Bailey ; London, December 12, 1872. 

Heronries in East Yorkshire —As Mr. Harting, in his interesting list of 
British heronries, expresses a desire for additional information respecting 


3370 THE ZooLocistT—JANUARkY, 1873. 


them, I send you a few particulars concerning those in this district. Mr. 
Harting begins by naming one at Hutton Cranswick (Mr. Bethel). There 
is some obscurity about this. I see Yarrell says, ‘‘ Hutton, near Beverley, 
the seat of Mr. Bethel”: this is clearly a mistake, and I have been much 
puzzled to find out what place was meant. First, Mr. Bethel never had his 
seat at Hutton, the family seat of the Bethels having been for many genera- 
tions at Rise, which anciently belonged to the noble family of Fauconberg ; 
secondly, I cannot learn that any heronry ever existed at Hutton. I thought 
perhaps Watton might have been intended, as it is in the lordship of Mr. 
Bethel, but I have no knowledge of any heronry there. One is mentioned 
as formerly existing at Storkhill, with the addition, ‘ hence the misnomer for 
the locality.” I believe the heronry ceased to exist some eighty years ago, 
but I cannot think that our forefathers would be guilty of such a want of 
discrimination as to mistake a heron for a stork, and all the old records show 
that our ancestors were well acquainted with the heron. I find that “ hill” 
is a modern addition, and that the place was formerly called “ Stork.” It is 
called “ Estorch” in Doomsday. In 1354 the bailiff of the Provost's Court 
seized and entered on a messuage at Stork, which was held by William de 
Wele, who had neglected to render the customary relief of so many eels and 
to perform other requisite services. In the following year Thomas Pople, 
son of John le Stork, paid to the provost four hundred eels for the resumption 
of his land at Stork. In the reign of Henry VI. the chaplain of the chantry 
of Hull Bridge had a messuage and six acres of meadow in “ Stork field,” 
and the chaplain of the chantry of Thearne had a house and garden at Stork. 
From all this it will be seen that the place has been called Stork from old 
time, and that there is really no misnomer at all. I will not hazard a con- 
jecture that storks ever bred there ; but I have great respect for old names, 
and looking at the fact that in years long since past Storkhill would be almost 
entirely surrounded by water, and the low-lying carrs which stretch for miles 
beyond it were little else than swamp and morass, it is by no means unlikely 
that storks may have rested on their migrations at Storkhill. Be that as it 
may, old names often recall to mind many pleasant recollections and associa- 
tions, and I would not have our “ Bustard’s Nest” or our ~ Butterbump” 
Hall altered on any account; for I do not believe these localities have been 
named other than from the fact of bustards and bitterns breeding there ; 
indeed, the places so called are to all appearances the very spots that would 
be chosen by the respective birds for such a purpose. The heronry at Scorbro’ 
gradually decreased until about forty years ago, when the few remaining birds 
forsook the place, partly in consequence of the trees decaying. Of the one at 
Swanland, near Hull, I can gather no information, and though I doubt not 
herons formerly bred there, yet it must have been a great number of years 
ago. A heronry existed at Hotham, in this Riding, up to the year 1819, the 
nests being placed in large Scotch fir and ash trees, and persons are still 


Tue ZooLocist—JANUARY, 18738. 3371 


living who used to climb up to the nests to get the eggs. There was a large 
heronry in Sutton Wood, Sutton-upon-Derwent, a village about six miles from 
York ; but the birds left from continued persecution, and have not bred there 
for some years: I am told there were nearly a hundred nests in 1860. 
One or two pairs have bred constantly in a wood called “ Beswick Rush,” 
about two miles from Scorbro’, up to 1870, when the keeper destroyed both 
old and young birds, supposing them to do injury to a trout stream. Herons 
also bred in a wood at Holme, on Spalding Moor, but ceased to do so about 
five years ago. There are doubtless many other places in the Riding where 
herons formerly have bred ; but the only one that I can learn at present in 
existence is the one at Newton, near Malton, on the estate of Sir George 
Cholmley. I went over this last spring to see it, and there were not more 
than twenty or twenty-five nests; moreover, Sir George’s keeper, who has 
lived there twenty-six years, informed me there never were many more nests, 
and that they have neither increased nor diminished during his recollection, 
—F’. Boyes ; Beverley. 

Rednecked Phalarope in East Yorkshire.—A very nice specimen of this 
graceful little bird was shot at Burlington, on the 14th of October last, by 
the gamekeeper to Sir H. Boynton, Bart., of Burton Agnes. I saw it at 
Mr. Richardson’s, the birdstuffer, here, who informed me it was an immature 
male. The occurrence of the rednecked species is very unusual in this part 
_ of the country.—Id. 

Wild Geese.—Large flocks of wild geese daily frequent the wolds, and 
T learn from several persons that in one flock, consisting of upwards of a 
hundred birds, there are two almost entirely white. These two birds have 
been noticed in different localities, but more frequently in one particular 
large field of oat-stubble, and my informants say they look quite white when 
on the ground.—Id. 

Eider Duck at Christehurch.—A young male eider was killed on the 13th 
of December in Christchurch Harbour, Hants, and is now in my possession. 
The eider duck is, as might be expected, of very rare occurrence on the 
Hampshire coast, only two instances being mentioned by Mr. J. H. Gurney, 
jun., in a list of rare birds obtained by Mr. Hart in the vicinity of Christ- 
church (Zool. 8. 8. 1510), although it reaches as far back as the year 1857: 
these two birds were procured in October, 1864, and May, 1868. Mr. Rogers, 
naturalist, in Freshwater, Isle of Wight, showed me some time ago an adult 
female eider, which had been shot a few years ago off Alum Bay, in the 
same island.—A. von Hiigel ; December 15, 1872. 

Sea Woodcock.—The length of time which has elapsed since you published 
in the ‘ Zoologist’ (June, 1870) a few notes on my ‘ Birds of Marlborough,’ 
will, I trust, defend me from the imputations of any one who might imagine 
me an indignant author enraged by the few words of adverse, though kindly 
meant, criticism, to which I now ask you to allow me to reply. You say, 
“The application of the local name ‘sea woodcock’ to the dabchick is 


8372 TuE ZooLoGist—JANvARY, 1873. 


without doubt a copied mistake.” May I assure you that the mistake, if it 
exists, is not a copied mistake. On the authority of my own observations, 
I placed it in the list of local names—i. e. of those names by which the bird 
is known in the district, a definition to which the name in question 
certainly answers. I have frequently heard it used by gamekeepers, by the 
local birdstuffers, and by other people of a similar class,—a fact in itself 
sufficient to prove it worthy a place amongst local names. I may mention 
the fact that the local printer of my book, on reading the anecdote given in 
connection with the name, exclaimed that he now understood the meaning 
of the jesting application to all Aldbourne men. It was, so at least says 
tradition, some of the wise men of that place who in ignorance first called a 
little grebe a “sea woodcock.” I do not in the least mean to infer that the 
name is not applied to the godwits, but only that its Marlborough denotation 
is different; indeed, as the godwit is at Marlborough an unknown bird, it 
is not likely to have any name amongst the inhabitants of the district. The 
application which you point of this name to British fish, shell, and fowl, is 
certainly rather a strage coincidence—— Everard F. Im Thurn; Oxford 
Union Society, November 8, 1872. 

Polish Swan.—I quite agree with Mr. Durnford (Zool. S.S. 8339) that 
gray feet and legs cannot be maintained as a specific difference in the 
so-called Polish swan (Cygnus immutabilis). Ihave seen some cygnets of 
the mute swan, at the swan “ upping” time, with light gray feet and legs, 
and the same in two- or three-year old birds in their full white plumage.— 
Henry Stevenson ; Norwich, December 16, 1872. 

Sclayonian Grebe and Great Black Woodpecker in Norfolk.—On the 2nd 
instant I procured, at Leadenhall Market, a good specimen of the Sclavonian 
grebe, which had been sent up from Norfolk. It was a bird of this year, in 
the immature plumage. I was glad to hear that a great black ‘woodpecker 
had been sent from the same county about a fortnight before. Perhaps the 
fortunate possessor of it will confirm this statement.—IV. Ogilvy ; British 
Museum, December 9, 1872. 


A Recent Trilobite— On the 12th of February, while dredging about 
forty leagues east of Cape Fico, Professor Agassiz found a crustacean with 
a great number of rings and three-lobed: it is named Tomocharis Purceii. 


Proceedings of the Entomological Society. 


November 4, 1872.—Prof. J. O. Westwoop, M.A., F.L.S., President, in 
the chair. 
Additions to the Library. 
The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors :—‘ The Transactions of the Linnean Society of London,’ vol. xxviii. 


Tue ZooLocist—JANuary, 1872. 3373 


pt. 2; vol. xxix. pt.1; Proceedings, Session 1871-72; Journal, No. 55; 
presented by the Society. ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ Nos. 135, 
136 and 137; by the Society. ‘ Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of 
the Zoological Society of London,’ 1872, pt.1; by the Society. ‘ Bullettino 
della Societa Entomologica Italiana,’ iv. trim. 2 & 3; by the Society. 
‘ Mittheilungen der Schweizerischen Entomologischen Gesellschaft,’ vol. iii. 
No. 9; by the Society. ‘ Bulletin de la Societe Impériale des Naturalistes 
de Moscou,’ 1872, No.1; by th Society. ‘The Transactions of the Ento- 
mological Society of New South Wales,’ vol. ii. pt.4; by the Society. 
‘Annales de la Société Linnéenne de Lyon,’ N.S. tome xvili.; by the 
Society. ‘Annales de la Société d’Agriculture, Histoire Naturelle, et Arts 
utiles de Lyon,’ 4e Série, tomes i. & ii.; by the Society. ‘The Journal of 
the Quekett Microscopical Club,’ No. 19; by the Club. ‘The Canadian 
Naturalist,’ Nos. 7,8 and 9; bythe Editor. ‘ L’Abeille, 1872,’ livr. 8—12 ; 
‘ Milliére, Iconographie et Description de Chenilles et Lépidoptéres inédits,’ 
livr. 28 & 29; by J. W. Dunning, Esq. ‘The Entomologist’s Monthly Maga- 
zine,’ for August—November ; by the Editors. ‘The Zoologist,’ for July— 
November; by the Editor. ‘ Newman’s Entomologist,’ for July—November; 
by the Editor. ‘ Exotic Butterflies,’ part 84; by W. W. Saunders, Esq. 
‘ Lepidoptera Exotica,’ part 14; ‘ Cistula Entomologica,’ part 5; by E. W. 
Janson, Esq. ‘On the Revision of the Tenebrionide of America north of 
Mexico’; ‘Description of a new Pseudomorpha from California, with Notes 
on the Pseudomorphide’; ‘On Amphizoa insolens, Leconte’; ‘ Notes on 
the Zopheri of the United States’; ‘ Descriptions of new Genera and Species 
of Western Scarabeide, with Notes on others already known’; ‘ Catalogue 
of Coleoptera from South-Western Virginia’; ‘New Species of Coleoptera 
from the Pacific District of the United States’; ‘Synopsis of the Parnide 
of the United States’; ‘ Notes on some Genera of Coprophagous Scarabeide 
of the United States’; ‘Contributions to the Coleopterology of the United 
States’; ‘ Descriptive Catalogue of the Species of Nebria and Pelophila of 
the United States’; ‘On the Species of Oodes and allied Genera of the 
United States’; ‘ Description of the Species of Aphodius and Dialytes of 
the United States’; ‘ Descriptions of new Species of Histeridz of the United 
States’; ‘Synopsis of the Species of Corphyra, Say, of the United States’; 
‘ Synopsis of Aphodiini of the United States’; ‘ Remarks on the Species of 
the Genus Isomalus, E’r., of the United States’; ‘ Descriptions of new Species 
of Elaterids of the United States’; ‘ Descriptions of new Coleoptera of the 
United States, with Notes on known Species’; by the Author, G. H. Horn, 
M.D. ‘Remarks on Synonyms of European Spiders,’ No. 3; by the Author, 
T. Thorell. ‘Monographie des Graphipterides’; ‘Essai Monographique 
sur le Genre Abacetus, Dejean’; ‘ Remarques sur le Catalogue de MM. 
de Harold et Gemminger’; ‘ Essai Monographique sur les Orthogoniens’ ; 
‘Essai Monographique sur les Drimostomides et les Cratocérides, et 
SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. F 


3374 THE ZooLoGisT—JANUARY, 1873. 


Description d'un Genre nouveau de Morionides’; by the Author, Baron M. 
de Chaudoir. ‘Matériaux pour une Faune Neévropteérologique de l’Asie septen- 
trionale,’ par MM. de Sélys-Longchamps et MacLachlan; by the Authors. 
‘Matériaux pour la Faune Belge,’ Deuxiéme Note, Myriapodes; by the 
Author, M. Felix Plateau. ‘Sulla Fecondazione dell’ Ape regina’; 
‘Esame Critico della Teorie sulla Partenogenesi delle Api’; by the Author, 
the Rev. Giotto Ulivi. ‘Description d’un nouveau Papillon Fossile (Saty- 
rites Reynesii), trouvé a Aix en Provence’; by the Author, 8. H. Scudder, 
Esq. ‘ Phylloxera vastatrix in Portugal’; by the Author, Albert Miiller, 
Esq. ‘Observations on a Paper read by Mr. A. Bathgate before the Otago 
Institute, 11th January, 1870, “On the Lepidoptera of Otago,”’ by R. W. 
Fereday, Corresponding Member of the Entomological Society of London ; 
by the Author. ‘A Classified Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Canada’; by 
the Author, A. M. Rose, M.D. ‘Report of the Entomologist and Curator 
of the Museum, Washington’; by the Author, Townend Glover. ‘The 
Scottish Naturalist,’ vol. i.; by the Editor, Dr. F. Buchanan White. 
‘Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung,’ vol. xxxiii. Nos. 4—9; by the Society. 

By purchase :—‘ Terminologia Entomologica. Nach dem neuesten Stand- 
punkte dieser Wissenschaft bearbeitet yon Julius Miller.’ ‘Opuscula 
Entomologica,’ edidet C. G. Thomson; fase. i—iv. 


Exhibitions, &c. 

Mr. S. Stevens exhibited a Pieris Daplidice and six examples of Argynnis 
Lathonia taken by himself, last September, near Dover; also a dark variety 
of Pieris napi, which he took at Leenan, Co. Mayo; two varieties, one very 
fine and rich in colour, of Pyrameis cardui, and a black variety of Calli- 
morpha dominula from Dover; and Sesia asiliformis, Chcerocampa celerio, 
and Deilephila livornica from Brighton. 

Mr. F. Smith exhibited a very large collection of Formicide sent by 
Mr. Rothney from Calcutta. This was especially interesting, inasmuch as, 
in many cases, all the forms were present, these being often so dissimilar 
in appearance as to render it certain that if their history was not known 
they would be placed in separate genera; and this had actually occurred in 
at least one instance. ee 

Mr. Smith also exhibited, and presented to the Society, the Minute Book 
of the Meetings of the Entomological Society existing in London from 1806 
to 1822, in which were copied the minutes of the pre-existing Aurelian 
Society. This had been given to him by Dr. J. E. Gray. 

The Meeting passed a special vote of thanks to Mr. Smith for this 
interesting donation to the Society’s Library. 

Mr. Butler exhibited a remarkably perfect impression of the wing of a 
fossil butterfly in the Stonesfield slate. It appeared to be most nearly 
allied to the now-existing South American genus Caligo. 


THE ZooLoGist—JANUARY, 1873. 3375 


Mr. Davis exhibited a large collection of beautifully preserved larvee of 
various insects. 

Prof. Westwood exhibited a collection of drawings of the transformations 
of Indian Lepidoptera (chiefly Heterocera), executed by Major Hunter. 

Prof. Westwood further made some remarks on the habits of the common 
gnat. He had observed none in his house at Oxford till about July; but 
from then up to the present time there were swarms in certain rooms every 
night, making their presence known by flying to the lights. All were 
females, which sex alone is known to torment man by its bites. They were 
carefully destroyed each day; yet, although both doors and windows were 
closed, they were daily replaced by a fresh swarm, and he could only account 
for their presence by supposing they came down the chimneys. 

A letter was read from the Secretary of the Haggerstone Entomological 
Society, inviting the Members to their annual exhibition of insects on the 
14th and 15th inst. 

Papers read, &c. 


Mr. Miiller read the following, and exhibited specimens of the beetle :— 


* Notes on the Habits of Ozognathus cornutus, Lec. 


“ On his visit to Europe last year, Mr. Riley, the State Entomologist of 
Missouri, presented me with a large cynipideous, potato-shaped, poly- 
thalamous oak-gall, from California, which I exhibited to this Society on 
the 6th of November, 1871. 

“Mr. Riley proposes the name of Quercus ‘californica for this gall, 
which he thinks is undescribed, and specimens of which have been seen by 
Baron von Osten-Sacken and Mr. H. F. Bassett, the leading authorities 
on American Cynipide. The name which the maker of the gall will there- 
fore have to bear will be Cynips californica. 

“As the gall in question was riddled by numerous exit-holes, some 
larger ones (two millimétres in diameter) represented those of the Cynips, 
while several smaller round ones (one millimétre in diameter), betokened the 
escape of an insect of a different size. I left it lying on my mantelpiece 
until the 20th of May last, thinking that nothing further could be bred 
from it. In this I was agreeably disappointed, as in the morning of the 
said day a small hillock of yellowish worm-eaten dust underneath an 
opening in course of formation warned me that the gall was still tenanted 
by living creatures. Of course the specimen was at once consigned toa 
glass vessel, and thenceforward watched as often as convenient. In the 
evening of the same day I observed that the identical hole had assumed the 
neat circular shape of the smaller sized openings scattered over the surface 
of the gall, and that a small, black, shining beetle had made its appearance 
in the vessel. This Coleopteron, I have since been informed by Mr. Riley, 
to whom I sent two pairs, was first described by Leconte in the Proc. Acad. 


3376 TuE ZooLocistT—JANvARY, 1873. 


Sci. Philad. 1859, p. 87, as Anobium cornutum, and subsequently (Ibid, 
Oct., 1865, p. 226) admitted into his genus Ozognathus; its present name 
is therefore Ozognathus cornutus, Lec. The author observes that “ this 
interesting species was sent me by Mr. Andrew Murray, as having been 
hatched in great numbers from some galls sent from California.” Mr. 
Riley informs me that the habits and transformations of the species have 
never been published, that from the identical specimen he gave me he 
obtained several specimens of the beetle before leaving for Europe in 1871, 
and that from another specimen of the same gall he has bred others since, 
and has notes and figures of the adolescent stages. Acting on Mr. Riley’s 
suggestion, I give here the few notes I wrote down while watching the 
beetle and its companions of both sexes, which continued to appear almost 
daily from the 20th of May up to the 19th of June, 1872, when I counted 
in all six males and fifteen females. Their ways are entirely those of a true 
Anobium; they gnaw their neat exit-hole in the same laborious fashion, 
and often remain at its mouth for a while before quitting it for the first 
time. If frightened in any way they sham death by drawing up their legs 
and antenne; left to themselves they readily take flight, both sexes being 
provided with ample wings. The lively, cornute males may be seen rest- 
lessly crawling over the gall, constantly investigating its woody polished 
surface by means of their antennz, and ready to copulate with the females 
directly the latter have made their appearance. On such occasions a 
running match takes place between the contending males to get hold of the 
new comer, and the most resolute male, that is to say the individual which 
can stand perambulation the longest, effects its purpose. The relative 
position of the sexes is precisely the same as with Anobium; the male 
while mounted, strokes the sides of the elytra and the underlying lateral parts 
of the abdominal segments of the female with its quivering antenne. The 
female carries her partner about while copulation lasts, and even takes wing 
successfully with her burden. By isolating some couples from their restless 
companions, I have ascertained that this act lasts seldom longer than an 
hour; in some instances I have seen the males quit their hold after less than 
half-an-hour. The impregnated females re-enter the gall for the evident 
purpose of oviposition, but Mhave not been able to make as yet sure of the 
latter point. Ihave observed females make their way rapidly towards the 
nearest aperture while still carrying their partners, the males being 
ruthlessly and forcibly deprived of their conjugal rights at the entrance of 
the burrows, the females dragging themselves into the openings in spite of 
the counter-efforts of the males, which had no choice but to drop off. I 
have not seen the males enter the burrows again after their first exit from 
them, but the females I have noticed to go in and reappear again, though 
not always through the same tunnel, but I recognized the individuals in 
question by minute white paint marks, which I had previously applied to 


THE ZooLocist—JANUARY, 1873. 3377 


their elytra. Two of the beetles outlived a week, the males generally dying 
after having copulated once: the females seemed to be longer lived; one 
marked female remained in full vigour for ten days. Their ‘frass’ consisted 
of isolated brown snuff-like grains.” 

The Rev. R. P. Murray comnunicated the following notes :— 


“ On some Variations of Neuration observed in certain Papilionide. 


“TI beg to lay before the Society a few cases of aberrant neuration which 
Ihave lately observed in certain insects in my collection. They occur in 
four genera, viz., Papilio, Parnassius, Thais, and Synchloé (Butler). 

1°. Papilio Cloanthus. In all the specimens I possess (three) I find that 
the first subcostal neryure anastomoses with the costal nerve. This is also 
the case in 2°, Synchloé Mesentina, these insects thus resembling in this 
respect the genus Leptalis. 

8° and 4°. Parnassius Apollo and Delias. I possess specimens of both 
these species in which the first and second subcostal nervures coalesce more 
or less completely. Sometimes the junction is complete; in other cases 
the veinlets again separate just before the end of the first subcostal. 

5°, P. Clodias. In the only specimen of this insect which I possess (a 
female) there is, in the right-hand lower wing, a transverse nerve running 
from the first subcostal near its extremity towards the second, which, how- 
ever, is not quite reached, though both nervures are angulated and drawn 
towards one another by the additional vein. 

6°. Thais Polyxena. In one of my specimens there is a distinct and 
well-formed prediscoidal cell in the hind wings: in two other cases this cell 
is faintly indicated. This would seem to be a case of reversion to a former 
type, and to indicate that Thais is comparatively a modern genus. Its 
nearest ally is of course Parnassius, but as it also seems to possess a true 
affinity with Zegris, and so with the Pierinez, we may perhaps conclude 
that this last-named group is somewhat less ancient than the Papilionine. 
Before concluding I may be allowed to remark on the affinity between the 
genera Parnassius and Eurycus, as shown by the females of each being 
provided with a horny pouch. I have nowhere seen it stated that this 
appendage was formed by Eurycus, but the fact is probably well known.” 

Mr. Dunning read a “ Note on Atropos and Clothilla, with reference to 
Mr. W. Arnold Lewis’s strictures on Dr. Hagen.” 

After quoting at length the passage from pp. 54, 55, of Mr. Lewis’s 
‘Discussion of the Law of Priority in Entomological Nomenclature, with 
Strictures on its Modern Application,’ in which Dr. Hagen is said to have 
been guilty of “astonishing chicanery,” and to have described in 1865 an 
‘insect as having leather-like winglets, 27-joimted antenne, and with legs not 
thickened, which in 1861 he had described as haying a bare back, 15-jointed 
antenn, and thickened thighs, Mr. Dunning proceeded as follows :— 


3378 THE ZOOLOGIST—JANUARY, 1873. 


“The contention is that the Atropos of 1861 is the Clothilla of 1865. 
Let us see if this be correct. Linné described a certain insect under the 
name Termes pulsatorium, and subsequent authors unanimously regarded 
the Linnean name as designating a creature which for the present purpose 
may be sufficiently described by saying that it is wingless and has seventeen 
joints to its antenn®. In 1815 Leach founded the genus Atropos; and for 
fifty years the insect popularly known as the death-watch was known to 
entomologists as Atropos pulsatoria. When Dr. Hagen compiled his 
‘Synopsis of the British Psocide’ (Ent. Ann. 1861, p. 17), it had not 
occurred to any one to doubt that this creature was the identical species 
which Linné described as Termes pulsatorium; accordingly we find that, 
at p. 21, Dr. Hagen gives the well-known insect as the pulsatoria of Linné 
and Stephens. In 1841 Prof. Westwood described another insect under the 
name Clothilla studiosa, a creature not absolutely wingless, but possessing 
two short leathery scales or winglets, and having twenty-seven joints to its 
antenn. So that in Dr. Hagen’s Synopsis of 1861 we have ;— 


Gen. ATropos. Gen. CLOTHILLA. 
Wings wanting. Antenne with about | With leathery winglets. Antenne with 
15 joints. about 27 joints. 
Sp. A. pulsatoria. Sp. C. studiosa. 


“ Dr. Hagen’s ‘Synopsis of the Psocina without ocelli’ (Ent. Mo. Mag. 
ii. 121) was published in 1865. By this time he had discovered that the 
Linnean description of Termes pulsatorium did not accord with the insect 
which had so long been known as Atropos pulsatoria, and had satisfied 
himself that Linné had before him the identical species which Westwood 
afterwards named Clothilla studiosa. That being so, Hagen applies the 
Linnean name pulsatoria to. Westwood’s studiosa: the insect which has 
hitherto been called pulsatoria (and which is the pulsatoria of most authors, 
though not of Linné) requires a new specific name, and the next oldest is 
found to be divinatoria of Miiller’s Prodromus, dating from 1776. So that 
in Dr. Hagen’s Synopsis of 1865 we have :— 


Gen. ATRopos. r Gen. CLOTHILIA. 
Without wings. Antenne with 17 joints. | Wings rudimentary. Antenne with 27 
joints. 
Sp. A. divinatoria. Sp. C. pulsatoria. 
(Synon. A. pulsatoria, of authors, not of (Synon. C. studiosa, Westwood). 


Linné). 
“That is to say, the insect which in 1861 was called Atropos pulsatoria 
was in 1865 called Atropos divinatoria; and the insect which in 1861 was 


called Clothilla studiosa was in 1865 called Clothilla pulsatoria. The 
specific names are changed, but the Atropos of 1861 is the Atropos of 1865, 


Tue ZooLocist—JANuARY, 1873. 3379 


and the Clothilla of 1861 is the Clothilla of 1865; and instead of ‘ the same 
insect being described by Dr. Hagen twice over, on two adjoining pages, with 
opposite structural characters,’ the two descriptions refer to two different 
insects, whose opposite structural characters, and their consequent generic 
as well as specific distinctness, were fully recognized by Dr. Hagen in 1861 
as in 1865. 

“To this extent Mr. Lewis's criticism is well founded. Dr. Hagen in 
1861 did describe Clothilla as having the ‘legs not thickened,’ whilst in 
1865 he says of Clothilla ‘femora dilated,’ just as he says of Atropos 
‘femora dilated.’ Now the dilatation of the femora in Atropos is very 
prominent ; in Clothilla it is so slight as scarcely to deserve the name; 
the thickening or absence of thickening of the thighs is a patent distinction 
between the two genera; and I cannot but believe that there is an un- 
fortunate omission of the negative in Ent. Mo. Mag. ii. 122, and that the 
description of Clothilla ought to have been ‘femora not dilated,’ in contra- 
distinction to the ‘femora dilated’ of Atropos. So far from its being the 
fact, as suggested by Mr. Lewis, that the alteration from the description of 
1861 was designedly made in order to admit the Linnean pulsatoria into 
Clothilla, Dr. Hagen’s view is that the insect with the dilated femora is not 
the Linnean pulsatoria at all, but that the Linnean pulsatoria is Westwood’s 
studiosa, with the legs not thickened.” 

After referring to another discrepancy between the descriptions of 1861 
and 1865, not mentioned by Mr. Lewis—namely, that the “ eyes yellowish” 
of A. pulsatoria in 1861 become “eyes black” in the description of A. divina- 
toria in 1865—and pointing out that the ‘‘ eyes yellowish” was a mistake, 
perhaps taken (blindly) from the Linnean oculi flavi, Mr. Dunning observed 
that, though the synonymy was not given at length in Ent. Mo. Mag,, 
vol. ii, Dr. Hagen did say in so many words that A. divinatoria “is 
A. pulsatoria of Westwood and authors” other than Linné, i.e. the A. pul- 
satoria of Ent. Ann. 1861, and that C. pulsatoria “is apparently the true 
Termes pulsatorium of Linné, C. studiosa of Westwood,” i. ¢. the C. studiosa 
of Ent. Ann. 1861. Thus Dr. Hagen himself plainly pointed out which 
insect he intended by each description,—pointed out, in short, that, notwith- 
standing the change of the specific names, notwithstanding any variations in 
the descriptions, the Atropos and Clothilla of 1865 were respectively the 

_Atropos and Clothilla of 1861. And if any doubt could still be felt on the 

subject, it would be removed by a perusal of Dr. Hagen’s later papers in 
Stett. Ent. Zeit. 1866, pp. 188 and 233, and Verh. zool.-bot. Gesells. in 
Wien, 1866, p. 201. 

The writer then proceeded to say that he was at a loss to conceive how 
Mr. Lewis could have fallen into the mistake of supposing that the Atropos 
of 1861 was the Clothilla of 1865. ‘The head and front of Dr. Hagen’s 
offending is, that he has substituted another name for pulsatoria, that 


3880 Tuer ZooLtocist—JANvUARY, 1878. 


(Atropos) pulsatoria has been superseded ; in other words, that the pulsatoria 
of 1865 is not the pulsatoria of 1861. Mr. Lewis’s complaint has its 
foundation in the facts that the (Atropos) pulsatoria of 1861 is called 
(Atropos) divinatoria in 1865, and that the (Clothilla) pulsatoria of 1865 is 
not the (Atropos) pulsatoria of 1861. Yet we are told that the Atropos of 
1861 is the Clothilla of 1865! If this were really so, the pulsatoria of 
1865 would be the pulsatoria of 1861, Dr. Hagen would be calling by the 
Linnean name that which he is now satisfied is not the Linnean insect, and 
Mr. Lewis might have cited him as (in practice, if not in theory) a supporter 
of Communis error !” 

In conclusion, Mr. Dunning remarked that he had purposely abstained 
from discussing the correctness of Dr. Hagen’s determination of the Linnean 
species or the propriety of the change of nomenclature which Dr. Hagen 
introduced. His only object was to show that our Honorary Member, 
who was not present to defend himself, had not in fact done that which 
Mr. Lewis supposed him to haye done. 


New Part of the proposed General Catalogue of British Insects. 
A further portion of this Catalogue, comprising the Chrysidide, Ichneu- 
monide, Braconide and Evaniide, compiled by the Rey. T. A. Marshall, 
was on the table; and remarks thereon, by Mr. Marshall, were read. 


New Part of ‘ Transactions.’ 


Part iii. of the ‘ Transactions’ for 1872, published in August, was on the 
table.—R. M‘L. 


Death of Mr. J. K. Lord.—With much regret we announce the death of 
Mr. John Keast Lord, the manager of the Brighton Aquarium. Mr. Lord 
some months ago, just before the aquarium was opened, had a severe stroke 
of paralysis, and was unable to take any active part in the ceremony, though 
he was present at the opening. Since then, though he recovered his 
faculties slowly, it was evident that his constitution was heavily shaken. 
A severe cold, taken about a fortnight since, confined him to the house, and 
he died at his residence at Dorset Gardens, Brighton, on Monday last. 
Mr. Lord was the author of two works, ‘ The Naturalist in Vancouver’ and 
« At Home in the Wilderness.’—‘ Field’ of December 14th, 1872. 

Death of Thomas Dix.—Thomas Dix, a well-known naturalist, and an 
occasional contributor to the ‘ Zoologist,’ died at West Harling, Norfolk, on 
the 19th of November, in the forty-second year of his age, and was buried 
in the Ipswich Cemetery on the 25th. He was a man of the kindest 
disposition, and was beloved by all who knew him.—Edward Newman. 


THE ZOOLOGIST—FEBRUARY, 1873. 8381 


Hotices of How Books. 


A Handbook to the Birds of Egypt. By G. E. SHetzey, F.G.S., 
Z.S., &e. London: Van Voorst, Paternoster Row. 1872. 
342 pp. Royal 8vo; fourteen coloured litho. plates. 


I HAVE refrained from everything like criticism of the arrange- 
ment and names adopted by Mr. Harting and Mr. Gurney; and 
I shall follow the same course with Mr. Shelley’s labours: still it 
must not be understood that the absence of criticism implies appro- 
bation ; it simply indicates that I am wearied of the ungracious 
task of objecting to that tide of “change” which seems to pervade 
every work on Ornithology. As well might one attempt to stem the 
torrent of a mighty river by casting in a pebble-stone, as hope to 
arrest the prevailing fashion, whether that fashion be the shape of 
a bonnet or the name of a bird or a butterfly. The love of change 
inherent in man and woman is a guarantee for the ephemeral 
duration of all changes: nevertheless, without raising any objec- 
tions, it seems desirable to give some idea of Mr. Shelley’s general 
views of the arrangement and classification of birds, inasmuch as 
it differs very considerably from either of those at present in use in 
this country; and his deviations from the beaten tracks are so con- 
siderable, and so important that it will be interesting to lay them 
before the ornithologists of this country, merely as a matter of 
information, and not in any degree to offer my judgment on them 
for better or for worse. Novelty ever commends itself to our notice, 
and almost invariably to our favourable notice. 

Mr. Shelley divides the birds of Egypt into thirty-seven families, 
and these are grouped into six larger divisions, one of which is 
left unnamed and the remaining five are denominated “ Orders,” 
thus :— 

I. [Unnamed group.] It comprises eight families :—Turdide, con- 
taining 10 species; Sylviide, 57 species; Nectariniide, 1 species ; 
Certhiidz, 1 species; Laniidz, 6 species; Muscicapide, 3 species ; 
Hirundinide, 6 species; Motacillide, 12 species, 3 of which are 
placed in the genus Motacilla, 3 in Budytes, 6 in Anthus; 
Alaudidex, containing 12 species; Emberizide, 4 species; Frin- 
gillide, 12 species; Oriolidz, 1 species; Sturnide, 2 species; and 
Corvide, 7 species. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. G 


3382 THE ZooLocist—FEBRuARY, 1873. 


II. Order Picart#. Comprises eight families :—Yungide, con- 
taining 1 species; Cuculide, 4 species; Upupide, 1 species; 
Alcedinidz, 3 species; Coraciidz, 1 species ; Meropide, 8 species; 
Cypselide, 4 species; and Caprimulgide, 2 species. 

III. Order Accipirres. Comprises five families :—Strigide, 
containing 9 species; Falconidz, 40 species; Columbidea, 8 species; 
Pteroclide, 3 species; and Tetraonide, 4 species. 

IV. Order GRatLe. Comprises three families :—Otidide, con- 
taining 3 species; Charadriide, 62 species, including the cranes; 
and Ardeidz, containing 9 species. 

V. Order ANseREs. Comprises six families :—Pheenicopteridae, 
containing 1 species; Rallide, 29 species, and including the swans, 
geese and ducks; Pelicanidz, containing 18 species, and including 
the terns; Laride, 12 species; Procellariide, 2 species; and 
Podicepide, 5 species. 

VI. Order StRuTHroNEs, containing only the ostrich, the 
authority for including which Mr. Shelley quotes from Finsch and 
Hartlaub’s ‘ Vogel Ost-Afrika’s’: he did not meet with it, and failed 
to obtain sufficient evidence of its present existence within the 
Egypt district, bounded on the north by the Mediterranean,.on the 
south by the second Cataract of the Nile, and on the east and west 
by the Arabian and Lybian deserts. 

Of the 352 species contained in the preceding summary, 
Mr. Shelley seems to feel some doubt as to the propriety of 
including many which he has not himself observed: the missel 
thrush, hedgesparrow, great gray shrike, jackdaw, magpie, Cornish 
chough, swift, tawny owl, ashcoloured harrier, common kite, stock 
dove, both the swans, &c., he considers to have been admitted into 
the list on doubtful ground. He has taken great pains in all 
instances to give his authority, and has done so with a candour and 
exactness that are above all praise. The common swift of Egypt is 
the Cypselus pallidus of dur author, who never met with C. apus; 
and C. melba, which we regard as a great rarity in Britain, is also 
a rare bird of passage in Egypt and Nubia, only met with in the 
more mountainous parts during the autumn and spring. Mr. Shelley 
thinks the common kite of Britain “has never been met with in 
Egypt, although Ruppell goes so far as to call it common about 
Alexandria.” No mention is made of the great bustard, and we 
may conclude it is unknown in Egypt, although it seems a 
country well adapted to the requirements of this magnificent 


Tue ZooLocist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 3383 


bird. Otis tetrax and O. Arabs are included on very doubtful 
authority. 

I have selected for quotation a few of the incidental notices of 
birds both from the “ Introduction” and from the systematic list, 
thinking they would interest my readers, but as usual I have 
- endeavoured to avoid merely technical descriptions. The king- 
fisher’s habit of hovering over the water is not only interesting as 
a fact in Natural History, but is very prettily told. 


Kingfishers—“ The black and white kingfishers (Ceryle rudis) are very 
plentiful, and never fail to attract attention as they hover over the pools in 
search of their finny prey, which they appear rarely to drop upon directly 
from the bank where they have been sitting, as does our own kingfisher, 
but hover like a hawk over the water—and, if unsuccessful in their dart, 
- rise apparently unconcerned, to go through the evolution again and again 
until they succeed, when they retire to the bank to enjoy their meal.”— 
B15. 


The multitudes of pigeons have been noticed by every traveller 
in Egypt, and the state in which they live, like our sparrows, under 
the shelter of human edifices, cannot fail to strike the stranger. 


Pigeons.—* The number of these birds which live in a semi-domesticated 
state, is quite marvellous. The natives in most of the villages build a second 
story to their houses, solely for the sake of these pigeons, which flock to 
them as soon as they are built; but they require that their houses should 
be kept more cleanly than the abodes of the natives; otherwise they leave 
for better quarters. What would our English farmer say to having these 
myriads of pigeons feeding on his land? Yet there is no denying that the 
Egyptian crops thrive well nevertheless ; and their guano is there considered 
to more than compensate for the grain they eat, as this kind of manure is 
particularly valued for the cultivation of the sugar-cane. Although the 
native gives himself so much trouble to keep a stock of these birds in the 
villages, none dispute the stranger’s right to shoot as many of them as he 
pleases in the fields; and it certainly adds considerably to the pleasure of 
the Nile-trip always to feel oneself lord of the manor, with perfect liberty 
to shoot what we please and walk where we like, regardless of crops or 
boundaries.”—P. 21. 


A doubt has long been entertained on the unity of species of 
these winged multitudes; some authors referring them all to 
Columbia livia, others considering that there is a large inter- 
mixture of a second species, Columbia Schimperi. This doubt 


3384 THE ZooLoGisT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


does not seem dissipated by the evidence of the volume before me. 
It is well known that the usual distinctive character of Columba 
livia is the white rump; but this character is lost in domestication, 
—I mean lost as distinctive,—for the white rump is far more 
uncommon then any other colour: thus it is evident that this 
character becomes inconstant and almost evanescent under con- 
tinued domestication. At Oban I observed many pigeons breeding 
in the rocks, and here also the white rump is by uo means 
invariable: the rump, or more properly the lower part of the back, 
including the tail-coverts, is frequently blue or gray. Professor 
Macgillivray disposes of this variation by supposing it a proof of 
domestication. This usually logical writer seems rather to con- 
tradict himself in the following passage:—“ Among the vast 
numbers of undoubtedly wild specimens which I have seen, I have 
not observed any remarkable variations of form and colour: the 
dark coloured, purple and white individuals which are occasionally 
seen consorting with the wild doves, or residing in maritime caves 
or rocks, are in all probability domestic birds that have betaken 
themselves to the original mode of life."—Vol.i., p.27. Still such 
variation is of common occurrence, and, whatever the explanation, 
the white rump has completely vanished from the dark-coloured 
and purple individuals. The same aberration of colouring has 
occurred on our south coast, where the species is far from abundant, 
and hence it has been said that Columba znas is occasionally 
found breeding on rocks—the determination of the species, I sup- 
pose, being decided by the colour of the rump. In Ireland one 
sees many piebald doves breeding on the rocky coasts, and this 
piebald appearance has led to the proposal of a new species, 
Columba macularia. This supposed species, which wants the black 
bars on the wing as well as the white rump, breeds in great numbers 
at Sybil Head, as recorded by Mr. Andrews in a paper read before 
the Dublin Natural History Society in November, 1841. I will 
now quote Mr, Shelley’s observations on this variation as observed 
in Egypt. 


“By far the greater proportion of Egyptian pigeons haye a gray rump, 
and such birds I refer to the next species, Columba Schimperi, although 
I consider the colour of the rump to be a rather doubtful mark of specific 
distinction, as one cannot feel sure of the purity of the breed of even the 
apparently wild race.”"—P. 212. 


. 
EE 


THE ZOoLOGIST—FEBRUARY, 1873. 8385 


Of Columba Schimperi, Mr. Shelley writes thus :— 

“T think there can be no doubt that there are two races mixed in the 
vast semi-domesticated flocks, and living more or less in a pure wild state 
in the cliffs which in some places border the river. The one race has a white 
rump, and is C. livia; the other, and by far the most abundant, has a slate- 
coloured rump, and belongs to the present species. Von Heuglin does not 
admit the specific distinctness of these two races, and considers them all to 
belong to C. livia, which is in my opinion an error. Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, 
1867), on the other hand, includes all the pigeons under the name of 
C. Schimperi, with the following observations :—‘ Flocks of pigeons, per- 
fectly wild, frequent the precipitous rocks that here and there border the 
Nile. I have frequently shot examples of them, and have always found 
them to possess the characteristics of Columba Schimperi, being decidedly 
and conspicuously distinguishable from C. livia by the absence of the white 
rump which forms so marked a feature in that species.’ I have certainly 
shot pigeons both with and without the white rump; the former must 
undoubtedly be C. livia, and the latter, which, on many occasions, had the 
strongest claims to be considered pure-bred wild birds, I refer to the present 
species, C. Schimperi, as they were certainly not C. nas, a bird of whose 
capture in Egypt I entertain very strong doubts.”—P. 218. 


From these observations and opinions various questions may 
arise:—1. Are there one or two species of rock dove in Britain 
and Egypt? 2. Is the domesticated species in Britain identical 
with the domesticated pigeons in Egypt? 3. Are the wild rock 
doves of Britain identical with the domesticated rock doves of 
Britain? 4. Are the wild rock doves of Egypt identical with the 
semi-domesticated rock doves of Egypt? Of course I draw no 
line between the term “dove” and “ pigeon.” Supposing that the 
perfectly wild and thoroughly domesticated pigeons or doves con- 
stitute but a single species it is an interesting phenomenon, for 
we find in almost all other instances a doubt expressed whether the 
same species can exist, flourish and abundantly increase, under 
these two opposite conditions. 

There is an amusing passage as to the difficulty of meeting with 
wild duck in the marshes at Damietta. Mr. Shelley was assured 
there were ducks in the neighbourhood, and his guide accounted 
for their invisibility by pointing to the bottom of the lake, and 
asserting that they were all asleep there during the heat of the day, 
and would come up again in the evening: he adds:— 

“ Ducks are certainly extremely abundant in the neighbourhood ; for that 
evening we saw what we at first took to be a thunder-cloud, but what proved 


3386 THE ZooLoGIstT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


to be an immense flock of wild-fowl, and I saw similar flocks upon several 
occasions towards flight time, but could never get within range.”—P. 26. 


However, notwithstanding this mystery and disappointment about 
ducks, Mr. Shelley was very successful in his shooting in the Delta, 
and obtained several species he did not meet with afterwards: he 
gives a list of these as a guide to other ornithologists. 


“1. Aquila imperialis, Imperial Eagle. 
2. Circus @ruginosus, Marsh Harrier. Far more abundant in adult 
plumage in the Delta than elsewhere. 
. Scops giu, Scops Eared Owl. Tolerably plentiful near Alexandria. 
. Centropus egyptius, Egyptian Lark-heeled Cuckoo. 
. Alcedo bengalensis, Small Indian Kingfisher. 
. Acrocephalus stentorius. Near Damietta in March and April. 
. Calamodyta melanopogon. In the same marsh through the year. 
. Chettusia leucura, Whitetailed Plover. 

9. Rhynchea capensis, Painted Snipe. 

Bittern, spotted crake, many kinds of ducks, gulls and terns. Among 
the common English birds which are likely to be met with south of the 
Delta, are the blackbird, robin, stonechat, linnet, chaffinch, goldfinch, rook, 
starling, golden and gray plovers, and water rail.”—P. 27. 


mt oO o — oO 


We have no interviews with crocodiles from beginning to end of 
the volume, but reliable evidence, if such were required, that they 
still frequent the Nile, and strong presumptive evidence that 
they occasionally make a meal of a juvenile native. 


« Ags we ascend the river we come to the perpendicular rocks of Gebel 
Aboofayda, which rise precipitously out of the water: this is a good 
locality for meeting with the crocodile: and here during my last tour Lord 
Ducie killed one, which, on dissection, proved to contain in its stomach all 
the ornaments of a native child.”"—P. 44. 


I make the next extract to show that the supposed species into 
which Sylvia suecica has been divided by the greater or less 
amount of rufous colour on the breast must be abandoned: the 
note on its habits, confirming as it does Captain Hadfield’s 
observations on a specimen in the Isle of Wight, is very interesting. 
The passage also will remove the prevalent notion that Sylvia 
suecica is peculiarly a northern species. 

«This is an extremely abundant species in some parts of the Delta, and 


is very generally distributed throughout Egypt and Nubia, especially in the 
damper localities, or where the vegetation grows to the height of several feet. 


THE ZooLocist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 3387 


Although it frequents reedy marshes and mustard-fields, or wherever vege- 
tation is luxuriant, it rarely alights upon the plants, but almost invariably 
keeps on the ground, where it runs with tail upraised, stopping every now 
and then to pick up an inscct or to watch the intruder from the edge of its . 
retreat. Specimens differ considerably in the colour of the spot on the throat, 
which may be met with in all stages from pure white to rufous.”—P. 85. 


The following note on Savi’s warbler, in what may be considered 
its home, will be interesting to those who bear in mind that it was 
formerly a regular summer visitor to our eastern counties, coming 
to breed there, and leaving in the autumn. 


“This warbler is resident in Egypt, tolerably abundant, and generally 
distributed. It usually frequents cornfields, selecting the spots where the 
crop grows most luxuriantly ; and it may also be found in the reedy marshes 
of the Delta and Fayoom, where I have frequently seen it and occasionally 
procured specimens. When disturbed it leaves its shelter very reluctantly 
and flits away hurriedly, flying close to the top of the herbage for a short 
distance, and then it suddenly dips down and is immediately hidden. Nor 
will it allow itself to be driven far from the place whence it originally started, 
but if pursued prefers to seek shelter by creeping among the stalks of the 
plants rather than expose itself again by taking wing. On this account the 
bird is difficult to procure, and is consequently rare in collections.”—P. 89. 


The usefulness of the kestrel as an insect-eater is briefly noticed: 
Mr. Shelley on one occasion saw at least a hundred in a single 
clump of palm trees, attracted by the locusts which were passing in 
dense continuous clouds beneath them: like the redfooted falcons, 
the kestrels of both the Egyptian species seem to feed almost 
exclusively on insects. The same is the case with the black- 
shouldered hawk (Elanus ceruleus), a northern resident Egyptian, 
which— 


“Generally frequents the sont trees; but I have rarely observed more 
than a pair in the same clump. The food consists of insects and mice, 
which I have seen it pursuing after sunset when I have been waiting for 
duck. Being by no means shy, its habits may be easily observed, and I have 
seen a bird occasionally remaining perched upon the top bough of a sont 
tree for hours together, uttering at intervals a low cry to its mate, who is 
rarely far off. By this rather peculiar cry, which it frequently repeats while 
sitting on its eggs, I was attracted to its nest on one occasion. The eggs, 
though rare in collections, are by no means difficult to find in Egypt. It 
begins breeding towards the end of February, and appears invariably to 
select a sont tree for its nest, which is constructed of sticks and reeds put 


3388 THE ZooLocist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


together with some care, and smoothly lined with the dried leaves of the 
sugar-canes. The eggs somewhat resemble those of the kestrel, but are 
rarely quite as rounded in shape, and show more of the white ground, 
while the brown markings look like dry paint smeared carelessly over the 
surface." —P. 199. 


The spotted eagle (Aguila nevia), of which no less than six 
specimens have been obtained in the British Islands, is the most 
abundant species of eagle in Egypt, but is less plentiful in Nubia. 
During Mr. Shelley’s visit to the Fayoom, in February and March, 
it was extremely plentiful, and was generally to be seen sitting still 
near the water’s edge. Like our British eagles, it was frequently 
observed devouring pieces of decomposing fish, which appeared to 
constitute its chief food in the Fayoom. As might be expected, 
vultures are plentiful enough in Egypt, Gypaétus nudipes, Vultur 
monachus, V. auricularis, Gyps fulvus and Neophron percnopterus, 
the two last particularly. At Edfou Mr. Shelley met with several 
hundreds of Gyps fulvus around the body of a dead camel, which 
they were so reluctant to leave that his dragoman struck at them 
repeatedly with his stick before they would take wing. Neophron 
percnopterus was extremely abundant throughout Egypt and Nubia, 
where they might daily be seen feeding in pairs or flocks upon the 
offal around the villages, or slaking their thirst on the opposite 
sand-banks. : 

It is seldom we have an opportunity of learning anything of the 
pratincole from an eye-witness: it seems that this curious bird is 
another follower of the swarms of locusts, aud dependent on them 
for its chief sustenance. I may mention that Mr. Shelley places 
it in the family Charadriide, thus indicating his views of its 
affinities. 


“ This pratincole arrives in Egypt in great numbers about the middle 
of April. I first met with itear Assouan on the 15th of that month, and 
afterwards saw it in great abundance as I descended the Nile, sometimes on 
the bare fields, but more frequently by the sides of small pools or on the 
numerous sand-banks of the river. The flight is very peculiar and varied, 
the birds at times passing rapidly through the air in flocks, like plovers, or 
else floating at a considerable height with outspread wings, or again playing 
over the water after the manner of terns. When I first saw a single specimen 
of this bird rise from a small pool, I should have taken it for a green sand- 
- piper, which it closely resembled ia the colour of its back and flight, had it 
not been for the greater length of the pinions. Probably the larger portion 


Tue ZooLocist—FEBRvARY, 1873. 3389 


of these flocks do not remain in the country to breed, but pass on into 
Europe, returning again in October or November on their way south. 
When I met with them their chief food consisted of locusts, which were 
extremely abundant.”—P. 227. 


The creamcoloured courser is so rare a bird with us that the least 
scrap of intelligence respecting it is eagerly sought and most thank- 
fully received. Mr. Shelley seems to have met with it only once, 
but that once afforded him an excellent opportunity of observing 
and recording the cursorial powers from which it has received its 
most appropriate name: wy reader is referred to Mr. Harting’s 
‘Handbook’ for the particulars of the score of specimens which 
have been observed in Great Britain. The following is Mr. Shelley’s 
account of his interview with these birds: it seems,to have ter- 
minated greatly to their disadvantage. 


“This species, although a resident, is not very abundant in either 
Egypt or Nubia. It is a desert bird, preferring the sandy wastes to 
the more cultivated parts, and is generally to be met with in small 
flocks, probably consisting of the last year’s brood. I myself only 
found it on one occasion, on the 4th of February, opposite Aboo- 
fayda, where I had a most exciting chase, as I had recognized the birds, 
and was anxious to procure a specimen. They were four in number, 
and very shy; they, however, preferred running to flying, never re- 
maining long on the wing. Finding that I could not stalk them in the 
ordinary way, I drove them towards a bush, and then making a long round 
got up to that piece of covert, and shot one.and broke the leg of a second. 
This wounded bird detained the other two, and enabled me to procure one 
of them. The wounded one was now alone, and so shy that I had great 
difficulty in procuring it, which I finally succeeded in doing by walking on 
one side instead of directly towards it, when it crouched on the sand, hoping 
to be passed unobserved; and thus, after an hour's pursuit, I obtained my 
third specimen.”—P. 227. 


I do not recollect a single instance in which that singular bird 
the spurwinged plover has vouchsafed to pay us Britons a visit: it 
is distingnished by the possession of a sharp black spur on the 
carpal joint of the wing. Mr. Shelley has not recorded any 
observation as to the use of this extraordinary but not unique 
armature; but perhaps he concludes all his readers should be 
already informed on its pugnacious or defensive habits: it is a 
common thing for authors to assume too much knowledge on the 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. H 


3390 THE ZooLocisT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


part of the readers, and thus, from the fear.of being charged with 
telling a thrice-told tale, they withhold information which would be 
acceptable to the majority of their readers, though perhaps perfectly 
familiar to the better informed minority. Mr. Shelley’s notes on 
the breeding habits of this plover are interesting. 


“The spurwinged plover is one of the most abundant birds in Egypt, 
where it remains throughout the year. In the fields and on the sand-banks 
it may be constantly seen, either sitting motionless, with head depressed, 
and shoulders up, trying to elude observation, or else standing erect, and 
constantly moving the body with a little spasmodic jerk. Its ery is loud 
and varied, and is frequently heard. In March this species commences to 
breed, at which season I have found as many as thirty nests close together 
towards the point of a sand-bank: it also breeds in the fields. The nest 
consists of a neat circular shallow hole in the sand, roughly lined with short 
pieces of dried reed, just sufficient to prevent the eggs from touching the 
ground.”—P. 232. 


Again, I cannot forbear quoting a short passage on that rarity 
of rarities, the blackwinged stilt. How often have I read dear old 
Gilbert White’s account of the six that were seen, and the five that 
were killed, on Frensham Pond, and his reflection on their strange 
and abnormal length of limb! How often have I meditated on his 
narrative, and his calculation that had the birds weighed four pounds, 
and had the legs been elongated in proportion, they would have 
measured “one hundred and twenty inches and a fraction!” How 
often have I envied that good Bishop of Winchester who possessed 
that “large lake lying between Wolmer Forest and the town of 
Farnham”! How often have I visited that large lake and looked 
in vain for the “stilt plovers,” as White was the first to call them. 
How have I longed to see that classical specimen which was 
“stuffed with pepper”! How often have I thought of its being “a 
bad walker, and liable, in speculation, to perpetual vacillations, and 
seldom able to preserve the true centre of gravity.” And here we 
have a gentleman of veracity who says that he has seen them daily 
striding about the shallow pools of the Delta perfectly indifferent 
to the astonished gaze of man. 


“Abundant both in Egypt and Nubia, but more especially so in the 
Delta, where it may be almost daily seen in sinall flocks, striding about the 
shallow pools which are so frequent near the villages, perfectly undisturbed 
by the presence of man, for the natives never molest it.”—P. 260. 


a 


THE ZOOLOGIST—FEBRUARY, 1873. 339] 


Then we come to the sacred Egyptian ibis, sacred no longer, 
Egyptian no longer: we seem to feel an intense desire to learn 
more of his history than the author has given us, infinitesimally 
small, and either purely negative or entirely speculative. The 
reason why the ibis was so esteemed in olden Egypt—a fact which 
its mummified remains seem to attest—was, according to Herodotus, 
its intense antipathy to snakes and other reptiles; and, in the 
estimation of that venerated historian, the ibis seems to have held 
office in the preventive service of Egypt, its duty being to keep all 
snakes out of the kingdom; a similar office was held in Ireland by 
St. Patrick, who until this day exercises his restraining influence 
to such an extent, that every attempt made to acclimatise snake or 
adder in the sister island has proved an utter failure; and the pro- 
hibition extends even to the innocent toad: this I cannot help 
attributing to the saint’s imperfect knowledge of Natural History. 
It is a bold suggestion, I confess, but while [ am calling in ques- 
tion these Celeberrimt, I may say that, supposing the ibis to have 
fed on snakes in the time of Herodotus, and thus merited divine 
honour, I should be inclined to attribute the propensity rather to a 
taste for that particular diet than to an antipathy to the animals 
themselves; thus in different ages we see things in a different light, 
and it is with extreme diffidence that I venture an opinion opposed 
to that of the Father of History. Dr. Baird, in his ‘ Cyclopedia 
of the Natural Sciences, informs us that the ibis “is a migratory 
species: it makes its appearance in Egypt as soon as the waters of 
the Nile begin to rise, and disappears when the inundation ter- 
minates.” The Rev. J. G. Wood repeats this information, adding 
“and therefore deprived it of its daily supplies of food: the bird 
probably owes its sacred character to the fact that its appearance 
denotes the rising of the Nile, an annual phenomenon on which 
depends the prosperity of the whole country.” (Wood’s Nat. Hist. 
ii. 689.) This phenomenon, as will be seen below, escaped the 
notice of Mr. Shelley, as it has of all the ornithologists who visit 
Egypt; and hence the inference as to its connection with the once- 
sacred character of the ibis, has not been adopted by these practical 
observers. 


“T can find no authenticated instance of this bird having been seen 
in Egypt in modern times, although there can be no doubt that it 
once lived in that country; for the food found in many of the mum- 
mied specimens consists of shells, insects and reptiles, now common in 


3392 THE ZooLocist—FEBRvARY, 1873. 


Egypt. Some authors imagine that the ibis was brought into the 
country by the ancient Egyptians; but this appears to me highly im- 
probable, as it would be the only instance of an animal not indigenous to 
Egypt having been made an object of general worship by that people.”— 
P. 261. 


The last bird I shall mention is Allen’s gallinule (Porphyrio 
Alleni), so named by Mr. Shelley in honour of its discoverer, the 
late S. Stafford Allen, a most intelligent, enthusiastic and per- 
severing ornithologist, who died in Egypt at an early age, sincerely 
lamented not only by his friends, but by a large circle of his brother 
naturalists. The bird which now bears his name is of smaller size 
and more graceful form than the familiar and beautiful violet 
gallinule (Porphyrio hyacinthinus), which Mr. Shelley met with 
abundantly in the Fayoom: he never saw P. Alleni, with the ex- 
ception of an immature specimen lent him for description in this 
work, P. hyacinthinus frequents thick beds of reeds and _half- 
sunken bushes, and, like the common moorhen, is very partial to 
perching up in them, and if unobserved will remain there motionless 
until the sportsman has passed, before taking wing. 

A word at parting. The value of these local lists, interspersed 
with notes as to breeding habits, migration, food, &c., possess more 
than a passing interest: when made with the care and with the 
truthfulness which are so evident in Mr. Shelley’s volume, they 
constitute the material out of which Natural History must ever be 
woven ; they are the warp and woof of some rich fabric the artificer 
of which has not yet made himself known in the world. 

The coloured plates by Mr. Keulemans are excellent, and possess 
a seemingly truthful character which greatly enhances their value: 
by what inspiration he has managed to infuse life into the repre- 
sentation of bird-skins, Iam at a loss to conceive. Of course I am 
unable to vouch for the attitudes he has given them. I can only 


say that they look easy and natural. 
Epwarp NEWMAN. 


Ornithological Notes from Devon, Cornwall, &c. 
By Joun Gatcomsg, Esq. 


SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER, 1872. 


Guillemot, Starling, Wood Lark, §c.—It appears that for a short 
time during the autumnal moult the guillemot must be unable to 


THE ZooLocisT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 3393 


fly, as to-day (September 10th) I examined one which had the entire 
set of primary, secondary and greater wing-covert feathers quite 
new, perfectly regular and beautifully formed, though very short, 
the longest of the former not exceeding one inch. Also observed 
numbers of young starlings, with black patches and white spots 
already appearing in various places on the plain brown immature 
‘dress. Was glad to see several families of young wood larks 
frequenting the same fields in which I observed pairs of old ones 
during the spring. ‘Titlarks are now to be seen in their bright 
autumnal dress; and many of the stubble-fields are alive with large 
flocks of gleaning sparrows and finches. 

Lesser Blackbacked Gull, Wheatear, §e.—Sept. 11. Examined 
an adult lesser blackbacked gull which still retained the pure white 
head and neck of the breeding season. A great many wheatears, 
both young and old, have made their appearance on the coast 
previous to their departure for the winter. Was told by one of the 
Eddystone Lighthouse men that great numbers of small birds flew 
against the lantern during the spring, especially wheatears, many 
of which were picked up in the gallery and on the rock below, and 
that on one occasion there were enough for the men to make a 
“jolly roast,” as he termed it. 

Raven, Blackheaded Gull, Green Woodpecker, §c.—Sept. 12, 
Saw in Bickleigh Vale, near Plymouth, several ravens, many green 
woodpeckers and kestrels. Observed, on the 13th, the first black- 
headed gulls in the harbour after their return from the breeding 
stations. On the 14th noticed many water ouzels, gray wagtails 
and a kingfisher or two on the River Avon. 

Sanderling.—Sept. 16. Examined some sanderlings which were 
killed on the coast. This species, generally scarce in our neigh- 
bourhood, appears to have been unusually plentiful during the past 
few weeks. 

Pied Jackdaw.—Sept. 17. Near Lifton saw a jackdaw which 
much resembled a magpie, and a few years since saw two pure 
white ones which were killed at Launceston, about four miles from 
the above place, and which I believe were bred on Launceston 
Castle. 

Rooks and Gulls.—Sept. 21. Observed sixteen rooks flying round 
and dipping in the water among a flock of gulls, at the stern of the 
“Royal Adelaide” in the harbour. Acting like gulls has become 
quite a habit with the rooks in our harbours. 


3394 Tue ZooLoGist—FEBRuvARY, 1873. 


Snipes, Herring Gulls, §c.—Sept. 23. Going by the rivers Teign 
and Exe, on my way into Somersetshire, observed an immense 
number of blackheaded and herring gulls on the mud-banks, which 
took no notice of the passing train, though within forty yards of it. 
When visiting the flat marshy moor near Bridgwater noticed 
kestrels to be very plentiful, attracted no doubt by a kind of 
short-tailed mouse, or vole, which abounds in that locality. On 
examining the stomach of one which had been shot, I found 
it to be perfectly crammed with their remains. ‘These kestrels 
are much persecuted by crows, which are also plentiful in the 
neighbourhood. Notwithstanding the good this hawk must do 
to the farmers, yet I am sorry to say it is killed whenever an oppor- 
tunity offers. Was told that early in August the willow-beds on 
these marshes were visited by an unusually large flight of snipes, 
which, however, remained for a day or two only. Whilst writing 
about snipes, I may mention a curious circumstance which was ob- 
served by a friend of mine when snipe-shooting in Devonshire a few 
years ago. On rising one of these birds he observed that it flew in 
a most extraordinary manner; marking it down, he again raised and 
shot it, when to his great surprise he found that a large earthworm, 
which it must have been in the act of swallowing, had coiled three- 
fourths of its length round the bird’s neck, reminding him much of 
the heron and eel in Yarrell’s vignette. October 5.—Observed 
swallows for the last time near Bridgwater. Saw several king- 
fishers on the banks of the canal between that place and Taunton. 

A Visit to Dozmare Pool.—Oct. 6. Heard wood larks singing 
beautifully in Cornwall. Went with some friends to a rather cele- 
brated spot called “ Dozmare Pool” on the Cornish moors, in the 
parish of St. Neot, and not far from the Bodmin road, where 
I expected to see some birds, but was rather disappointed: how- 
ever, some people who lived near the place informed me that 
numbers of ducks, geese,,and even swans were seen there in the 
winter, and that there was some good snipe-shooting to be had in 
the neighbourhood, which, from the appearance of the locality, 
I fully believe. Dozmare Pool is about a mile in circumference, 
and the formation of such a body of water on high ground is con- 
sidered singular and curious. There is a popular legend attached 
to this pool, which is this:—That a person named Tregeagle, rich 
and powerful, but very wicked, guilty of murder and other heinous 
crimes, lived near this place, and that after his death his spirit 


Tue ZooLoGist—FEBRUARY, 1878. 3395 


haunted the neighbourhood, but was at length exorcised and laid 
to rest in Dozmare Pool; but having in his lifetime disposed of his 
soul and body to the “ wicked one,” his infernal majesty takes great 
pleasure in tormenting him by imposing on him difficult tasks, such 
as spinning a rope with sand, and dipping out the pool with a limpet- 
shell with a hole in the bottom, &c., and at times amuses himself 
with hunting him over the moors with his hell-hounds, at which 
time Tregeagle is heard to how] and roar in a most dreadful manner, 
so that “roaring and howling like Tregeagle” is no uncommon 
expression amongst the people in Cornwall; indeed many would 
not go near the place after dark for the world. Now I must not 
dismiss this subject without mentioning what happened during our 
visit to this mysterious pool. The day being exceedingly hot, with 
a blazing sun and not a breath of wind stirring, we, being rather 
tired and hungry, sat down to lunch, after which, feeling drowsy, a 
death-like silence prevailing at the time, we were almost in a state 
of doze, when suddenly a noise, as if a mighty whirlwind filled the 
air, then, with the “ whish” of an express train dashing through a 
station, a flight of a thousand golden plovers rushed by and were 
out of sight in an instant. One of our party, a young rifleman, 
who was, I think, fast asleep at the time, and perhaps dreaming of 
Tregeagle, started up, exclaiming, “ What on earth is that? where’s 
my rifle? Iwish I had brought my rifle.’ But, rifle or no rifle, 
I think he was far too flurried to have used it. Under the circum- 
stances, however, perhaps it was sufficient to startle any one. After 
all, I was much pleased with Dozmare Pool, and the sight of the 
golden plovers alone would have fully repaid my visit. I have an 
idea that the supposed noise of the “ hell-hounds” might be caused 
by the flights of wild geese over the moor at night. 

Iceland Gull.—Oct. 9. Remarked a fine Iceland gull flying from 
the Sound into the harbour, where it joined a flock of about fifty her- 
ring gulls. I have rarely seen the Iceland gull so early in the season. 

Rednecked Phalarope, §c.—Oct. 12. Examined a young red- 
necked phalarope which had been sent from Cornwall to be stuffed. 
It was seen on the 10th busily swimming about on a pond about 
two miles from the sea, at Treharrock, in the parish of St. Kew, 
seemingly in pursuit of flies, but when shot at and missed, it flew to 
another pond not far off, the wind at the time blowing very hard 
from the eastward. In its stomach I found the remains of flies 
and minute beetles, the elytra of which were prettily punctured. 


8396 THE ZooLocist— FEBRUARY, 1873. 


The rednecked phalarope is very scarce in Devon and Cornwall. 
Observed flocks of redwings going west; weather very cold and 
showery. Many gannets have been seen in the channel lately. 

Golden Plover, §c.—Oct. 14. Several scaups, goldeneyes and 
wigeon in the Plymouth Market, with a few snipes, but golden 
plovers very plentiful. 

House Martin.—Oct. 17. Observed a solitary house martin flying 
about the streets. ; 

Summer Duck, &§c.—Oct. 18. Went into Cornwall and observed 
large flocks of fieldfares, redwings, lapwings, and a few herons and 
curlews on the moors; also flights of titlarks, apparently just arrived. 
Two summer ducks (Anas sponsa) were killed out of a small flock 
of four on the River Erme, near Plymouth, but I have no doubt 
they must have escaped from some private pond, although they 
were said to have been exceedingly wary. : 

Arrival of Winter Visitants—Oct. 22. Wind blowing hard fro 
the N.N.E. and very cold. A great many cormorants and shags 
diving about in our bays and estuaries. The common gull or 
“mew” has also returned from its breeding station, and robins, 
wrens and kingfishers are now to be found taking up their winter 
quarters under the cliffs on the sea-coast. Notwithstanding the 
late gales I have remarked but few terns. 

Gray Phalarope, §c.— Oct. 26. Several woodcocks in the market, 
and on the 27th two gray phalaropes were seen swimming off the 
Plymouth Hoe, just in front of an inclosed pool kept as a store-pond 
for marine animals intended for the Crystal Palace Aquarium. 

Robin and Humming-bird Moth.—About a month since, when 
greatly interested in watching the actions of a humming-bird moth 
among some garden flowers, a robin flew down from a high wall 
and hovered, kestrel-like, over the moth for several seconds, with 
its legs and feet thrust out in a most awkward manner, as if it were 
going to clutch it, when suddenly the moth, seeing its danger, 
vanished “like magic.” It was indeed a most extraordinary, and 
at the same time ludicrous, sight to behold these two hovering one 
above the other, as the robin appeared to be imitating the actions 
of the moth to the best of its ability. 

Ring Dotterel and Limpet.—\n the October number of the 
‘Zoologist’” there was a circumstance mentioned concerning a 
sanderling and cockle. Now I can relate something very similar 
which happened some years ago on the Plymouth Breakwater. 


ee 


THE ZooLoGist—FEBRUARY, 1873. $397 


A workman observing a bird fluttering in a rather extraordinary 
manner ran to see what was the cause, when he found that in 
running about a ring dotterel had somehow got its toe under a 
limpet, which in closing instantly to the rock held it fast until the 
man came up, who with his knife at once disengaged the limpet 
and set the poor bird free. 

Sparrows.—To show how plentiful sparrows are in the stubble- 
fields just now, I copied the following this morning (November 
13th) from the ‘Bridgwater Mercury’:—“‘ On Wednesday, as 
Mr. James Wills, jun., was shooting in his father’s stubble-field he 
observed a large number of sparrows, and with the discharge of a 
single barrel he killed three dozen and one.” 

Cormorant and Shag.—November 1. Still blowing very hard. 
Cormorants and shags plentiful, more especially the latter, which 
have become extremely tame, swimming and diving about in our 
bays and estuaries close to the shore. 

Cornish Chough.—Nov. 2. Examined a nice Cornish chough, 
which had been trapped on the coast: the stomach contained 
nothing but very fine sand. 

Havfinch.—Nov. 5. Examined a hawfinch, which had been 
killed at Lampen, near Liskeard, Cornwall. The contents of its 
stomach were cracked stones and kernels of the hawthorn berry. 
This bird appears only at uncertain intervals in Devon and 
Cornwall. 

Rock Pipit.— Nov. 11. When rambling on the coast a few 
miles from Plymouth I came across a most remarkable “lusus,” 
in the shape of a rock pipit which had four legs, but no tail (at 
least, where it should have been), but that appendage bad actually 
made its appearance on the head just above the left eye, and pro- 
jecting behind, very like the depressed crest of a hoopoe. This 
“head-tail” (if I might so call it) seemed to be quite perfect and 
full grown, the outer feather on each side being marked with the 
usual dull white. Two of its legs were in their proper places, but 
the other pair were dangling from behind, the feet touching the 
ground, but of no earthly use, being dragged along, as it were, after 
the bird, and appearing thin, shrivelled and light in colour, with 
the claws much produced. Indeed it was a perfect “ nightmare” 
ofabird. There could be no possible mistake as to its appearance, 
as my friend Mr. Bignell and I watched it “off and on” for more 
than two hours with a powerful pocket-telescope, and could see it 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. I 


8398 THE ZooLtocist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


as plainly as if it were in our hands. It was very active, running 
about and feeding among the sea-weed in company with many of 
its own species and others, none of which attempted to molest it. 
It appeared to have no power either of spreading or erecting 
this tail-crest. I have seen a domestic chicken, not long 
hatched, with similar hind legs, and another with two bodies, four 
wings and one head, but I believe such monstrosities seldom live. 
On either side of the rump of this extraordinary rock pipit were tufts 
of slate-coloured feathers, from under which the legs appeared. 

Golden Plover, Fieldfare and Black Redstart.—Novy. 12. Wind 
N.E., blowing very cold. Observed three black redstarts on the 
rocks near the Devil’s Point, Stonehouse, and large flocks of golden 
plovers and fieldfares flying over the fields along the coast beyond 
Bovisand. 

Small Birds feeding off Heaps of Sea-weed.—Novy. 13. Walked 
many miles on the cliffs towards the Mewstone, at the mouth of 
the River Yealm. Noticed a great many cormorants, shags, gulls 
and a few ducks; but what struck me most was the great variety 
of land birds which I saw feeding on the large heaps of decayed 
sea-weed accumulated in the fields to be used for manure. On 
some of these very decomposed and dreadfully “ smelly’? masses 
I observed the following species at the same time :—Sparrows, 
chaffinches, cirl and yellow buntings, linnets, titlarks, rock larks, 
pied and gray wagtails, hedgesparrows, stonechats, robins, wrens, 
and large flocks of starlings, not forgetting numerous blue titmice, 
which latter pay particular attention to these rotten, almost liquid 
masses, which breed no end of maggots, flies, &c. I have seen these 
heaps quite white with the droppings of the numerous birds that 
settle thereon. One day I observed about thirty missel thrushes in 
a stubble-field on the cliffs just above the sea. 

Quails and Stock Doves.—I1 was told a short time ago that several 
quails were seen during the past autumn near Tiverton, Devon, 
and that at the approach of winter multitudes of stock doves 
(Columba enas) make their appearance in the woods, feeding on 
the beech-mast. Stock doves are very rare in our neighbourhood 
and also in Cornwall. 

Brown Owl.—A week or two since 1 examined a brown owl, 
which had flown down a chimney at Sheepstor, on Dartmoor, during 
the severe cold winds that prevailed at the time. A servant girl, on 
going to light the fire early in the morning, saw, as she said, “ two 


= eee 


THE ZooLoGIsT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 8399 


great eyes” staring at her, and, being dreadfully frightened, called 
out lustily for her master, who on rushing in was just in time to see 
something disappearing up the chimney, and bravely thrusting up 
his hand to pull this “‘ something” down, got “something” for his 
pains which he will not forget in a hurry, his hand being, as I was 
informed, severely torn. 

Scoter and Northern Diver.—November 19. Saw some common 
scoters and a large northern diver swimming and diving off the 
“ west mud” in the Hamoaze. Scoters appear in large flocks some- 
times during November on our coast, especially should the wind be 
easterly, when they are tolerably tame; but, strange to say, although 
the large guns of the “ Cambridge” gunnery ship were discharging 
shot at a target in the vicinity of the above-mentioned scoters and 
divers, they seemed to take little or no heed of the noise. As the 
big guns are constantly firing close to the “ west mud,” I think the 
birds about that locality must have become used to them, *ust as 
they do to a passing train. 

Snow Bunting and Siskin.—November 20. Dissected a very 
fine snow bunting which had been killed in the neighbourhood 
of Mary Tavy: it was very fat, and its stomach contained minute 
seeds and rather coarse transparent sand or gravel. Snow buntings 
are very uncommon with us in Devonshire. ‘Two or three days 
previously several siskins were seen, and some caught, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Liskeard, Cornwall. 

Kittiwake Gull.—Nov. 23. During a severe gale from the S.W;, 
flocks of kittiwakes made their appearance in the Sound and Hae 
bour, many of which were so exhausted as to allow themselves to 
be knocked down with stones and sticks. How strange it seems 
that these poor birds should suffer so much during protracted gales, 
when the other species of gulls do not appear to be affected in the 
least. Hundreds of these innocent visitors have been shot during 
the last fortnight, I am sorry to say. 

Richardson’s Skua.—Nov. 25. Saw a fine adult Richardson’s 
skua fly past the Devil’s Point at Stonehouse. Its somewhat gliding 
flight was swift and elegant, but it did not attempt to molest any 
of the smaller gulls on its way, so I think it was merely seeking 
refuge from the heavy gale that was blowing at the time. I was 
near enough to see that its upper plumage was smoke-gray, with a 
white patch or two on the wings, such as most if not every species 
of skua is sometimes subject to. The top of its head was very 


3400 TuE Zoo.ocist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


dark, nearly black, and the neck light, tinged with straw-yellow. 
I possess a mature specimen of Richardson’s skua, the butts of the 
wings of which are of pure white, and there are also white patches 
on other parts of the body. 

Forktailed Petrel and Purple Sandpiper.—Nov. 28. A beautiful 
forktailed petrel was brought to a birdstuffer for preservation, which 
was said to have fallen dead on the deck of a government ship. 
Another was seen off the Plymouth Hoe a day or two before. On 
the same day I observed two purple sandpipers feeding on the rocks 
close to the surf, the spray of which sometimes dashed over them. 

Northern Diver.—Nov. 29. I remarked a very large northern 
diver near Bovisand Bay. 

JoHn GATCOMBE. 


8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth, 
December 6, 1872. 


Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. 
By Joun Corpeaux, Esq. 
(Continued from §. 8. 3323.) 


NovEMBER AND DECEMBER, 1872. 


Shorteared Owl.—These owls have been very common during 
the autumn. I frequently put them up from rough grass and 
beds of yellow reeds on the drain-banks, places which they are 
partial to, as they afford both dry and thick cover; the colour of 
the dead grasses and reeds also harmonizes exactly with the chaste 
and sober yellow-buffs and browns of the bird’s feathers, making 
it difficult to detect. In fact, I have sometimes been first attracted, 
when my dog has pointed one, by catching the brilliant round eye 
of the bird. They sit close, often till nearly trodden upon, going 
away at last with a lazy, zigzag, gull-like flight, and generally 
alight after flying one or two hundred yards, pitching on some 
prominent clod: here the owl sits, with his body partly inclined, 
moving his head slowly from side to side, his eyes glittering like 
orbs of polished metal. I have then sometimes walked quite close 
to him, particularly if accompanied by my dogs; they always 
show immense curiosity at the sight of a dog, especially if drawing 
slowly forward on the point: the owl then always looks more 
inclined to fight than fly away. Between the 8th and 10th of 
December there was a second arrival of owls in our marshes. The 


THE ZooLocist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 3401 


weather at the time was very disturbed. On the 8th, Sunday, a 
very heavy gale, amounting in some places to a hurricane, swept 
along the west, the south aud south-east of England; and also on 
the 9th and 10th there was a heavy gale from N.E. on the coast of 
Durham and North Yorkshire. These storms were scarcely felt in 
North Lincolnshire, although their course was completely round 
us. On the 10th a friend, shooting in the marshes, flushed either 
ten or eleven shorteared owls from a patch of rushes. Since this 
date, also, I have nearly daily put up one or two on the drain- 
banks. 

Longtailed Tit.—I lately saw, flitting along one of the old 
hedgerows in the marsh, a flight of these agile, graceful little 
fellows. It was a somewhat unusual situation for them to be 
found in, and a long way from the thickly-wooded districts they 
frequent. This made me think they might perhaps be a migrating 
party moving southward from some northern station. There was 
one, hanging upside down on the end of a twig, which undoubtedly 
belonged to the northern race or variety, as the little fellow’s head 
was quite white, without any shade or tint of rosy colour, as in the 
Acredula caudata rosea of Blyth, our common English type. 

Green Sandpiper.—November 4th. A pair seen together, feed- 
ing along the “ warp” of a marsh-drain. 

Snow Bunting.—November 7th. Many large flocks on the 
stubbles. 

Water Rail.—There was an undoubted and very considerable 
arrival of water rails about the last week in October or early in 
November: these were principally the young of the year. I found 
them in*all sorts of strange places, often where least expected: 
several in the small, shallow ditches bordering the highways. In 
Norfolk, this species appears as a regular migrant in the spring and 
autumn.* This is the first occasion, however, I have noticed any 
direct augmentation at this season of the ranks of our local and 
resident water rails. 

Golden Plover.—November 15th. Several large flocks passed 
across the marsh this morning. Our Lincolnshire golden plover, 
particularly the early arrivals, are, I always consider, finer and 
larger birds than the average: thus eight, which I killed by a 
“right and left” from a passing flock this morning, average nine 


* ‘Birds of Norfolk,’ vol. ii. p. 404. 


3402 THE ZooLoGist—FEBRvARY, 1873. 


ounces each. Colonel Montagu gives the weight of the golden 
plover as between seven and eight ounces. 

Wood Pigeon.—November 28th. There have been for the last 
week, and without any special attraction, several hundred wood 
pigeons in the marshes near the coast. I believe them to bea 
migratory flock, as now our local birds never go down to the 
coast, but remain about the woods and plantations. 

Jack Snipe-—December 13th. Are very scarce. I saw the first 
to-day, and only two others since. 

Bullfinch.—Bullfinches, all through the autumn, have been 
extremely numerous. We see them nearly in every hedgerow. 


JoHN CORDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 


December 31, 1872. 


Ornithological Notes from Norfolk. 
By Henry STEvENson, and J. H. Gurney, jun., Esqrs. 


(Continued from Zool. S. S. 3356). 


NovEMBER, 1872. 

Little Gull.—One observed by Mr. Preston at Yarmouth on 
the 22nd.—G. 

Cromer Lighthouse.—On the 4th five starlings; S.W., rain; and 
one blackbird. On the 5th a goldcrest; W.S.W., gloomy. On the 
10th three starlings; S., rain. On the 27th a goldcrest; S.W.—G. 

Gray Shrike.—The ‘ Eastern Weekly Press’ states that one was 
caught on the 19th, on the north denes, Yarmouth, in a bird- 
catcher’s net.—G. 

Mealy Redpoll.—A female was netted at Hethersett, near Nor- 
wich, on the 19th, with several lesser redpolls. One of the latter, 
with the exception of the red patch, had the whole head and neck 
white. 

Woodcock.—This is another very poor season for woodcocks.—G. 

Puffin.—A young bird killed at Yarmouth about the 19th. 

Redthroated Diver.—An immature bird killed on Rockland 
Broad on the 16th. 

Kingfishers.—Although free from frost to the present time, more 
than a dozen of these birds have been brought in lately to the 
Norwich birdstuffers. 


Tue ZooLocist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 3403 


Waxwing.— On the 14th a good female waxwing was shot about 
half a mile from my house at Northrepps by a farmer, as it was 
flying over his yard. On the 22nd another female was shot at 
Stiffkey, as I learn from Mr. T. J. Mann, and 1 have heard of one 
or two others.—G. 

_ Twites.—A few seen near Norwich on the 2nd by a birdcatcher, 
who netted two or three with common linnets. 

Siskins.—A few seen about the same date. 

Gray Phalarope——Another was seen swimming in the sea at 
Lowestoft, about half a mile from the shore, on the Ist, by the same 
gentleman who saw one on the 12th of last month.—G, 

Roughlegged Buzzard.—A fine immature bird was shot at 
Hemsby about the J8th. 

Storm Petrel.—One was picked up alive at Cromer on the 15th, 
and sent to my house: it was dead when I received it. Another 
was procured at Ditchingham on the 27th, according to a local 
paper.—G. 

Sclavonian Grebe.—A specimen, in winter plumage, was shot 
~ near Yarmouth. 

Spotted Redshank.—An adult bird, in winter plumage, from 
Yarmouth, was shot about the 18th. 


DECEMBER. 


Little Auk.—One picked up dead near the coast on the 4th. 

Great Northern Diver—A fine immature bird killed on the 
coast about the 15th. 

Hawyfinch.—\t is much to be regretted that this species, which 
now breeds regularly in many parts of this and the adjoining 
county, should be so ruthlessly slaughtered in the autumn and 
winter. During the early part of the month some eighteen or 
twenty are said to have been shot in one garden at Diss, of which 
about eight were old males, the rest females and young birds. 
About the same time six or eight were killed in a garden at 
Carlton, near Norwich, where they were said to be feeding on the 
bullaces. 

Waxwing.—A fine male sent into Norwich to be stuffed on 
the 20th. 

Pintail Duck.—An adult male in the Norwich Market on the 
28th, where, owing to the mildness of the season, wild-fowl have 
been very scarce. 


3404 THE ZooLoGIst—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


British Heronries. By J. E. Hartine, Esq,, F.L.S., &c. 


APPENDIX. 


Unper this head I observe a note from Mr. Bethell, in the 
‘Zoologist’ for December, in which he asserts that I am in error 
in supposing that any heronries exist in the East Riding of York. 
I am sorry to hear it, if true, but I will give Mr. Bethell my 
authority for my statement to the contrary. I gave the locality of 
Hutton Cranswick, near Beverley, on the authority of Yarrell 
(Hist. Brit. Birds, 8rd ed., vol. ii. p. 542), and a reference to it ina 
letter from Mr. W. Boulton, of Beverley, dated 13th January, 1872. 
In this letter (addressed to Mr. Cordeaux), Mr. Boulton adds, “ At 
Stork Hill, near Beverley, indeed within three miles out of the town, 
living men recollect a heronry, hence the name of the place, which, 
however, as ornithologists we must acknowledge to be a misnomer. 
I know a man, however, who has eaten young herons bred in a 
heronry at Scorbro’, near Beverley, ¢.e. about four miles from the 
town.” It will be seen by a note from Mr. Boyes, in the ‘ Zoolo- 
gist’ for January (S. S. 3369), that this heronry gradually decreased 
until about forty years ago, when the few remaining birds forsook 
the place, partly in consequence of the trees decaying. 

The locality of Newton, near Malton, in the East Riding (mis- 
printed “ Walton” in my article in the ‘ Zoologist’ for October last) 
I gave on the authority of Mr. A. J. Cholmley, of Howsham Hall, 
near York, who, writing to me on the 16th March, 1872, said, 
“There is a heronry at Newton, near Malton, in the East Riding, 
the property of Sir George Cholmley, consisting of about sixty 
nests built on larch trees.* The plantation in which they are 
consists of larch, spruce and a few Scotch firs, and sycamores. The 
herons confine themselves almost entirely to the larch, while a small 
colony of rooks has taken possession of the Scotch firs and syca- 
mores.” It seems fair to infer that my correspondent, from his 
relationship to the owner of the property, should be better informed 
than Mr. Bethell, and that the East Riding of York is therefore not 
so destitute of heronries as the latter supposes. 


* Mr. Boyes, who visited this heronry in the spring of 1872, found there were 
then not more than twenty or twenty-five nests, and Sir George’s keeper, who has 
lived there twenty-six years, informed him that there were never many more than 
this.—J. E. H. 


THE ZooLocisT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 3405 


My acknowledgments are due to Mr. Boyes, of Beverley, for the 
trouble he has so kindly taken to obtain information for me. 

While on the subject, I may as well take the opportunity of 
making a few corrections and additions to my list, as it appeared 
in the ‘ Zoologist’ for October last. 


ENGLAND AND WALES. 

Herefordshire-—The heronry at the Moor, near Hay, I am 
informed by Mr. J. W. Lloyd, of Kington, has unfortunately ceased 
to exist. With regard to this and other heronries formerly existing 
in Herefordshire, Dr. Bull has published the following remarks in 
the ‘Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists’ Field Club for 
1869’ :—“ It is yet within the memory of man that many heronries 
existed in Herefordshire, although they have now become extinct. 
There was one within a mile of the city of Hereford, on the fine 
-elms at the Moor. It gradually dwindled down to a single pair of 
birds, and they disappeared about sixty years ago. There was also 
a large heronry on elm trees at Newcourt, Lugwardine, about three 
miles from the city, and some few tenants remained to so late a 
period as 1853. There was a colony of herons occupying some 
tall oak trees on the north-west side of Brampton Brian Park at the 
beginning of this century ; but when the exigencies of war caused 
the oak to be felled, the birds joined their neighbours at Willey 
Lodge. When the Willey Lodge heronry was destroyed the herons 
were said to have gone to Plowden, near Bishop's Castle, Shrop- 
shire, where the number of birds was much increased at the time: 
this heronry is still in existence. There was formerly a heronry, it 
is said, at the Marsh Farm, Eaton Bishop, in the centre of the 
county, and possibly others. But the heronry which existed in the 
county to the latest period was in the Hawkswood, at the Moor, 
near Hay, where the herons built on some tall oak trees. This 
heronry was in the immediate vicinity of a rookery, and here might 
be seen occasionally a curious border warfare between these very 
different birds for the possession of some particular tree. This 
heronry was a very large one up to about 1852, when a large fall of 
timber disturbed the birds. In the year 1856 there were about a 
dozen nests there, but the herons gradually diminished in numbers 
until they were reduced to a single pair, which built there so lately 
as 1863.” : 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. K 


3406 THE ZooLoGIsT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


Monmouthshire -—Add, one at Treowen, near Monmouth, where 
there were eighteen pairs in April, 1870. 

Norfolk.— For “ord Bowers” read “ formerly Lord Berners, 
now Mr. Tyssen Amherst.” At Earlham there were twenty-six 
nests in 1871. In addition to those mentioned, there are three 
more small colonies in Norfolk, one at Stokesby, near Acle, the 
others in the parishes of Westacre and East Walton. Mr. J. H. 
Gurney, jun., informs me that he could not find one at Wolferton, 
nor at Burnham Overy, but that in Lord Leicester’s park adjoining 
there are two nests. 

Shropshire.—Add, one at Plowden, near Bishop’s Castle. 

Suffolk.—For “ Earl of Shadbroke” read “ Earl of Stradbroke.” 
Add,—On the right bank of the Blythe, between Blythborough and 
Walberswick, there is a small heronry in a clump of tall firs, on 
the property of Sir John Blois. In 1867 there was a colony in 
Woolverston Park, on the right bank of the Orwell, belonging to 
Mr. Berners, but in the spring of 1871 they crossed the river and 
took up their quarters in Orwell Park, where the owner, Colonel 
Tomline, protects them from all annoyance. Mr. H. F. Bailey, 
who visited the park in December, 1872, counted about sixty or 
seventy nests. The heronries which formerly existed at Thrigby, 
and Norton Hall, near Loddon, were in the adjoining county, and 
should have been noticed under the head of “ Norfolk.” 

Wiltshire.-—A small colony of five or six nests in beech trees 
exists in Longford Park, near Salisbury, the seat of Earl Radnor. 

Warwickshire.—For “ Rugby” read “ Ragley, near Alcester.” 

Yorkshire.—¥or “ Newton, near Walton,” read “ Newton, near 
Malton,” and add—A heronry existed at Hotham, in the East 
Riding up to the year 1819, the nests being placed in large Scotch 
fir and ash trees, and persons are still living who used to climb up 
to the nests to get the eggs. There was a large heronry in Sutton 
Wood, Sutton-upon- Derwent, a village about six miles from York, 
but the birds left from continued persecution, and have not bred 
there for some years. In 1860 there were said to be about one 
hundred nests there. Up to 1870 one or two pairs bred constantly 
in a wood called Beswick Rush, near Scarborough, but in that year 
the keeper destroyed both old and young birds, supposing them to 
do injury to a trout-stream. Herons also nested in a wood at 
Holme, on Spalding Moor, but ceased to do so about five years 
ago. 


THE ZooLoGist—FEBRUARY, 1878. 3407 


Denbighshire.—There is a heronry at Vorlas Hall, in this county, 
belonging to Mrs. Wynn Finch. 

Merionethshive.—One at Glyn Hall (Mr. Ormsby Gore), and a 
few nests at Rug Hall (the Hon. Charles Wynn). 


ScoTLAND. 


Fifeshire——I am informed by Mr. W. Ogilvy that up to 1870 
a pair of herons nested on his grandfather’s property near Dollar, 
in Fifeshire, the nest being built on a Scotch fir in the centre of a 
thick wood. Since 1870 they have, he regrets to say, nested 
elsewhere, but most probably in the vicinity, as they have been 
frequently observed since then on the banks of the Devon, which 
flows through the property, his brother having seen them nearly 
every day since August of the past year. 

Inverness.—There is a colony consisting of about twenty pairs 
on a small wooded island in Loch Knockie (Sir Shafto Adair). 


IRELAND. 


Cork.— For “Capt. R. Coole Bowen” read “Capt. R. Cole 
Bowen”; and add—Kilbrittain Castle, about thirty nests on larch 
trees (Col. Stowell), and one at Bunalan, near Skibbereen, in an 
avenue with rooks. 

Donegal.—Add, One near Culmore, on the shore of Lough 
Foyle. 

J. E. Hartine. 


Large Otter—Will Mr. Corbin favour us with the sex, weight and length 
of the otter he records in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 8304)? The heaviest 
Norfolk otter which has come to my knowledge (although by no means the 
longest) was killed at Bowthorpe, near Norwich, on the 8rd of the present 
month: it was a male, forty-eight inches long, weighed thirty-seven pounds, 
and was very fat. A female with young ones, killed in February, 1864, 
measured forty-four inches, and weighed only fourteen pounds, being in very 
poor condition ; a male killed in 1866 weighed thirty pounds; a male killed 
in January, 1871, frozen out and in a very emaciated condition, measured 
fifty-three inches and a half, and weighed thirty pounds; another, also a 
male, killed on the 10th of last October, measured fifty inches and weighed 
twenty-three pounds ; and a female killed on the 19th of November measured 
forty-six inches and weighed sixteen pounds. An otter killed in Carmarthen- 
shire, weighing fifty pounds and measuring sixty-six inches, is mentioned 
in ‘Land and Water’ (vol. ii. p. 51).— Thomas Southwell; Norwich, 
December 26, 1872. 


3408 Tue ZooLocist—F Espruary, 1873. 


Singular Situation for a Squirrel.—On the 4th of November last, while 
shooting with my brother in some low wet marshes, a dog we had with us 
found something in a wide ditch with a thin fringe of sedges, which we 
supposed to be either a waterhen or a water rail, and accordingly prepared 
for a shot; the dog seemed for a time a good deal puzzled, but at last made 
a drive at something in the water, and pulled out a live squirrel. This 
occurred at a long distance from a tree of any kind, the nearest wood likely 
to be frequented by these animals being more than a mile from where we 
found him, and the intervening ground wet and marshy.—@. S. Pope ; 
Leiston, Suffolk. 

Another Frozen Mammoth.—In the ‘ Times’ of January 17th, under the 
head of “ Arctic Expedition,” there is a remarkable notice of an expedition 
to the North Pole, under the command of a young and wealthy French- 
American, M. Pavy, extracted from the ‘Courier des Etats Unis.’ The 
despatches are dated from the eastern coast of Wrangell’s Land, August 23. 
At eighty miles from the mouth of a newly-discovered great river, “ the 
explorers found on the plain some vestiges of mastodons” (evidently mam- 
moths, Elephas primigenius, as indicated in the sequel by the described 
curvature of the tusks), “ and on clearing away the snow from a spot whence 
emerged the tusks of one of that extinct race, they brought to light its 
enormous body in a perfect state of preservation. The skin was covered 
with black stiff hair, very long and thick upon the back. The tusks 
measured eleven feet eight inches, and were bent back about the level of the 
eyes. The fore legs were bent, resting on the knees, and the posterior 
parts were deeply sunk in the snow, in a posture indicating that the 
animal had died while trying to extricate itself from a watery or snowy 
trough. Professor Newman had not discovered sufficient characteristics on 
the body of the mastodon to justify his classing it as a different species 
from the elephant of our day” (showing thereby that he was unlikely to 
have distinguished a mastodon from a mammoth!) ‘ From its stomach 
were taken pieces of bark and grasses, the nature of which could not be 
analyzed on the spot. Over an area of many miles the plain was covered 
with the remains of mastodons, indicating that a numerous herd of these 
gigantic animals must have perished there. This region abounds with Polar 
bears, which live on the remains of the mastodons.” Hardly so, or the latter 
would have disappeared long ago, even if the bones of those animals had 
been intended. Nothing is stated about any specimens having been secured. 
—From the ‘ Field.’ 

Zoology of Mr. Stanley’s New African Lake. —“ The immediate shores 
of the lake on all sides, for at least fifty feet from the water's edge, is one 
impassable morass, nourishing rank reeds and rushes, where the hippo- 
potamus's ponderous form has crushed into watery trails the soft composition 
of the morass as he passes from the lake on his nocturnal excursions: the 


THE ZooLocisT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 3409 


lesser animals, such as the ‘ mbogo’ (buffalo), the ‘ pundaterra’ (zebra), the 
‘twiga’ (giraffe), the boar, the kudu, the hyrax or coney, and the antelope, 
come here also to quench their thirst by night. The surface of the lake 
swarms with an astonishing variety of water-fowl, such as black swan, duck, 
ibis sacra, cranes, pelicans; and soaring above, on the look-out for their 
prey, are fish-eagles and hawks, while the neighbourhood is resonant with 
the loud chirps of the guinea-fowls calling for their young, with the harsh 
ery of the toucan, the cooing of the pigeon, and the ‘tu-whit, tu-whoo’ of 
the owl. From the long grass in its vicinity also issue the grating and loud 
cry of the florican, woodcock and grouse.”—‘ How I found Livingstone.’ 

[This agreeable passage (which I extract from a review, and not from the 
book itself) may hereafter receive revision and modification; it seems to 
require it: it would indeed be a treat to our African tourists to find black 
swans floating on an African lake and serenaded by gorgeous toucans: the 
passage suggests the idea of a misprint.— Edward Newman.] 

The Chillingham Bull.—In every one of our papers we read of the exploit 
of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales, in shooting a bull out of Lord Tankerville’s 
flock at Chillingham ; the head and neck have been stuffed by Mr. Ward, 
and a figure of these parts, drawn by that excellent animal draughtsman 
Mr. Harrison Weir, has appeared in the ‘ Field.’ All professional taxi- 
dermists seem to entertain the idea that length and slimness of neck is a 
beauty in beast or bird, and probably from this cause the neck in question 
has the appearance of unnatural and very untaurine slenderness. Never 
having had the gratification of seeing these Chillingham cattle, I am unable 
to express any opinion as to their pedigree or kinsfolk, but I do not learn 
from this figure, or from the numerous descriptions lately published, that 
there is any specific or varietal character to distinguish them from the 
smaller breeds of cattle one sees everywhere in the Highlands. The white 
colour has been thought distinctive: uniformity in this respect has been 
attained by assiduously killing off the black, brown or piebald individuals, 
a process by which any colour might be made to preponderate: the redness 
of the ears is given by Bingley as distinctive of the breed, but I regret to 
confess my inability to understand his precise meaning. Are we to under- 
stand that the hair covering the outside of the ears is red in the same way 
that the hair in Herefordshire cattle is red? or does it mean that the skin 
from which the white hair of the ears is growing has a red or pink tinge? 
If this last be the interpretation we are to give to Bingley’s definition 
I cannot think it sufficient to characterize a breed.—Edward Newman. 


Ornithological Notes from North Wales for the Summer and Autumn 
of 1872,— 

Golden Plover.—In June I found these birds breeding in considerable 
numbers on all the moors. A few are found on the hills all the year round, 


3410 THE ZooLocGist—FeEsBrRuary, 1878. 


but the greater part seem to leave us for the sea-coast for a few months after 
the breeding season, returning, however, before winter, frequenting the large 
open pasture-fields which have been reclaimed from the moor. Should the 
winter prove very severe they seem again to return to the sea-coast, where 
they remain until it becomes milder, when they are again to be found 
found with us. 

Common Sandpiper.—Found several nests of this little bird this summer. 

Dipper.—A pair of these birds have built ever since I can remember 
under the arch of a bridge over a trout-stream near the house, always 
bringing up two broods during the year. The first nest is completed rather 
early: this year it contained an egg on the 14th of March. No sooner are 
the first batch ready to fly than the nest is again repaired preparatory to 
another brood. A favourite as this little bird is with every one, I am 
afraid it is a horrid enemy to the trout-spawn. . 

Merlin.—Breeds regularly on the moors. In May my father found a 
nest containing four eggs. The courage of this little bird is well known; 
it will attack a full-sized grouse, though a bird twice its size, one of these 
birds and a merlin having been killed by the same shot a few days since. 
It is known in this country as the “little blue hawk.” 

rite—One seen in August. A few years ago these fine birds were 
undoubtedly not uncommon in this country, but the constant persecution 
by gamekeepers, &c., has so diminished its numbers that it is now looked 
upon as only an occasional visitor. 

Pied Flycatcher.—I found two nests of this bird this summer. As I have 
before remarked in the ‘ Zoologist,’ it is a regular summer visitor to us, but 
this year it did not seem as plentiful as usual. 

Gray Phalarope-—One shot in August by a gentleman out grouse- 
shooting ; it got up out of the heather. There was no water near. 

Grouse.—A handsome variety of this bird was shot by a gentleman near 
here in September; the general colour was a light buff, but the markings of 
the feathers were distinctly to be seen in a darker colour. 

Green Sandpiper.—One shot by a gentleman near here in October; 
another observed by myself during the same month. 

Siskin.—On the 6th of August I noticed a flock of these birds. They 
are regular winter visitors to this country, but I never remember to have 
seen them on so early a date: the flock consisted of about twenty birds, 
almost all young ones of the year. Is it possible that they could have bred 
with us? 

Bramblings.—At the beginning of the month (November) mountain finches 
were extremely numerous, frequenting the stubble-fields in considerable 
numbers. 

Woodcocks.—These birds seem pretty numerous this season. Although 
I have not heard of any large bags having been made, there seems to be a 


THE ZooLocist—FEBRUARY, 1878. 3411 


very fair sprinkling throughout the country. Visiting us, as these birds do 
in the winter, in large numbers, and well adapted, as some of our woods are, 
to their habits, I have not been able to discover a single instance of their 
remaining with us to breed. 

Snipes.—Are now numerous in all our bogs: they breed with us in large 
numbers.—W. J. Kerr ; Maesmor, Denbighshire, North Wales. 

Sea Hagle in Jersey.—I have fortunately secured a fine specimen of the 
cinereous or sea eagle (Haliaétus albicilla), which was killed on the rocks 
called “ Les Menquiers,” a shoal about five leagues in length, on which are 
a few fishermen’s huts, about half-way between this island and France. 
The bird is a female, and was shot by one of the fishermen and secured after 
a great deal of trouble, having fought vigorously, although severely wounded. 
It measured from tip to tip of wings eight feet six inches, and from beak to 
tip of tail three feet seven inches.—Christopher Allinson Green.—F rom the 
‘ Field’ of November 30. 

Whitetailed Eagle near Rye.—A bird of this species was shot at Iden, 
near Rye, last week, by a labourer, and sold fora crown. Although I am 
nearly sure it is a sea eagle (Haligétus albicilla), its tail is not white. I see 
it has been affirmed by some writers that the tail is not white till the third, 
and by others till the fifth, moult. This specimen is certainly not a bird of 
this year. I have examined the crop and gizzard; the former was quite 
empty, the latter had two small fish-bones and a fish’s eye about the size of 
a pea init. The wings when outspread measured very nearly eight feet. 
It has seven scales on each outside toe, five on the inside, twelve on the 
middle, and four on the hind ones, besides four or five above the knee-joint. 
Should I have named the eagle wrongly, I should be glad to be corrected. 
It is in the hands of Mr. Garson, naturalist, Rye, and he has stuffed it very 
creditably —‘ Field’ of November 30. 

Molothrus sericeus in Deyon.— Iu the ‘Field’ of January 25, 1873, 
Mr. W. S. M. D’Urban reports the occurrence of a specimen of this South 
American bird, which was shot whilst feeding near Exeter with a flock of 
starlings: of course it is presumed to be an escaped bird. It is not a 
migratory species, and there are several specimens in the Zoological 
Gardens.—E. Newman. 

Nesting of the Redwing in North Yorkshire.—The following note, to an 
article on Natural History by the Rev. J. ©. Atkinson, appears in the 
‘People’s Magazine’ for December, 1872, p. 879 :—*TI obtained four eggs 
about ten years ago from a nest in Commondale (North Yorkshire), about 
which, from the circumstances connected with bird, nest and eggs, there 
could be no reasonable ground of doubt as to their origin. Only I did not 
see the bird myself. I received the eggs and the account from a person 
whose father had been a gamekeeper, and whose own habits had led him to 
act often as amateur keeper, and had made him very familiar with various 


3412 THE ZooLoGistT— FEBRUARY, 1873. 


birds and animals. Hence the eggs, when shown to some metropolitan egg- 
authorities, were pronounced to be not redwing’s, but ring ouzel’s, eggs. 
However, during the past spring a redwing’s nest and eggs, together with 
the parent bird herself, have been obtained in Glaisdale, another district 
(originally) of the same parish to which the Commondale mentioned above 
belongs ; the person meeting with them being a very competent ornithologist 
and experienced egg-collector. The fact that the redwing does occasionally 
breed in North Yorkshire, and I think not so very unfrequently, is an inte- 
resting one, and therefore not unworthy of record here."—H. W. Feilden. 

Varieties of the Sky Lark.—For a series of years I have examined our 
bird-dealers’ shops, &c., for varieties of the sky lark, but up to 1871 I never 
met with any in this district. In July, 1871, I bought a living sky lark having 
white primaries and secondaries, and soon after got another, also alive, some- 
what like it, from the same birdcatcher. Later in the year I procured an 
almost white one; and, later still, I observed a splendid rich deep brown 
bird with white wings being handed about in our bird-market, amongst a 
crowd of bird-fanciers, and, some wrangling going on about its price, I called 
out, “I'll take it,” and on its being brought nearer I saw it was a sky lark, 
almost black, with all the flight-feathers and tail pure white. Early in 1872 
I secured another, somewhat like it, but with less white upon it, and the 
dark colour more pronounced—almost black; since then I have ‘obtained 
another very light drab specimen, and yesterday I bought the finest of the 
lot: it is almost black, but some of the feathers have a fringe of brownish 
ochrey; it is a male, is very plump, and sings a little. All these seven 
varieties are caught-specimens. The last light specimen I took out of the 
“pantil” myself, and all the others except one were obtained from bird- 
catchers I am acquainted with. To me it does seem strange that for a series 
of years I should so carefully examine such immense numbers of larks (in 
one house I went over seventy score dozens in one day) without seeing an 
abnormal feather, and yet in these last two years, when larks have been 
comparatively scarce, I should have secured seven good varieties and one or 
two of less note.-—C. S. Gregson; Rose Bank, Fletcher Grove, Liverpool, 
December 15, 1872. 

Siskins in East Yorkshire.—On the 24th of December, I saw a pair of 
these active little birds feeding on the seeds of the nettle and close to the 
town. I have not heard of any occurring in the neighbourhood for some 
years.—F’. Boyes ; Beverley, January, 1873. ri 

Lesser Spotted Woodpecker at Taunton.—On the 4th of January a lesser 
spotted woodpecker was shot at Taunton, and sent to Mr. Wilson, the 
Pimlico taxidermist, to be preserved.—W. T. Ogilvy; British Museum, 
January 16, 1878. 

Pinkfooted Goose.—In reference to the pinkfooted goose breeding in 
confinement, mentioned by me in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1872 (S. 8. 3248) it 


THE ZooLoGisT—FEBRuARY, 1873. 3413 


seems worth while to notice the fact that one of the three young ones, 
though exactly resembling the other two in his earlier days, even up to the 
date of my note, has now developed bright orange legs and feet, and what 
ought to be the pink part of the bill is also bright orange. This peculiarity 
has been apparent for some months; but the orange, instead of gradually 
changing to pink, as I at first expected, has persisted in retaining its 
colour, and is now as decidedly orange as the legs and bill of the bean 
goose; in all other respects he resembles his brothers or sisters (whichever 
they may be) and his parents.— Cecil Smith; Bishop’s Lydeard, near 
Taunton, December 26, 1872. 

Bravery of a Muscoyy.—Some friends of mine have swans on a piece 
of ornamental water: they had cygnets, one of which survived: the old birds 
have recently hatched again, and the male swan immediately persecuted 
the poor cygnet, beating it and so thoroughly distressing it, that its owners 
were fain to remove it. On the same water were some Muscovy ducks, 
and the swan next fell foul of the drake, and began serving him in the 
same manner; but the Muscovy suddenly leaped on the back of his giant 
persecutor, and, safely ensconced between his wings, fell to pecking fiercely 
at the back of his neck. In vain the swan flapped his wings, rushed 
frantically about, and made every effort to dislodge the Muscovy: he 
remained immovable, and ceased not to peck away until it was necessary to 
take him off his perch.—L. Brightwell. [Kindly communicated by Dr. 
Gray. ] 

Eared and Rednecked Grebes in East Yorkshire.—A very fine old female 
eared grebe, in full winter plumage, was shot near Spurn about the 20th of 
December last; and on the 21st an adult female rednecked grebe was shot 
a few miles above Beverley. The latter was seen diving in a field in the 
“ Carrs,” which are now inundated for many miles.—F’. Boyes ; Jan. 1878. 
~ Little Auk and Manx Shearwater near Birmingham.—I have just seen 
a specimen, in the flesh, of the little auk (Mergulus alle): it was captured 
near this town while in a very exhausted condition, so much so that it died 
in a few minutes after its capture: it only weighed three ounces and three 
quarters. Last September a specimen of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus 
anglorum) was also caught in this neighbourhood, which I had the good 
fortune to see alive.—W. 8. P. Winter ; Birmingham. 

Glaucous Gull at Southwold, Suffolkiw—An immature specimen of the 
glaucous gull was shot at Southwold on the 19th of December, and is now 
in my possession.—H. Durnford; 1, Stanley Road, Waterloo, Liverpool, 
January 13, 1873. 

Blackthroated Diver in Suffolk.—On the 29th of December last a black- 
throated diver, a bird of the year, was procured about two miles north of 
Southwold, Suffolk.—Zd. ; January 25, 1878. 


SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. L 


3414 THE ZooLoGist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


Proceedings of the Entomological Society. 


November 18, 1872.—H. W. Bares, Esq., F.L.S., &c., in the chair. 


Election of a Subscriber. 


Noah Greening, Esq. of Warrington, was balloted for, and elected. 


Exhibitions, é&c. 


Mr. S. Stevens exhibited an example of Vanessa Antiopa captured by 

Mr. Hewitson, at Weybridge, on the 1st instant. 
{ Mr. Howard Vaughan exhibited Crambus verellus, a species recently 
detected as British, captured by Mr. C. A. Briggs at Folkestone, in July ; 
and he stated that he had seen two other British examples in the collections 
of Mr. 8. Stevens and Mr. H. R. Cox respectively. He also exhibited 
varieties of Pyrameis cardui and Vanessa Atalanta. 

Mr. Meek exhibited Nephopteryx argyrella, a species of Phycide not in 
the British Lists, which he said had been captured by Mr. Button near 
Gravesend ; also varieties of Arctia caja and other Lepidoptera. 

The Secretary read a letter received from Mr. A. R. Wallace, enclosing 
exuvie of some insect that had been causing ravages in the collection of 
South American mosses and lichens collected by Dr. Spruce. The exuvie 
appeared to pertain to some species of 'Tineina. 

Mr. Meldola exhlbited a drawing of the dark variety of the larva of 
Acherontia Atropos. 


Papers read, &c. 
Mr. Miller read the following :— 


“ Having lately drawn up, for my own use, a list of the entomological 
notices contained in the ‘ Verhandlungen der Schweizerischen Natur- 
forschenden Gesellschaft,’ from 1823 to 1864, as given by its Questor, in 
his history of the said Society,* I here communicate this extract for the 
convenience of entomologists generally. A certain number of these short 
papers are of more than local interest,. while we look in vain for for their 
complete enumeration in Percheron’s and Hagen’s bibliographical works, as 
well as in the German ‘ Berichte.’ It is very likely that other Entomologica 
may occur in these Annual Proceedings under non-entomological titles. If 
T should meet with any such matter of value, I shall revert to the subject 
on a future occasion. As regards the years 1840 to 1845, Prof. von Siebold 


* T. Siegfried, ‘Geschichte der Schweizerischen Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, 
&e., Zurich, 1865, pp. 98, 4to. : 


THE ZooLocist—FeEBRuary, 1873. $415 


has given a réswmé of the entomological proceedings at the annual meetings 
of this General Swiss Nat. Hist. Society, accompanied by extracts from the 
proceedings of the various cantonal societies.| I am not aware of any such 
published digests for the other years. 

“The notices which I have not been able to find in Dr. Hagen’s com- 
prehensive and meritorious ‘ Bibliotheca Entomologica’ are marked thus (*). 
Whoever may have the opportunity of searching the publications of the 
Cantonal Societies of Switzerland will no doubt meet with more. 


Bollino, *Sulla malattia dei bachi; 1860, p. 33. 

Bremi, J., Ueber seine Sammlung von Kunst-producten der Insecten ; 
1841, pp. 79—84. Aus der Naturgeschichte der Gallinsecten (Ceci- 
domyia); 1844, pp. 100—104; *1848, p- 51. Ueber Anwendung 
des Schdpfgarnes; *1846, p.61. Ueber Schildliuse (Coccide); 1847, 
pp. 41—44. 

Chavannes, Aug., Ueber neue Seidenspinner aus Asien; 1864, p- 522. 

Clarapéde, Ed., Ueber Entwicklung der Spinnen; 1858, p: 67. 

Cornalia (de Milano), * Faits relatifs & la maladie des vers & soie; 1860, 
p- 20. 

Coudrat, * Ueber Wanderungsverhiltnisse mehrerer Schmetterlinge des 
Jura; 1839, p. 68. 

Davall, * Tortrix pinicolana, &c.; 1858, p. 68. 

David,-J. F'., * Ueber Nahrung der Bienen; 1854, p.45; 1858, pp. 69—72. 

De la Harpe, J., * Kinwirkung der Temperatur u. a. Einfliisse auf die 
Farben der Schmetterlinge; 1848, p. 56 et seg. * Papillon fixé sur 
une feuille par un champignon; 1852, p. 182. 

Dietrich, C., Ueber die Kaferfauna des Kts. Ziirich; 1864, pp. 538—550. 

Hisenring, Jos., * Ueber Schmetterlinge um Ragaz; 1826, pp. 58—61. 
Ueber die Schwarmer (Sphingide) und ihre Fahndung; 1844, 
pp. 157—180. %* Ueber Seidenraupe und deren Zucht in Walenstad ; 
1857, p. 37. 

Felix, * Pfarrer in Nufenen, Insecten aus Rheinwald; 1844, p. 105. 

Forel, Al., Hémiptére nouveau ou peu connu en Suisse (Deltocephalus 
aurantiacus); 1858, pp. 196—198. 

Frei-Herosé, F'r., * Ueber ein Gewebe des Papilio crateegi oder einer Tinea; 
184], p. 79. 

Gengel, Cypr., Chur, Zur Naturgeschichte der Seidenraupe; 1846, 
pp. 201—225. 

Gerber, Dr., Bern, Kratzmilben auf Katzen; 1864, p. 98. 

Heer, 0., Ueber geographische Verbreitung und periodisches Auftreten der 
Maikafer; 1841, pp. 123—153; 1848, pp. 24—45. Zur Geschichte 


+ Stettin. Ent. Zeitung, 1846, pp. 197—207. 


3416 THE ZooLoGist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


der Insecten; 1849, pp. 78—97. * Ueber fossile Rhynchoten; 1852, 
pp- 88, 89. * Communication sur les travaux de Mr. Frei sur les 
Microlépidoptéres ; 1853, p. 31. 

Herpin. Genéve, * Action du Kermés dans les maladies des voies respira- 
toires; 1845, p. 106 (medical). 

Lesquereux, Léo, de Neuchatel, *Insectes de Mammooth-Cave dans 
l’Amerique du Nord; 1855, p. 53. 

VY. Liebenau, M.D., H., Luzern, * Ueber den Bau insbesondere der In- 
sectenfliigel ; 1835, p. 40. 

Mellet, Pasteur, * Ueber die in der Schweiz gefundenen Kifer Odpsnittel 
melanura und Dytiscus dimidiatus; 1839, p. 68. 

Meyer, Dan., ** Ueber Schmetterlinge, die fixirt werden; 1851, p. 130. 

Meyer-Diir, R. Burgdorf, * Cimiciden des Emmengebiets; 1843, p. 128. 
* Ueber massenhaftes Auftreten gewisser sonst nur sporadisch vor- 
kommender Insecten; 1848, p.58. Ueber klimatische und geog- 
nostiche Hinfliisse auf Farben und Formen der Schmetterlinge: 1852, 
pp. 145—151. 

Meyer, Dr. H, Ziirich, * Geschlechtstheile der Lepidopteren; 1848, p. 52. 

Moller, Ernst, * Vergleichende Betrachtungen iiber den Bau der Glieder- 
thiere und der Wirbelthiere; 1844, pp. 181—203. 

Moricand, Stef., * Fourmis du Mexique enyoyées, par Berlandier; 1832, 
p. 38. 

Perty, M., Bern, * Ueber Hiuten der Insecten; 1838, p- 152. * Distribution 
Geéographique des Insectes; 1852, p. 134—186. . 

Pictet, Jules, * Ueber die Neuropteren, insbesondere die Perliden; 1840, 
p- 123. *Sur les Neévroptéres contenus dans l’ambre; 1845, p. 69. 

Rion, Alph., Relation des ravages causés en Valais, par les Sauterelles en 
18387, '88 et 39; 1843, pp. 118—181. 

Scheuchzer, Jb., Chur, *Gordius in einer Locusta viridissima; 1844, 
p- 105. 

Schinz, H. R., * Ueber Ginothera speciosa und die Sphinges, die in ihr 
sich fangen; 1835, p. 33. + Ueber eine Art Zecke (Ixodes); 1838, 
p- 146. Ueber Tortrix scytale, einige Plusia, &c.; 1842, p. 55. 

Schnetzler, J., Vevey, * Sur la lumiére dans les Vers-luisants ; 1855, p- 54. 

Schulze, Prof., Bonn, Structyr des Leuchtorgans der Lampyris noctiluca 
und splendidula; 1864, p. 525. 

Siebold, Prof. v., Freiburg, Ueber Zwitter unter den Bienen; 1863, 
p. 48 et seq. 

Stabile, Gius; * Enumération des Coléoptéres observes dans le Tessin ; 
1853, p. 29. Bulletin Entomologique relatif aux Coléoptéres du 
Mont-Rose ; 1853, pp. 80, 214—222. 

Yersin, Al., * Nervensystem yon Gryllus campestris; 1858, pp. 65—67. 
* Neurophysiologie du grillon; 1861, pp. 26—28.” 


THE ZooLocist—FEBRUARY, 1873. 3417 


Mr. W. A. Lewis read a paper “On Dr. Hagen’s treatment of Atropos 
pulsatoria and Termes fatidicum,” in answer to Mr. Dunning’s remarks at 
the previous meeting. 

Mr. Lewis explained that he had made no error of the kind Mr. Dunning 
supposed, and that he and Mr. Dunning were at difference not upon facts, 
but upon the importance attached to them; Mr. Dunning had written in 
the language of apology only the same things which Mr. Lewis had written 
in the language of fault-finding. 

Mr. Lewis said that the difference concerning Atropos pulsatoria was 
entirely one of words, and continued :— 

“Mr. Dunning proves that the Linnean name pulsatoria was in 1865 
transferred to an insect of the genus Clothilla, while in 1861 it had repre- 
sented an insect of the genus Atropos. Granted at once; and therefore 
the Atropos of 1861 is the Clothilla of 1865, which is the proposition 
Mr. Dunning disputes. The very same ‘pulsatoria, Linné,’ was in 1861 
described as an Atropos and was in 1865 described as a Clothilla, and 
Mr. Dunning establishes to his satisfaction that the later description is 
correct. For the purposes of this argument, I will agree with him. What 
if it is? That concession leaves the facts unaltered, and only makes the 
indefinite definite in that it fixes the error as having been in 1861, whereas 
before it lay between that date and 1865. It is the gist of my complaint 
that Dr. Hagen taught me in 1861 the exact opposite of what he taught 
me in 1865, though all the same materials were to his hand at the one 
time as at the other. J am in my turn surprised that Mr. Dunning should 
think this amounts to nothing. To make a Linnean species in 1861 the 
type of one genus (without a note of doubt of any sort, kind, or description), 
and in 1865 make it the type of another genus with opposite structural 
characters, is a grave and not a trivial matter—more particularly when it is a 
part of the author’s own case that if he had not written his Synopsis before 
he had ever studied the question, he must have found out he was wrong ! 
Mr. Dunning would appear to have concluded that I was under some mis- 
conception, from failing to understand that I consider worthy of reprobation 
what he passes by as nothing.” 

With regard to Stett. Ent. Zeit. 1866, and Verh. zool.-bot. Gesells. in 
Wien, 1866, Mr. Lewis remarked that these references (with which as a fact 
he was before acquainted) did not affect the question of Dr. Hagen’s con- 
sistency or inconsistency in 1861 and 1865; and added: “ A perusal of the 
passages cited gives rise to one obvious reflection. The more successful the 
author is in showing that (when he paid attention to them) the facts were 
clearly in one direction, the more blameworthy he appears to be for having 
read them the other way before. The simple fact is that.in 1861 Dr. Hagen 
published a Synopsis of the British Psocide without an investigation of the 
species. That is the back-bone of Mr. Dunning’s remarks, and is, I presume, 


3418 THE ZooLoGisT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


the thing he has come forward to justify. Chivalrous as that effort un- 
doubtedly is, I protest Dr. Hagen will owe Mr. Dunning no thanks 
for it.” 

Mr. Lewis remarked in continuation that the more important of the two 
cases had not been answered by Mr. Dunning; and that the criticism im- 
pugned by him had been based on both the two instances cited, but especially 
on that of Termes fatidicum, which (at p. 55 of ‘ Discussion of the Law of 
Priority’) is the climax to which the instance of Atropos pulsatoria was 
merely a step. 

“In the passage quoted I draw attention to this. Termes fatidicum was 
an insect of which Dr. Hagen, like all other people, knew absolutely nothing 
at all—and Dr. Hagen, in spite of that, took upon himself to invest this 
impalpable idea with a number of minute and special characteristics, such 
as he could only have ascertained if he had had the thing under his miecro- 
scope. There could hardly be a more significant example of the bad way 
some authors have got into in treating the old names than this case of 
Termes fatidicum, and if the author under discussion be a model author, 
then we have a model instance, and I am glad of it. 

«The genus Termes of Linné is placed in his order ‘ Aptera,’ the solitary 
character of which is ‘Ale nulle in omni sexu.’ The description of 
fatidicum is ‘abdomen ovate, mouth pale, eyes fuscous;’ and to this is 
added, ‘like pulsatorium, but twice as large.’ Two English authors, West- 
wood and Stephens, have identified ‘ fatidicum, Linné,’ with an insect which 
came under their observation. The former speaks of ‘the insufficiently 
characterised fatidicum,’ evidently referring to the Linnean description; the 
latter in terms calls his insect ‘ fatidicum of Linné.’ 

“ Now take up the Entomologist’s Annual for 1861, and you find in 
Dr. Hagen’s Synopsis of the British Psocide (p. 22) the fatidica of Westwood 
and Stephens placed in a group distinguished by the presence of ocelli; 
and in a genus Lachesis described as having (in the male) four wings 
shorter than the abdomen. That is the first step. The insect which Linné 
gave as apterous in both sexes has four wings in the male in 1861. 

‘« Bear in mind that Hagen’s fatidica of 1861 has ocelli and short wings. 
Go to the ‘fatidica, Linné,’ of Hagen in 1865 (2 Ent. Mo. Mag. 121). In 
the first place you find it in a paper whose very title is ‘ Synopsis of Psocina 
without ocelli,’ and next in a genus (Atropos) whose character is to be 
wingless ! 

“Next Dr. Hagen, in this same ‘Synopsis of Psocina without ocelli,’ gives 
the fatidica of Westwood (as being now a different insect from the fatidica 
of Linné) completely ignoring the presence of ocelli which he made a leading 
sectional character (expressed in capital letters) four years before ! 

* Once more: Dr. Hagen represents Linné as giving ‘ Habitat Southern 
Europe, in dried plants received from Rolander.’ The dried plants were 


Tue ZooLtocist—FEBRvARY, 18738. 3419 


sent by Léfling, and Rolander’s name does not occur at all in connection 
with the insect. 

“‘ Now, the dodging about of this insect, or this supposed insect, from 
one section and genus to another section and opposite genus would have a 
justification of some kind if this treatment had been occasioned by dis- 
coveries made in the interesting periods. Well; none such were made. 
Says Dr. Hagen in 1861: 

*“*Obs. I am not accurately acquainted with this genus and species ; 
several specimens in my collection which agree with Westwood’s description 
lead me to suppose that they are only a peculiar form of some species of 
Psocus in which the wings are undeveloped (!), &c.’ 

‘Tet us see then what discoveries he made before 1865. ‘lL. Fatidica, 
Westwood. Unknown to me’; July, 1865 (2 Ent. Mo. Mag. 124). ‘ Atropos 
Fatidica, Linné. I do not know this species’; July, 1865. 

“ Mr. Dunning says with perfect truth that what Dr. Hagen did in the 
case of pulsatoria was to transfer a name from one insect which he knew to 
another insect which he knew. But what the author has done in the case 
of the idea fatidicum is to invest the same thing first with one set of 
characters and then with another set of characters, &c., while he has never 
seen or identified the insect, and never met with or heard of any one who 
has truly done so in his belief.” 


December 2, 1872.—Prof. J. O. Westwoop, M.A., F.L.S., President, in 
the chair. 

Additions to the Library. 

The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors :—‘ The Canadian Entomologist,’ vol. iv., No. 10; Presented by the 
Editor. ‘The Zoologist’ for December; by the Editor. ‘The Entomolo- 
gist’ for December; by the Editor. ‘The Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine’ 
for December; by the Editors. ‘Note on a Chinese Artichoke Gall (men- 
tioned and figured in Dr. Hance’s paper ‘ On Silkworm-oaks’) allied to the 
European Artichoke Gall of Aphilothrix gemme, Linn.,’ by Albert Miller, 
F.L.S.; by the Author. 

By purchase :—‘ Catalogus Coleopterorum hucusque descriptorum syno- 
nymicus et systematicus,’ tome ix., pars 1. 


Election of Members. 

The following gentlemen were severally balloted for and elected :—Mons. 
Henri de Saussure, of Geneva, as Honorary Member, in the room of 
Professor Pictet, deceased; Mons. E. Pictet, of Geneva, as Foreign Member; 
and Messrs. A. Phipson and G. W. Bird as Ordinary Members. 


3420 THE ZooLoGisT—FEBRUARY, 1873. 


Exhibitions, éc. 


Prof. Westwood exhibited a drawing of a variety of Pyrameis cardui that 
had long been in his possession, and which was captured many years since 
on Margate Sands by the late Mr. Desvignes. 

Mr. Bond exhibited varieties of the following British Lepidoptera :— 
(1) Lycena gon, female, having the right-hand wings plain brown, whereas 
those on the left-hand were blue: he at first thought it was what is commonly 
called a hermaphrodite, but it really was a female combining the two varieties 
of that sex in one individual: this was from the New Forest. (2) A fine 
variety of Notodonta dodonea, captured at Tunbridge in 1872. (3) A black 
specimen of Acronycta megacephala, bred near London in 1872. (4) A 
curious variety of Miselia oxyacanthe, taken at Portsdown in 1872. 

Mr. Bond also exhibited a new British species of Ichneumonide (Anomalon 
fasciatum), bred by Mr. Mitford from the cocoons of the supposed variety 
of Lasiocampa trifolii obtained from larve found at Romney, Hants. (Vide 
Proc. Ent. Soc. 1871, p. xxxix.) 

Mr. F. Smith stated that Major Munn had asked him whether queen- 
bees ever sting? Mr. Smith said that he had once had a queen-bee on his 
hand for some time without the insect making the slightest attempt to 
sting; and Prof. Westwood said he had never been stung by one. 

Mr. Champion exhibited two species of Coleoptera recently captured by 
him, and new to Britain, viz. Thyamis distinguendea, Rye (Ent. Monthly 
Magazine, ix. p. 157), from Box Hill, and Lithocaris picea, Kraatz, from 
Beauly. 

Prof. Westwood exhibited drawings of Strepsiptera intended to illustrate 
Mr. 8. S. Saunders’ recently published monograph of the group. 


Papers read. 


The following papers were read :— 

“Notes on the manner in which the ravages of a Nematus on Salix 
cinerea are checked by Picromerus bidens, L.” By Mr. Albert Miller. 

“ Descriptions of new genera and species of Tenebrionide.” By Mr. F. 
Bates. 

“On some new species of éxtra-tropical South-African Butterflies.” By 
Mr. Roland Trimen. 

“Catalogue of the Phytophagous Coleoptera of Japan, chiefly drawn up 
from materials collected by Mr. George Lewis.” First portion; by Mr. 
J. 8S. Baly. 

«Supplementary notes on the genus Acentropus.” By Mr. J. W. 
Dunning.—R. M‘L. 


THE ZooLocist—Marcg, 18738. 3421 


Catalogue of the Whales and Dolphins (Cetacea) inhabiting or 
incidentally visiting the Seas surrounding the British Islands. 
By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., &c. 


(Continued from Zool. S. 8. 3364.) 


Section II. DenrTIcETE. 

Teeth well developed in one or both jaws, sometimes deciduous. 
Palate without baleen. Head large or moderate, compressed. 
Tympanic bones two, dissimilar, separate, becoming united, 
sunk in a cavity in the base of the skull. Guillet large. 


The geographical distribution of the toothed whales or dolphins 
is rather uncertain, from want of observations, and the evident 
gradual extermination of the species by the increase of navigation 
incident to the extension of commerce, and especially the use of 
steamboats, which disturb the breeding of these animals. 

I believe that the porpoise (Phocena communis) is the only 
species that is a permanent resident here. 

The Goose Whale (Hyperoodon butzkopf) often breeds in the 
country, but it is doubtful if it does not become gravid from the 
North Seas. 


The Toothed Whales and Dolphins may be divided into three 
series :— 

I. Those that live and breed in the arctic and the northern part 
of the Atlantic, some specimens of which proceed southwards after 
the herrings and other fish. They sometimes have their young on 
the British coasts, but I suspect that only a few, if any, of the 
specimens which come as far south as the British Channel ever 
escape being destroyed and find their way back to the Arctic 
Sea, as— 

1, The Goose Whale (Hyperoodon butzkopf). A frequent visitor. 

2. The Pilot Whale (Globiocephalus Svineval), which comes in 
large “schools” to the North of Scotland, and smaller groups or 
single individuals further south. 

3. The Black Fish (Physeter tursio) is described from a speci- 
men long ago taken on the coast of Scotland. 

4, The Euphrosyne (Clymenia Euphrosyne) and (5) the White- 
beaked Bottle-nose (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) inhabit the North 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. M 


3422 THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 18738. 


Seas, and specimens have been found on the east coast of 
England. 

6. Eschricht’s Dolphin (Electra acuta), the White-sided Bottle- 
nose (Leucopleurus arcticus), and (7) the White-beaked Bottle- 
nose, natives of the Arctic Seas, have also been taken in the 
Orkneys. 


The Black Fish (Pseudorca crassidens), natives of the North Sea, 
have been found in a semi-fossil state in Lincolnshire. 

The Beluga or White Whale (Beluga catodon) and the Narwhal 
are natives of the Arctic Seas, and sometimes occur on the coast of 
Scotland. 

The Killers (Orca) inhabit the Arctic Seas, but they often come 
to the south, even to the British Channel. These species are 
said to live as far south as the Mediterranean Sea, but it is to 
be determined if those of the north and of the south are the same 
species. 

The Ziphius (Ziphius Sowerbiensis) has been so little observed 
that it is difficult to determine its native country. It may bea 
native of the Atlantic on the west coast of Ireland, for that is the 
district where it has been observed most frequently, but as yet 
only males. Single individuals have been obtained in the North 
of Scotland, on the coasts of Belgium and of France: the two latter 
were females. 


II. Species that live in the southern part of the Atlantic or. 
Mediterranean. Individuals sometimes wander north to the British 
Channel and even to the North Sea:— 


The Grampus (Grampus Cuvierit). The Dolphin (Delphinus 
delphis and Petorrhynchus cavirostris). 


III. Species that inhabit the tropical seas of both hemispheres, 
and wander occasionally both to the north and to the south, to 
their own destruction, as for example :— 


The Sperm Whale (Catodon macrocephalus), of which a single 
specimen somelimes occurs in the North of Scotland, probably 
carried there by the Gulf Stream. Others have occurred in the 
British Channel, &c, 


THE ZooLtocist—Marcu, 1878. $423 


Division I. Nostrils longitudinal, parallel, or diverging, each 
covered with a valve, the right one often obliterated. 


Sub-Order III. PayserERoipEa. 


Head blunt; teeth many in lower jaw, fitting into holes in the 
gums of the upper ones. Cervical vertebre more or less 
anchylosed. 


Family IV. Caropont1pz.—Head very large, compressed, trun- 
cated in front. Mouth inferior, linear. Pectoral fin short, broad, 
truncated. Dorsal hump rounded. Skull elongate; crown con- 
cave, surmounted by a high perpendicular wall, formed of the 
doubled-up maxille and occipital bones. 


i. CaTopon.—Atlas vertebra transverse, nearly twice as broad as 
high. Central canal subtrigonal, narrow below. Skull nearly two- 
thirds the entire length of the body. 

It has been said I should use the name Physeter for this genus 
by modern biologists, who seem to pay more attention to what a 
specimen is called than to what itis, Artedi established two genera, 
Catodon for the sperm whale and Physeter for Tursio. Linnzus, 
in his twelfth edition, united the two genera into one under the 
name of Physeter. Now that they are separated I think that Artedi’s 
old name ought to be used. 


1. Catodon macrocephalus (Sperm Whale), Gray, Cat. Seals and 
Whales, p. 202, fig. 54. Physeter macrocephalus, Flower, Trans. 
Zool. Soc., vi. p. 809, t. 55—61, and woodcuts.— Inhabits tropical 
seas, and accidentally temperate ones. Teignmouth; Gessner, 
1532. Whitstable Bay,1794. Scotland; Sibbald. Thurso, 1863 
(skeleton Brit. Mus.) 


Family V. PuysETer1p“.—Head depressed, rounded in front, 
Blowers linear (often only the one on the left side open), at the 
back of the forehead. Mouth small, inferior, rounded. Dorsal fin 
compressed, falcate. Pectoral fin elongate, falcate. Skull short; 
crown concave; hinder part of the wall formed by the maxillaries, 
and divided, as it were, into two subequal parts by a central bony 
ridge, which is more or less twisted towards the right side. Upper 


jaw toothless. Atlas and cervical vertebra all united into a solid 
mass. 


$424 THE ZooLocist—Makcu, 1878. 


i. PoyseETER.—Head large, rather depressed in front.—Cat. of 
Cet. B. M., t. ii. f. 4, head (from Sibbald). Skull ? 

1. Physeter tursio (Black Fish). Physeter tursio, Linn.; Gray, 
l.c., p.212; Synops. Whales & Dolph. p. 4.—Inhabits North Sea. 
Scotland; Sibbald, 1687. Length 52 or 53 feet. This species is 
only known from Sibbald’s description, but there are many other 
whales, like the flat-back (Sibbaldius borealis), which have only 
occurred so as to be zoologically examined once, even when there 
are persons in England, and in different parts of Europe and 
America, paying great attention to whales, and three other species 
of this family were perfectly unknown a few years ago. 


Division II. Nostrils both united into a single central transverse or 
crescent-shaped blower on the back of the crown. 


Sub-order IV. DELPHINOIDEA. 


Nostrils two, united into a single central transverse or crescentic 
blower on the back of the crown. Teeth in both jaws per- 
manent, or rarely deciduous by age. Pectoral fin lanceolate, 
ovate, or truncated, Head generally beaked. Dorsal fin 
falcate or wanting. Skull beaked; maxillary bone spread out 
over the orbit. 


I. Pectoral fin elongate, obliquely truncated on the inner side. 
Fingers elongate, longer than the arm-bones, unequal; the 
second and third much the longest; the rest short. Fore-arm 
bones close together, only separated by a straight line. Carpal 
bones moderate, five or seven. 

A. Pectoral fin on the side of the body. Second and third fingers 
of six or eight phalanges. 


Family VI. DeLpHintp&.—Head beaked. Teeth in both jaws, 
conical or compressed, permanent, without any internal lobe, 
occupying nearly the whole length of the jaw. Back rounded, 
with a faleate dorsal fin; rarely absent. Skull with the maxilla 
expanded over the orbit, and more or less turned up on the edges. 

Tribe I. DeLpHinina.—Head beaked. Teeth conical. Beak of 
the skull elongate, longer than the brain-cavity, depressed, broad, 
shelving on the sides. Nasal triangle short. Symphysis of the 
lower jaw very short, sloping. Dorsal fin subcentral, rarely wanting 


Tue Zootocist—Marcu, 1873. $425 


i, DELPHINUS.—Beak elongate. Palate with a deep groove on 
each side behind. Dorsal fin distinct. Teeth small, slender, five 
or six in an inch. Fingers elongate, unequal; the second much 
the longest, 8- or 9-jointed; third elongate, about three-fourths 
the length; the rest short. Skull (Cat. Cet. B. M., t. 1, f. 3, t. vi. 
f. 8). 

1. Delphinus delphis (the Dolphin).—Black, sides gray, beneath 
white. Beak of skull once and a half the length of the brain-case. 
Teeth #2 or 22. Inhabits Mediterranean and North Atlantic. 
Cornwall, after the mackerel and pilchards; Couch. Greenland; 
Fabricius. 


ii, CLyMENIA.—Beak of skull elongate-depressed; palate flat, 
behind, without any lateral groove. Nasal triangle moderate. 
Dorsal fin distinct. Pectoral fin falcate; hand larger than the 
fore-arm bones. Skull elongate, slender; brain-case spherical ; 
beak slender, elongate, longer than the brain-case;* inter- 
maxillaries convex. Teeth small, slender, five or six in an 
inch. The symphysis of the lower jaw short. The blowers are 
moderate. 

1. Clymenia Euphrosyne (The Euphrosyne).—Beak of the skull 
once and three-quarters the length of the brain-cavity. Teeth six 
in an inch.—Gray, Zool. Erebus and Terror, tab. xxii. (skull). 
North Sea. East coast of England; skull in the Norwich Museum 
(Brightwell). 


iii. Tursio.—Beak short, thick, rather longer than the brain- 
case, conical, convex above, rounded. Palate flat behind, without 
any lateral groove. Teeth large, 33 or 3%. Skull high. Blower 
large. Nasal triangle produced considerably before the notch. 

1. Tursio truncatus (The Bottle-nose). Delphinus tursio,O.Fab. 
D. truncatus, Montagu, Vern. Trans. iii. tab. v. f.38. Skull, aged, 
Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 73, figs. 5 and 6.—Inhabits North 
Sea and Mediterranean. Mouth of the Thames, 1828; the Orwell, 
1849. River Dart, Devonshire; Montagu. Skull in Brit. Mus. 
This species is found on the coast of France and the Mediterranean. 
—Gervais, Ostéogr. Cet., tab. xxxiv. figs. 3 and 9 (skull). 


Tribe II. LAGENoRHYNCHINA.—Head attenuated, beaked. Teeth 
conical. Beak of the skull as long as the length of the brain-case, 
broad, flat above ; edges slightly reflexed and bent up in front of 


$426 Tue ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 


the notch. Nasal triangle elongate. Symphysis of the lower jaw 
short. 


iv. ELEcTRA.—The beak of the skull very flat above, with the 
edges in front of the notches bent up. Teeth-line stopping con- 
siderably short of the notch. 

1. Electra acuta (Eschricht’s Dolphin). Delphinus acuta, Gray, 
Zool. Ereb. & Terror. Delphinus Eschrichtii, Schlegel, Abhand. 
tab. i. and tab. ii. fig. 5—Beak of the skull rather longer (about 
one-third) than the length of the brain-case. Teeth moderate, four 
in an inch, those of the lower jaw rather larger. Inhabits North 
Sea. Orkneys; Brook. Feroe Islands; Schlegel. Skull in Mus. 
Leyden. 


y. LeucopLeurus.—Beak of the skull rather flat above and 
elongate, bent up on the edge in front of the notch, narrow behind, 
as long as, or slightly longer than, the length of the brain-case. 
Teeth-line reaching nearly to the notch. Teeth small, five in an 
inch. First and second cervical vertebre united by their bodies ; 
third and fourth by the spinous processes. Vertebre 81: c. 7; 
d. 15; l. and c. 59. 

1. Leucopleurus arclicus (White-sided Bottle-nose). Gray, 
Synopsis of Seals and Whales, tab. xii. (skull). Z. leucopleurus, 
Gray, Zool. Ereb. & Terror, tab. xiii—Inhabits North Sea. Orkney; 
Knox, 1835. 


vi, LaGeENorHYNCHUS.—Beak of the skull rather flat above, bent 
up on the edges in front of the notch, deep, broad behind, rather 
shorter than the length of the brain-case. Teeth-line reaching 
nearly to the notch, large, three in an inch. First and second 
cervical vertebrae united by their bodies; the third, fourth, fifth, 
sixth and seventh free. 

1. Lagenorhynchus albirostris (White-beaked Bottle-nose). 
Delphinus tursio, Brightwell, Ann. & Mag. N. H., 1846, t. 2.— 
Inhabits North Seas. Yarmouth, 1846; Brightwell (skeleton in 
Brit. Mus). Feroe Islands; Schlegel. 


Tribe III. Pseuporcaina.—Head rounded in front, very convex, 
not beaked. Teeth conical. Beak of the skull depressed, broad, 
scarcely so long as the brain-cavity. 


vii. Pseuporca.—Head rounded, convex; body moderate; dorsal 


THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 3427 


fin moderate, in the centre of the back; arm-bones very short and 
thick, the humerus rather the shortest. Teeth large. 

1. Pseudorca crassidens (The Black Fish).—Beak about two- 
thirds the length of the brain-cavity, broad, rather tapering on the 
sides, truncated in front. Teeth 2 8. Inhabits North Sea. Skull, 
Lincolnshire (semi-fossil). 


Tribe V. PHocanina.—Lateral wings of the maxilla shelving 
- down over the orbit. Triangle in front of the blower convex. 
Teeth compressed. 


viii. PHoczna.—Dorsal fin distinct, in the middle of the back, 
with a series of small spines on the upper part of its front edge. 
Teeth all compressed, truncate. 

1, Phocena communis (the Porpoise).—Inhabits North Sea; 
near the shore in all seasons; ascends the rivers; frequent. 
Battersea, 1815; Gray. 


B. Pectoral fin low down on the side of the body. The second 
and third fingers very long, of nine or twelve phalanges, 
Teeth only in front. 


Family VII. Grampip#.—Head rounded; forehead rather con- 
vex; teeth of upper jaw deciduous, of lower jaw only in front over 
the short symphysis. The dorsal fin low; the skull depressed ; 
lateral expansions horizontal, bent down on the sides over the 
notch. 


1, GRAMPUs. 

1. Grampus Cuvieri (the Grampus). Maurie, Journ. of Anat. 
and Phys. 1870, vol. v. tab. v. Flower, Trans. Zool. Soc,— 
Inhabits Mediterranean, Bay of Biscay. Isle of Wight, 1845; 
Bury (skull in Brit. Mus.) Coast of Cornwall. The French 
naturalists have made two species, Delphinus griseus and D. Risso- 
anus, and Gervais, in his ‘Ostéographie, figures the skeletons of 
both kinds. Mr. Flower, who examined an adult female 11 feet 
long, thinks they are the same. The differences between them are 
not great; the two specimens figured may belong to the sexes. 
It appears to be one of those species which inhabits the Mediter- 
ranean and the Bay of Biscay, and only comes north as far as the 
south of Britain incidentally, along with the mackerel.—Proc, 
Zool, Soc. 1870, p. 128. 


3428 Tue ZooLtoeist—Marcu, 1873, 


Family VIII. GropiocePHaLip&.—Head blunt, rounded. Teeth 
in the front part of both jaws, cylindrical, simple; symphysis very 
short, shorter than the tooth-line. Dorsal fin faleate. Pectoral fin 
low down on the sides of the body; fingers elongate, many-jointed. 
Atlas and the rest of the cervical vertebre united, or the hinder 
one free. Scapula triangular, with large coracoid and acromion 
processes. 


i. GLOBIOCEPHALUS.—Skull: palate flat; beak tapering in front ; 
fifth and sixth cervical vertebre anchylose. 

1. Globiocephalus svineval (Pilot Whale).— Black, with a white 
streak beneath. Inhabits North Sea. Orkneys; 7’radl (skull in 
the British Museum). Feroe Islands. Makes a passage annually 
from the Polar Seas to the Atlantic. Comes in large “schools” on 
the coast of Scotland, and is driven ashore by the fishermen. The 
bones saved are imported to the east coast of England to make 
manure. Small “schools” or isolated stragglers occur annually on 
different parts of the coast. They often reach 20 to 22 feet long. 

2. Globiocephalus affinis.—Inhabits North Sea. Skull, Mus. 
Coll. of Surgeons. 


ii. SPHZROCEPHALUS.—Palate of the skull convex, shelving on 
the sides. Beak oblong, of nearly the same width the greater part 
of its length. 

1. Spherocephalus incrassatus (Thick-palated Pilot Whale). 
Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1861, fig. 3—TInhabits British Channel. 
Skull, Bridport, 1853. B.M. Beacham. Probably a species of 
the Mediterranean. 


II. Pectoral fin broad, rounded or truncated at the end; hand 
shorter than the arm-bones; second finger the longest, the 
rest gradually shorter; phalanges of the second finger six or 
eight. : 

Family IX. Orcapx.—Head rounded, scarcely beaked. Dorsal 
fin falcate. Skull heavy; wings of sides expanded; beak short, 
broad; triangle in front of the blowers flat. Lower jaw thick in 
front; symphysis short. Teeth large. 


i. Ornca.—Beak of the skull from the notch before the orbit the 
same length as from the notch to the condyles; the width at the 
notch three-fifths of the length of the beak. The occipital end of 


THE ZooLocist—Maxcu, 1873. 3429 


the skull slightly concave. Condyles of moderate size. Lower jaw 
broad on the sides, very thick and solid in front. 

1. Orca stenorhyncha (Sharp-nosed Killer)—The beak of the 
skull tapering and narrow in front; end narrow. Suppl. Cat. Seals 
and Whales, p. 90, figs. 7 and 9 (skull). Inhabits British Channel 
(skeleton from Weymouth), and Sweden. 

2. Orca latirostris (Broad-nosed Killer). Delphinus Orca, 
Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. tab. xxii. f. 4 (skull).—Beak of the skull 
spatulate; side of the hinder half nearly parallel, of the front half 
arched and converging; end rounded, middle rather wider at the 
notch. Inhabits North Sea. Skull from coast of Essex, British 
Museum. 


Eschricht observes that the fierce nature of the Orcas is perfectly 
true, and that they partly subsist on large fish. They attack and 
tear to pieces the very largest whalebone whales to feed on their 
blubber, and they swallow porpoises and seals whole, and have 
been known to eat as many as four, one immediately after the other, 
and as many as twenty-seven in a few days; but they are very much 
afraid of the walrus. M. Eschricht seems to think there are two 
species of Orca, one with a high and the other with a low fin, and 
a third from the Feroe Islands. Prof. Steenstrup proposes to call 
the third Orca Eschrichtii, but he certainly does not give any 
characters by which these species are to be separated; indeed 
Eschricht was an excellent anatomist and physiologist, as regards 
the Cetacea, but he was an industrious compiler as regarded their 
history, and seemed to have little knowledge of zoological dis- 
tinctions. 

The “killers” of the North Sea, of the west coast of France, and 
of the Mediterranean have very similar skulls, but they differ greatly — 
in size, becoming smaller as they are found further south. They 
may be different species or only geographical varieties. 


Family 10. BeLvcip#.—Head rounded in front. Teeth in both 
jaws more or less early deciduous, rarely wanting, or rather not 
developed. Back without any dorsal fin. Pectoral fin small, ovate. 
Skull with the lateral expansion of the maxilla over the orbit and 
the side of the beak, shelving downwards. Fingers short; index 
and middle fingers nearly the same length; the rest rather shorter ; 
phalanges 2, 5,6,4,3. Cervical vertebrz generally free; the second 
with a large dorsal process. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. N 


3430 THE ZooLtocist—Marcu, 1878. 


i. BELUGA.—Male without any spiral horn-like tooth. Fingers 
short. Metacarpal bones surrounded with cartilage. Blade-bone 
with a large coracoid and acromion process. Second cervical 
vertebra with a large dorsal process. 

1. Beluga catodon (the Beluga or White Whale).— Inhabits 
North Seas, entering the mouths of rivers in “ schools.” Scotland; 
Sibbald. Mr. Cope has divided the arctic specimens into four 
species, from slight differences in the attachment of the cervical 
vertebre, the number of ribs, and the form of the acromion. 


ii. Monopon.—Male with one very long, projecting, spiral tusk 
in the left side of the upper jaw. Rarely the tusks on both sides 
are developed, and they rarely occur in the female. Cervical 
vertebre: first free, thin; second and third united by the spinal 
processes. Bladebone with large coracoid and acromion process. 
Fingers short. 

1. Monodon monoceros (the Narwhal).—Invhabits Arctic Ocean, 
incidentally on the coasts of Scotland and England, and Isle of 
May, 1648; Zetland, 1808; Lincolnshire, 1800. 


Sub-order V. Z1PHIOIDEA. 


Head beaked. Nostrils two, united into a single transverse or 
crescent-like blower on the centre of the back of the crown. 
Teeth only in the front or sides of the lower jaw, fitting into 
pits in the upper one. Dorsal fin falcate. Pectoral fin ovate, 
small, low down on the side of the body; fingers short, four- 
or five-jointed; second and third the longest; fourth rather 
shorter; first and fifth rather short. Cervical vertebra more 
or less united into one mass. 

Allied to the Physeteroidea, but with a transverse instead of a 
longitudinal nostril. Indeed these sub-orders form two parallel 

series. (See Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, 1871, p. 57.) 


Family XI. HyPeroopontip&.—Beak of the skull with a high 
crest on each side above, formed by the elevation of the maxillary 
bones in front of the blower. Teeth two or four in front of the 
lower jaw, cylindrical, conical. Cervical vertebre united into one 
mass. 

O. Fabricius and Turton by mistake state the teeth to be in the 
upper jaw, and Illiger’s name is founded upon this error of the 
press. , 


THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 3431 


i. HypERoopon.—Beak of the skull bent downwards; crest of 
the back of the beak sharp-edged above, as high as the occiput.— 
Gray, Cat. Cet. B. M. t. 7, f. 1. 

1. Hyperoodon butzkopf (the Goose Whale).—Inhabits Arctic 
Seas, frequent in the British Seas, and ascending rivers. London 
Bridge, 1837; Belfast, 1848 ; Frith of Forth, 1839. 


ii. LAGENoceTus.—Beak of the skull straight; crest very large, 
flattened, higher than the occiput. 

1. Lagenocetus latifrons, Gray, Zool. Ereb. & Terror, t.24 (skull). 
—Inhabits Arctic Seas; occasionally on the coast of Scotland 
and England. Frith of Forth, 1846; Orkneys (skull, Brit. Mus.) 
Moreton Bay. Feroe Islands (Mus. Edinb., 25 feet long). 


Family XII. Epropontip#.—Blower lunate. Skull: beak simple; 
maxillaries not dilated above; intermaxillaries enlarged behind, 
forming a more or less deep cavity round the nostrils. Teeth two 
or four in front of the lower jaw, conical or cylindrical. Cervical 
vertebrz: first, second and third united into one mass, which is 
produced and truncated above; the rest thin, free. 


i. PETRORHYNCHUS.—Skull trigonal. Vomer swollen, forming 
a large elongated callous tubercle between the intermaxillaries. 
Intermaxillaries forming a deep basin round the nostrils, 

1. Petrorhynchus cavirostris. Ziphius cavirostris, Cuvier, Oss. 
Foss. v. p. 320, t. xxvii. f. 3 (skull). Gervais, Zool. et Paléont. 
Franc. t. 38, f. 2, t. 39, f. 1. Ostéogr. Cét. t. xxi. f. 6—9. Fischer, 
Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1866, xviii. p. 255. Hyperoodon de Corse, 
Doumet, Bull. Soc. Cuviér, 1842, p. 207, t. 1, f. 1 (animal). 
Hyperoodon Doumetei, Gray, Cat. Cet. Brit. Mus. p. 68. Petro- 
rhynchus mediterraneus, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Seals & Whales, p. 98. 
Specimen caught at sea at Shetland, 1870 (skull in Mus. Edinb.), 
Turner. 

Epiodon Gervaisiit, Heroodon Gervaisii, Duvenoy. Epiodon 
Heraultii, Gray. Delphinus Philippii, Cous. Erichs. Archiv. 
Nat. 1846, p. 204, t. 4, f. 6, from Messina. Epiodon Des- 
marestii, Gray, Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 98 (from Z. cavi- 
rostris—part), Gervais, Zool. et Paléont. Franc. t. 38, f. 1, t. 39, 
f.2—7. Ostéogr. Cét. t. 21, f. 1—4, t. 22, f.4—1]. Differs in 
having a small slender simple vomer.— Inhabits Mediterranean, 
and I have seen an imperfect skull said to be brought from the 


$432 TuHE ZooLocist—Makcg, 1873. 


North Sea, perhaps from the coast of the British Islands. It 
occurs in Sweden. Gervais considers the development and 
callosity of the vomer on which the genera Epiodon and Petro- 
rhynchus had been founded merely an accidental variety. It may 
be sexual, but I believe it to be distinctive, as its non-development 
is characteristic of Epiodon australis, and the development of 
P. capensis. I had believed it might be sexual, but the inner 
edge of the intermaxillaries of the animal figured by Doumet, 
which appears to be that of a female, figured by Gervais, is dilated 
and raised, which shows it is not a character of the female sex. 

Aliama Desmarestii, Gray, from Delphinus Desmareslii, Risso, 
Hist. Nat. Eur. Merid. iii. p. 24, t. 2, f. 3 (female), from Nice, peculiar 
for having a long, conical head and large fins, is an animal that is 
quite unknown to modern zoologists. It has the long fins on the 
lower part of the side of the body of the grampus, the teeth of 
Ziphioid whales, and a conical head peculiar to itself. 


Family XIII. Zrpa1p#,—Skull beaked. Maxillaries not dilated 
above. Intermaxillaries linear, rather swollen on the sides of the 
nostrils. Teeth on the side of the lower jaw compressed. Cervical 
vertebre more or less united into a consolidated mass. 


i. ZipHi1us.—Teeth two, in the middle of the sides of the lower 
jaw. Teeth of the male large, short, compressed, truncated at the 
end; of female small, curved. Lower jaw often with sundry rudi- 
mentary teeth, gradually tapering in front. Symphysis elongate, 
and reaching to the middle of the teeth in the male, and beyond it 
in the female. Cervical vertebra free. Scapula with large coracoid 
and acromion processes. 

1. Ziphius Sowerbiensis(the Ziphius).—Inhabits British Channel, 
Irish Sea, and North of Scotland. Elginshire, 1800 (male); Brodie. 
West coast of Ireland (males); Andrews. West coast of France 
(females); Blainv. Ostend; Dumortier. 


The Neoziphius europeus, the skull of which is figured as 
Diplodon europeus, Gervais, Ostéog. Cét. t. xxiv., is also found on 
the Coast of France, and may very likely occur on the British coast. 
It is immediately known by the very short symphysis of the lower 
jaw, and the teeth being very near its front end. 

It is curious that Linneus, in the ‘ Fauna Suecica’ (1861) gives 
Monodon monoceros and Balaina mysticetus as inhabiting the 


Tae ZooLocist—Marcu, 1878. 3433 


Atlantic Ocean, Balena physalis and Catodon macrocephalus as 
inhabiting the Norwegian seas, Delphinus delphis the western seas, 
and Delphinus phocena as common to all seas. 


J. E. Gray. 
November 5th, 1872. 


Erratum.—Zool. S. 8. 3360, line 10, for Southern Ocean read German Ocean, 


Some additional Remarks on the Question of the Colouring of 
Cuckoos’ Eggs. By the Rev. A. C. Smitu, M.A. 


Ir may be in the recollection of some of the readers of the 
‘Zoologist,’ that, five years since, I invited the attention of British 
ornithologists to the exceedingly interesting theory of Dr. Baldamus, 
in regard to the colouring of the eggs of the cuckoo,* and that I 
followed up my remarks in a subsequent number with a translation 
of the whole article in question from Naumannia;t when I entreated 
the careful consideration of English naturalists upon a subject, 
which, however startling from its then novelty, yet contained a very 
beautiful theory, and one which at all events demanded respect 
from the well-known scientific attainments of its author. 

I am afraid, however, that in England this question has not 
attracted the attention it deserved; for beyond an occasional 
passing allusion to it from time to time in our Natural History 
periodicals, and a few, a very few, but highly valued facts, all 
tending to corroborate the view of Dr. Baldamus, which I have 
received from obliging correspondents, I have been unable to find 
that anybody in this country has handled the subject since my last 
paper in 1868, for Mr. Rowley’s article on “ Certain Facts in the 
Economy of the Cuckoo,” appeared previously in the ‘ Ibis;’t and 
though that gentleman was then unconvinced, and felt compelled 
to withhold his belief from it, he expressed great admiration (not 
only of the Doctor’s researches, but) of his theory, which he 
described “ as beautiful as it is new,” and even added, “I only wish 
that fresh evidence may be brought forward of a nature so strong 
as to make it an acknowledged fact.” 

Now I attribute the general apathy on the part of our British 


* «Zoologist’ for 1868, 8.S. pp. 1105—1118. + Id. pp. 1145—1166. 
t ‘Ibis’ for 1865, S.S. vol. i. pp. 178—186. 


3434 THE ZooLoGist—Marcu, 1873. 


ornithologists, in regard to the above-named theory, partly to an 
indolent reluctance to embark on a subject which, to be rightly 
investigated, would require a great deal of careful pains-taking, 
and very persevering diligence, and partly to the (as I venture to 
think) unworthy sneers with which some would-be leaders in the 
Ornithological world tried to annihilate the learned German 
Doctor, and. my humble self also, his mere introducer; but 
inasmuch as ridicule is not argument, and no champion arose to 
account for the facts and combat the inferences of Dr. Baldamus, 
methought a well-known maxim of the English law-courts was not 
irrelevant,—“ When the counsel for the defence sees his case is 
bad, let him abuse the plaintiff’s attorney.” Hence my share in 
the obloquy so freely poured forth on this question in certain 
quarters. 

However, so far as simple ridicule went, that would have been 
quite harmless, had it not been accompanied, doubtless from pure 
pleasantry, with an ingenious perversion of the theory; and it was 
certainly easy, and perhaps exceedingly witty, to say that Dr, 
Baldamus asserted the cuckoo to have the power of laying her egg 
of just what colour she pleased; only such pleasantry becomes 
mischievous in a scientific subject, inasmuch as it exactly contra- 
dicted the Doctor’s expressed view. I am not about to repeat the 
argument, for which I would refer to the translation alluded to 
above, or still better to the original ;* I will here, and to avoid 
misapprehension, merely quote the summary of Dr. Baldamus’s 
view of the question, as he puts it; for having “set forth as a law 
of Nature that the eggs of the cuckoo are, in a very considerable 
degree, coloured and marked like the eggs of those birds in whose 
nests they are about to be laid, in order that they might the less 
easily be recognized by the foster-parents as substituted ones,” he 
goes on to declare his opinion, “ that every hen cuckoo lays all her 
eggs of one colouring only, and consequently (as a general rule) 
lays only in the nests of one species.” 

Having now entered my most decided protest against the very 
unphilosophical way of getting rid of an unpalateable theory by 
ridicule and perversion rather than by reason and argument, I 
come to the subject-matter in hand, and that is to submit to the 
readers of the ‘ Zoologist’ a mass of evidence on the point collected 
in Germany; for if English ornithologists have shown themselves 

* 1853, pp. 307—326, 


THE ZooLocist—Makcu, 1878. $435 


remiss on the subject, assuredly our more pains-taking and 
enquiring German friends have not; and I proceed to produce 
from the pages of the ‘Journal fiir Oruithologie’ for 1871 * some 
very valuable statistics on a large series of cuckoos’ eggs, given by 
Dr. E. Rey, from specimens in his own collection, all of which were 
obtained either by himself in the neighbourhood of Halle, or 
by a friend in Dessau, so that he is able to rely upon his facts as 
authentic. 

Dr. Rey modestly begins by desiring to contribute a little mite 
to the history of the propagation of the cuckoo, in connection with 
the interesting observations of Baldamus and others, and says that 
“amongst his cuckoos’ eggs many are found whose colouring and 
(foster) parentage speak very much for that theory;” and adds 
that “ amongst these he reckons also the cases where the cuckoo’s 
egg did not indeed occur in a nest of the species whose eggs it 
resembled in colour, but where a cuckoo’s egg was introduced 
which corresponded with those of some allied and similarly- 
building species of warbler.” ¢ 

The author then goes on to discuss the question of blue and 
bluish green cuckoo’s eggs, eggs of which colour alone (as he 
affirms) the cuckoo places in the nests of Ruticilla pheenicurus, 
and while they are also found of this colour in the nests of the 
hedgesparrow and the whinchat, in the nests of no other birds, to 
which the cuckoo is accustomed to entrust her eggs, are they ever 
found; and this “ striking phenomenon,” he suggests, can be best 
explained by accepting the theory of Baldamus. 

_ There is one more’ preliminary remark, in reference to the blue 
cuckoo’s eggs, which I cannot forbear to quote, because it advo- 
cates a principle to which I have often called attention in the pages 
of the ‘ Zoologist’ and elsewhere, wz., the valuable testimony which 


* Pp, 225—228. 

+ It is, perhaps, worth while to remind my readers, that the argument here, as 
expressed originally by Baldamus, is, that though for the most part the cuckoo finds 
the nest of that species of warbler which it requires for its peculiar circumstances, it 
will oftentimes happen that it does not find such nests in the necessary numbers, or 
sufficiently advanced or retarded for its purposes :—‘‘ It will, therefore, be unable to 
find for each of its eggs a fitting nest of that species to which it was prepared to 
entrust it, and to which it was used; so it finds itself obliged to introduce one and 
another egg into the nests of some other warblers, if haply by good chance it can do 
so. Thus, then, it comes to pass that there are, and according to the nature of 
circumstances there must be, proportionably many exceptions of the rule.” 


$436 Tue ZooLocist—Marca, 1873. 


may be derived from comparing the texture, or the grain, of the 
shell; and Dr. Rey says that, in reply to the argument that these 
blue so-called cuckoos’ eggs may perhaps be gigantic eggs of the 
redstart, he maintains that “in respect of the grain [das Korn], in 
which they exactly agree with one another, these blue cuckoos’ 
eggs vary in every case from the eggs of the redstart. 

I proceed to the Catalogue, observing by the way how carefully 
and minutely our author has tabulated the statistics of every nest 
described ; showing first with regard to the foster-parents :-— 

(a) The species. 

(b) The date of finding. 

(c) The number of the eggs. 

(d) The colouring and markings of the eggs. 

And then with regard to the cuckoo’s egg found therewith :— 

(e) The number. 

(f) The size in millemétres. 

(g) The colouring, &c. 

a method of investigating the question before us, which leaves 
nothing to be desired, and an example of patient pains-taking, and 
accurate examination of details very highly to be commended, and 
which I venture to point out as worthy of imitation, inasmuch as it 
is by a careful scrutiny of the details of individual specimens, and 
then by a cautious comparison of many such examples, that 
anything like a correct opinion on such a disputed point can be 
obtained. 


; tb 
z No. of é 
2 eggs 2 Size in 
3 | Owner of nest. Date. a Markings.| ¢ | millemétres. Remarks. 
nest. o 
é E 
1 Lanius collurio June 9 2 Redsort 1 22, 16 {° gel ee 
: Colouring and marking 
9 x is June 13 1 oe ie els eo between F. celebs and 
F. chloris. — 
3 r A Fee x: |, oo a eas meee collurio, brown 
4 < 9 June 20 5 Brownsort1l 23, 17 1. Se and. 
5 & i. July 11 2 Redsort 1 22, 16, pci eollurio, 
; Reminding one of L. col- 
6 21,,16 lurio and S. horten- 
7} ” ” J 0 2 { 21, 16 sis; perfectly agreeing 
amongst themselves. 


Tue ZooLocist—M arcu, 1873. 


Owner of nest. Date. 


Current No. 


Ey 

No. of 2 
eggs 4 
in | Markings. s 
nest. g 
iS) 


millemétres. 


3437 


Size in 
Remarks, 


8 Lanius collurio ? 


9 Ruticilla tithys June 19 


Ruticilla phe- : 
10{ nicurus } May 2 
11 ” ” May 22 
12 4 - May 24 
18 + a May 26 
es » May 28 
15 ” ” Fh une 13 
16 ” ” June 20 
17 ” ” July 1 
18 % ee July 6 
19 ” ” 2 
ee oa mp UL: 

Erithacus ru- 
aif Sia May 20 

Calamoherpe 
ae { * arundinacea Jane Ba 
23 ” ” ? 6 
24 A ~ July 16 
25 _ ? 

26 9 

Calamoherpe 
= Phragmitis } June 28 

? 

Calamoherpe 

20{ palustris June 4 

Calamoherpe 

a0{ turdoides spame 1 

Phyllopneuste 

a1 sibilatrix | May - 
82 Sylvia nisoria May 21 
33 . a May 30 
34 9 a June 2 
85s, » June 8 
36 ” ” June 8 
37 = ui June 11 
38 ” ” ? 


"Spotted 
with red 


vr POR ER FOOD 


if 
1 
a 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
if 
1 
1 


With a 
44large circle 
(of red spots 


1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
i 
1 
it 


OPRNYNYNHY Oo an p pH eR PR OwD Oo wo 


SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 


Like L. collurio, brown 
sort. 

Pure white ground 
colour, with in parts 
somewhat large, in- 
distinct, rust - red 
- spots, which appear 
but a little thicker 
towards the 

end. 
Paler than R. pheni- 
curus. 


large 


Observably paler than 
R. phenicurus. 

A little lighter than R. 
pheenicurus. 

i Paler than R.phenicurus, 

16. fe ” 

16 Like R. pheenicurus. 

16 Paler than R.phenicurus. 

16 ” ” 


17 ” ” 


22, 7. 
ae 


22,, 15, Uniformly blue-green. 


22,, 16, Like S. hortensis. 
Like Calamoherpe pa- 


22,, 16 lustris. 

a4. 16 ie eee like C. arun- 
: dinacea. 

23, ee ” ” 


22,,17 Like C. arundinacea. 
23,, 16, Like S. nisoria. 

22, 16, Like C. Phragmitis. 
22, 16, Like S. hortensis. 
21,, 15, Like S. cinerea. 


22,, 16, Like S. hortensis. 


22,,16, Uniformly pale blue. 
22, 16, Like S. hortensis. 
21,,17 nS " 

BB ils -: os 

.... Like S, nisoria. 

22,,17 Like C. Phragmitis. 
22, 17 Like S. hortensis. 
22, 15 +: 8 


O 


8438 THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1875. 


é ee 

7, No. of nad 

2 eggs a Size in 

8 Owner of nest. Date. in | Markings,| ¢ | millemétres. Remarks. 

EI nest. 3 

iS) iS) 
89 Sylvia cinerea May 17 5 . 1 21, 16 Like S. cinerea. 
40 as y May 20 5 1 22, 16, Like S. hortensis. 
41 Sylvia hortensis May 28 2 21, 16 a p 
42 ” ” June 5 1 eegils 22, 16, oy 93 
43 5 - June 6 5 .. 1 21, 16 LikeS. cinerea. 
44 § $$ 6 2 1 21, 16, Like S. hortensis. 
45 iy ki ? 2) ere 1 24, 16, rs * 
46 Motacilla alba May 19 5 . 1 22, 17 Like S. cinerea. 
47 r AA May 20 4 1 22, 16, Like S. hortensis. ~ 
48 Ss “ May 25 6 1 22,.16, Very like M. alba. 

: Both like S. cinerea, 
Fe 4 oY May 76 2 } 2 { - ibs but differing from one 
“4 4, ae es <a another. 

51 ” as June 1 5 20,,16 Like S. cinerea. 


Somewhat like C. arun- 


So a, adune Gi: 8.12 1 Bh 1; { pr 
53 7 . June 6 5 .. -- 1 28, 16 Like M. alba. 
Unlike the eggs of this 
bate: = ‘lutch, but like 
54 3 » June 10 5 Varying 1 24, 17 te aa ee Of 
M. alba. 
55 cs ss Junel2 5 1 22, 17 Like M. alba. 
56 3 . Junel9 5 beg - - 
57 " i June 20 4 1 23, 16, Like C. arundinacea. 
58 ‘s yy June 20 6 1 21, 16, Like M. alba. 
59 be A June 22 4 1 22, 16, Like S. cinereg. 
~ (Like S. cinerea, but 
ol We “4 ; ‘ol } 2{ oy 7 differing widely from 
” ” eS ee a i J each other. 


Like M. alba, the 
ground colour some- 
what pale. 

Of pale  clay-yellow 
ground colour, with 
many large  rust- 
yellow spots; even 
marked with similar 
lines and points, and 
with detached pale 
violet-green spots. 


62 Alauda cristata ? 
{Paso like M. flava; 


— 
a 
~ 
S 
rT 
oa 

° 


Emberiza 
63{ ne | June ae ae a ie 


wo 
—" 
2 
ra 
os 
=" 
Oo 


64 {Saari ws} May 29 


: indi f 
nebiha also reminding one 0 


very dark S. nisoria. 
Like many of C. phrag- 


6 oy ” ? Ae ate ae ek 98) 1% ath 


Dr. Rey then appends a second catalogue of cuckoos’ eggs, 
which have been collected from other places and by other people, 
and of whose (foster) parentage trustworthy testimony is wanting to 


Tne Zootocist—Marcg, 18738, 


3439 


him; but he adds, “ they may through their resemblance be easily 
classified with the other eggs.” 


No. Size. | Remarks. | ».| Size. 
mm 29, ai tile L. collurio, the]19 21, 16, 
gz 21, 16 brown sort. 20 24,,16 
21 24. Vy 
Reminding one of Em-] 22 22,, 
8 al,,17 { beriza hortulana. 2 
23 21,, 15, 
a 22.. 16, 24 c 
pe 22e 16, 
6 22,,17 | Not unlike Alauda ar-]25 22, 
[fhe 8 Sa Wg vensis. 
8) 522.16 
9 22., 16, a 28, | 
10 22,,.16 e d 
11 22, 16 } Like Motacilla alba. 
12) 29. 15; 
18 20;, 16 | ike Motacilla flava. 27 «22, 17 | 
Wes 21; 16 Qs aL Ly 
i 29 22, 17 | 
i 23, 17 
16 20, 16 : : 
17 22, 17 Like §. cinerea. | 
16> 28, 17 


Remarks. 


Like S. hortensis, approach- 
ing S. atricapilla. 


Very like S.curruca. Both 
of these were received at 
the same time and from 
one place. 


17 Like Ruticilla phenicurus. 


This egg in colouring and 
marking stands midway 
between S. locustella and 
S. hypolais. 

Somewhat like Anthus ar- 
boreus, with a slate-gray 
bluish ground - colour, 
These three eggs, which 
agree with one another 
quite remarkably, I re- 
ceived through one hand; 
but (alas!) provided with 
no further information 
than the dates May 25, 
May 30, and June 8, 1869. 


It will be needless for me to add any further observations on this 
valuable catalogue; I would merely beg to commend the study of 
these tables (containing a description of a series of nearly a 
hundred cuckoos’ eggs, collected with great care and assiduity 
during seventeen years) to all those who take interest in the 
subject; and if Mr. Rowley could be induced to give his opinion 
upon them, I for one should be exceedingly grateful to him, inas- 
much as both he and IJ are only desirous to elicit the truth of the 
matter; and the more such a question is discussed and ventilated, 
the more likely we are to arrive at a true verdict in the case. 
ALFRED CHARLES SMITH. 


Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 


February 8, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Castle Eden. 
By Mr. Joun ScLATER. 


Black Tern—On the 22nd of October last a black tern was 
brought to me, which had been shot near Castle Eden a day or 


3440 Tue ZooLocisT—MarcH#, 1873. 


two before: it was flying alone. This is the first time I have seen 
or heard of the species near here. I am told that it was common 
on the Northumbrian coast forty years ago. The specimen was a 
male, and from the plumage I think a bird of the second year. 

Fulmar Petrel.—Nov. 16. A fulmar petrel was brought to me 
which had been picked up on the beach ; it was much decomposed, 
but the feathers were tight. I buried it in quick-lime for two days, 
and have succeeded in making a fair mounted specimen of the 
skeleton. 

Waxwings.—Nov.17. I saw three waxwings: the first I observed 
roosting on a thorn overhanging the park-gate, where it no doubt 
had been feeding on the haws.. My first thought was, my gun; but 
the church-bells were ringing close by, and I have never learned 
to shoot on a Sunday. I confess this temptation was not easily 
overcome; however, I tried to knock it down with a stone, but 
missed, of course: it flew up and joined two others on the top of 
a tall ash, where they were feeding on the buds. I consoled myself. 
by having so good an opportunity of watching their habits, and as 
one of them was lazy enough to roost at 2.45 Pp. M., I thought they 
might be there in the morning: this turned out to be true. I went 
at daybreak next morning, and directly saw one of them on the very 
top branch of a large beech. I fired, and it flew towards me, falling 
dead at my feet, in beautiful condition. At 11 a.m. I found the 
other two at the same place feeding on the haws. I shot one; the 
other got away, and J have not seen or heard of it since. The 
two I obtained were male and female. There was scarcely any 
difference in their plumage, but the female was rather the larger: 
both birds had six waxen appendages to each wing. It is stated 
in Yarrell that the female has never more than five; and the 
account there given of their shy and restless habits are totally at 
variance with what I observed. They sometimes sat perfectly 
motionless; their position was then very smart and upright, but 
rather round-shouldered, the crest pointing upwards and the beak 
inclined downwards. When feeding they kept uttering a sort of 
mournful note, not unlike what I have heard the female robin make 
in the breeding-season, and they much reminded me of the slow, 
lazy-looking manner of the bullfinch. It may be said that these 
birds had probably just arrived and were fatigued; but some years 
ago a game-watcher here met with seven feeding on the berries of 
the mountain-ash, when they allowed him to approach them quite 


THE ZooLtocist—Marcu, 1873. ° 3441 


close, seeing which he went home for his gun, but when he returned 
he found them sitting on the top branches of another tree: he shot 
one, when they flew a short distance and alighted; they allowed 
him to approach as before, when he shot a second ; and so on until 
he shot four: he said they sat and looked at him while loading. 
Surely a bird cannot be called shy that sits within shot and allows 
a man to go through the platoon of a muzzle-loading gun, time after 
time. The watcher’s character of them, if rough, was most truthful; 
he said they were “stupid devils.” The other three flew into the 
gardens, and two of them were shot by the gardener in a similar 
manner. All these six birds came into my possession. I venture 
to state that the majority of the specimens obtained in Britain have 
been shot sitting: if any readers of the ‘ Zoologist’ can prove the 
contrary, I hope they will. 

Great Gray Shrike.—Nov. 29. A neighbouring gamekeeper 
brought me a fine specimen of the great gray shrike: on dissection 
I found the stomach to contain the stomach and intestines of a 
small bird, probably a finch, as it contained various seeds and 
pebbles. This is the fourth specimen I have obtained during six 
years in this neighbourhood, and all four have allowed themselves 
to be openly approached and shot sitting. 

Glaucous Gulls.—Dec. 13. I obtained three glaucous gulls, all 
immature birds, differing in size, the largest being twenty-seven 
inches in length, the smallest twenty-five inches and a quarter. 
There is scarcely any difference in their plumage, except in the 
wing-feathers: in the smallest bird the outer primary is uniform 
dull white, with a small angular, mark of pale brown near the tip ; 
the inner webs are all dull white, but the outer webs become more 
and more pale yellowish brown, and the angular mark increases in 
size towards the body. In the largest the primaries are rather 
darker; the outer webs are mottled with pale brown and a double 
row of angular markings near the tip. The under surface of the 
wing of all the birds is uniform grayish white, the shafts pure white. 
There were several adult birds, but I was not fortunate enough to 
get near them. I got a fine adult specimen of the great black- 
backed gull. There are more of the larger species of gulls on the 
coast now than I have ever seen. 

Gannet.—Dec. 18. A solan goose found dead on the beach. 
It may be worth recording that some years ago the gardener here 
found a young bird of this species alive in the park after a storm; 


$442 ‘ Tue Zoo.tocist—Marcu, 1873. 


the bird had not been shot,. but had either struck itself or been 
struck on the head with some blunt instrument. About the same 
time a coast-guard gave me an adult of this species which he found 
dead on the beach: it was choked by a gurnard; the spines of the 
fish were so fast in the gullet that they broke off when it was 
pulled out. 

Little Auk, &c.—Dec.20. Found a little auk dead on the beach 
in good condition: it had not been shot. I also obtained an Ice- 
land gull, an adult male: on one of the watchers seeing it, he said 
that he had shot a bird, the day before, exactly the same, but much 
larger—no doubt a glaucous gull; he had given it to a friend who 
he said had “ bothered him a long time for a gull”—most likely to 
deck some lady’s bonnet. Many of our best sea-birds meet a like 
fate, and are never heard of, making the species appear more rare 
than they really are. Very few of the shore-shooters on this coast 
know, or care to know, one gull from another: they will sit for 
hours, generally on their heels, behind rocks, with blunderbusses 
charged one-fourth the length of the barrel, and often shoot a good 
many. ‘They tell me that they pluck, or more commonly clip, the 
feathers off to make pillows, &c.; and some of them declare that 
the flesh of gulls is “ varry gud ta eat.” 

Great Btackbacked Gull.—Jan. 3. I got three great black- 
backed gulls, one adult and two immature. 


JOHN SCLATER. 
Castle Eden, Durham, January 18, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Devon and Cornwall. 
By JoHNn GaTcoMBE, Esq. 


DECEMBER, 1872. 


Northern Diver, Blackbacked Gulls and Shag.—December 1. 
Northern divers and a large number of gulls, including both 
greater and lesser blackbacked, in the harbour. The shag or green 
cormorant has been, and is now, exceedingly numerous, owing to 
the long-continued gales, diving in the surf among the rocks, 
pursuing and searching for its prey even under the sea-weed with 
which they are covered; indeed it seems quite wonderful how it 
can do so without injury. Not long since I saw a shag actually 
dashed on a rock, over which it scrambled on its side and belly in 


THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 3443 


a most extraordinary manner, half swimming and half walking; 
after which it immediately dived, coming up again not in the least 
discomposed with a small rock fish in its bill. 

Forktailed Petrel, Purple Sandpiper and Black Redstart.— 
Dec. 2. A forktailed petrel was caught off the port. Observed three 
purple sandpipers on the rocks under the Hoe: they were as usual 
very tame, allowing an approach to within a few yards. I have seen 
_ these birds crouch to allow the spray of a large wave to dash over 
the rock on which they were feeding; then, rising on their legs the 
moment it had subsided, would pick up their food with the utmost 
activity, crouching again on the approach of another. Saw a black 
redstart near the same place. An unusual number of great black- 
backed gulls, shags and kittiwakes have been brought to the 
birdstuffer’s lately, and one mew, with its stomach full of earth- 
worms. It is a pity the starving kittiwakes do not resort more to 
the fields. 

Storm Petrel, Black Redstart.—Dec. 3. A storm petrel was 
observed flying, swallow-like, over some inundated meadows at 
Laira, near Plymouth, and on the same day I saw another black 
redstart near the Devil’s Point, at Stonehouse. 

Dec. 4. At Laira, in a small patch of mud just uncovered by 
the tide, I observed the following species :—two herons, a large 
flock of dunlins and ringed dotterel, one kingfisher, and a flock of 
about a hundred blackheaded gulls; also, on a small rock 
surrounded by water in the harbour, fifteen large gulls, two crows 
and a cormorant huddled together in the most friendly manner. 

Dec. 9. The day after a tremendous gale I observed above 
three hundred gulls on the West Mud, with a sprinkling of shags 
among them, and some northern divers off the Hoe. 

Raven, §c.—Dec. 10. Took a ramble on the coast beyond 
Bovisand, and observed several northern divers, shags, cormorants, 
and a host of blackheaded gulls, the latter swimming in the surf 
close to the shore picking up flies or some other food among the 
decayed drift-wood, in the manner of a phalarope. Although the 
blackheaded gull breeds inland, and generally frequents our rivers 
and estuaries, yet it appears quite at home on the sea, at times, in 
the roughest weather. On some rocks called the “ Reannies,” a 
few hundred yards from the shore, were resting peaceably a great 
many large blackheaded gulls and cormorants, and on the cliffs 
not far from me was a pair of fine ravens: presently, “croak, 


3444 THE ZooLocist—Maxrcy, 18783. 


croak, croak,” off flew the male raven towards the Reannies, and 
"immediately up got all the gulls with an immense cloud of dunlins 
and ringed dotterel, hovering and wheeling round, apparently in 
great consternation, but the cormorants did not move. For a 
moment I wondered what had caused all this commotion, when I 
espied the old raven perched on the highest pinnacle of the rocks, 
croaking “like mad,” the cormorants still sitting quietly, but the 
gulls and dunlins did not venture to again alight until his ravenship 
had left for the shore. I have on several occasions found the 
remains of dead, and sometimes wounded birds on these rocks, 
which would fully account for the visits of the raven. 

Northern Diver.—Dec. 11. Three northern divers off the Hoe, 
one of which caught a large fish, with which it dived frequently, 
keeping down for nearly a minute at a time, but at length came up 
without the fish in its bill, having swallowed it under water; this I 
have seen shags often do. A man was carrying a live northern 
diver about the streets of Plymouth a few days ago; and the 
stomach of one I examined contained nothing but crabs and some 
good-sized stones. I have seen the shags catch crabs also. 
Northern divers rarely rise from the water when pursued in a boat, 
but a few days since I saw one get up and fly away on the 
approach of a steamer, and I have often seen them very high in 
the air when going to or coming in from sea. Redthroated divers, 
on the contrary, frequently make use of their wings when chased. 

Dec. 18. Notwithstanding the severe gales the weather is 
exceedingly mild, and this morning I caught the great tortoise- 
shell butterfly on the coast. This seems more strange as the 
species is rare in Devonshire at any season. 

Wigeon.—Dec. 19. Early this morning a great flight of wigeon 
was seen at Laira, and at night I heard large flights whistling 
overhead on their way to the rivers. 

Redthroated Diver, G@annet, &c.—Dec. 22. Examined six 
kittiwakes, a great blackbacked gull, and a redthroated diver, which 
had been killed in the Sound. Many gannets were seen outside 
the breakwater, and one was brought in by some fishermen. 

Cornish Chough, Kestrel.—Went to Whitsand Bay, on the 
Cornish coast; weather exceedingly fine and mild. Birds singing 
as in spring; observed several kestrels and two Cornish choughs, 
which latter are very uncommon so near Plymouth. 


THe Zootocist—Marcu, 1873. 3445 


JANUARY, 1873, 


Glaucous Gull, de.—Jan. 1. A hundred gulls, great black- 
backed and herring, with rooks or crows among them, on the West 
Mud; the contrast of the black and white plumages looked very 
pretty. Examined an adult glaucous gull which had been killed 
in the Sound: its stomach contained a large lump of fat, which 
had no doubt been thrown overboard from some ship; there were 
also a few feathers in it. Although the young of both the Iceland 
and glaucous gulls, of which I have myself killed a few, are occa- 
sionally met with on our coasts during the autumn and winter, 
yet this is the first adult glaucous gull I ever saw in the flesh. 

Jan. 2. Went to Falmouth, where I saw Dr. Bullmore’s 
collection of British birds, in which were Bartram’s sandpiper and 
Bonaparte’s gull, local specimens, besides other good things. Dr. 
Bullmore had recently obtained a specimen of the blacktailed 
godwit, very uncommon in Devon and Cornwall. 

Jan. 3. Saw another glaucous gull flying up the harbour, also 
some northern divers off the Devil’s Point, Stonehouse. Great 
blackbacked gulls very plentiful; lots brought to the birdstuffer’s, 
I am sorry to say. 

Puffin—Jan. 4. Examined a very fine puffin, which had been 
killed the day before. Its bill was not small, as is generally the 
case with young birds found in winter, but, on the contrary, rather 
large, well coloured, and furrowed, though without the conspicuous 
ridge at the base of the upper mandible, and wanting the puckered 
skin round the mouth and warty excrescence under the eyelid. 
The specimen, however, was about the largest I ever saw. 

Jan. 7. Again saw the old glaucous gull in the harbour. This 
species, I remarked, seems to be in the habit of often settling on 
the water for a short time. 

Jan. 8. Examined a fine old northern diver, which had much of 
the summer plumage remaining, the wings being almost as beauti- 
fully spotted as in the breeding-season; many spots also on the 
back, and strong traces of the dark bands on the neck. In its 
gullet was a very large specimen of the greater pipe fish, above 
sixteen inches in length. The same day saw the old glaucous gull 
again, and shot an immature one. 

Phalarope.—Jan. 8. Observed a gray phalarope swimming 
among some drift-weed just outside the surf, in the lee of a 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. E 


3446 THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 


kittiwake. Phalaropes are rarely seen on our coasts after October ; 
indeed only two instances have come under my own particular 
notice within the past thirty years. 

Jan. 11. Saw another immature glaucous gull and an abundance 
of shags and kittiwakes. One of the shags caught a large “ father- 
lasher” or “bullhead,” which in passing down the bird’s gullet 
seemed to twist round, forming a large lump at the back of its 
neck. These long-continued gales have reduced the poor kitti- 
wakes to a miserable condition: our harbours are full of them; 
many are daily knocked down with oars, sticks, or stones, when 
settling in the water near, or flying over, the quays; some have 
been picked up dead or exhausted even in the streets, and I am 
sorry to add that hundreds have been wantonly shot. It seems 
strange that kittiwakes should so soon succumb to weather that 
hardly appears to have any effect on other gulls. 

Razorbills, §c.—Jan. 14. Saw an adult glaucous gull again. 
On the 15th the weather was particularly calm and mild. Thrushes, 
blackbirds, robins and other species singing beautifully at Mount 
Edgcumbe. Saw a small party of razorbills, which 1 was very 
glad of, not having observed any since the sad mortality among 
them last year. At this season there are generally large flocks to 
be met with in the Sound and outside the breakwater, consisting 
almost entirely of old birds, with well-developed bills. 

Jan. 18. Observed two glaucous gulls flying in the harbour, and 
on the 27th heard missel thrushes singing. 

Black Guillemot and Blackthroated Diver.—Jan. 28. Examined 
a nice specimen of the black guillemot in its pretty marbled winter 
plumage, also a blackthroated diver, both of which were killed at 
Falmouth on the previous day. In the stomach of the guillemot 
I found the remains of fish, and some fine sea-sand, but the 
stomach of the diver contained nothing but sand and a few small. 
stones. The black guillemot is but rarely seen on the coast of 
Devon and Cornwall. Within the last two months I have found 
titmice and greenfinches very plentiful in our gardens. 


JOHN GATCOMBE. 
8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth. 


——————— 


Enormous Fossil Ungulate——On Monday last, in the first of his 
Hunterian lectures for this year, Prof. Flower drew special attention to the 


THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 8447 


peculiarities of a new animal discovered by Prof. Marsh, of Yale College, 
and named by him Dinocerus mirabilis. This remarkable ungulate, nearly 
the size of the elephant, was obtained from the Eocene beds of the Rocky 
Mountain region. It possessed osseous cores for three pairs of horns, which 
rise successively one above the other; a supra-occipital crest is greatly 
developed, projecting obliquely backward beyond the condyles. The 
posterior pair of horns arise from this crest, the medium from the maxillaries, 
and the anterior from the tips of the nasals. The canines are greatly 
developed, and the upper incisors are wanting. The skull is unusually long 
and narrow, and carries six small molar and premolar teeth. The extre- 
mities resembled very nearly those in the proboscidia, but were proportion- 
ately shorter. ‘The femur possessed no third trochanter and no pit for the 
ligamentum teres. It therefore possesses characters allying it with the 
perissodactyles as well as the proboscidia.—‘ Nature,’ February 2, 1873. 
Sea-Lion at Dinner.—< There was an enormous sea-lion alongside the 


‘ship just now; he was busily engaged fishing, and I saw him catch five big 


fish, eight or ten pounds weight, in less than half an hour. When he 
catches a fish he comes to the surface and beats it backwards and forwards 
violently on the water, until he seems to break it in two. During this 


performance gulls innumerable fly about the beast, picking up the stray 


morsels, and when he has finished he thrusts his huge head out of water 
and allows the gulls to peck at his mouth and tusks; in fact they seem to 
clean his teeth for him. He then swims quietly about for five minutes or 
so, rolls over on his side and goes down headlong, and in a few minutes 
appears with another fish, when the same manceuvres are gone through.” — 
G. F. Mathew; H.M.S. ‘ Repulse,’ off Valparaiso, January 1, 1878 
(in litt). 

Stoat in Winter.—Do stoats all become more or less white during the 
winter, and what is the supposed cause of the change? Severe cold appears 
to be the cause of the alpine hare, &c., becoming white in Arctic regions; 
but is the “cause and effect” so apparent in our odoriferous friend the 
stoat? Iam led to make these remarks from what little I have seen, as 
the white, or rather partly white, specimens are not particularly rare some 
winters in this locality. It will be remembered that last winter was far 
from severe, and yet I had more specimens (some six or seven) sent me 
than I had ever seen before. Most of them were in various stages of 
change, some being much whiter than others; but one specimen in par- 
ticular was entirely white, except a brown spot, about the size of a pea, over 
each eye, and the black tip to the tail, which latter mark of course is 
common to all. All the specimens I ever had were obtained during the 
months of December and January, but some winters, when the cold has 
been very severe, I have not seen the so-called “ermine” at all. I never 
saw any but the entire brown variety in the summer. I have not seen a 


8448 THE ZooLocist—M arc, 1873. 


specimen with any white about it this winter.—G. Bentley Corbin; 
Ringwood. 

Cream-coloured Mole-—One was sent me lately, making the ninth or 
tenth specimen I have seen during my short experience in taxidermy.—Id. 

Heavy Hares in North Lancashire.—Occasionally very heavy hares are 
killed in North Lancashire. In 1861 we shot one weighing thirteen pounds, 
and I was told of one being killed at Rufford, in 1871 or 1872 (I forget 
which), weighing twelve pounds two ounces.—Hugh P. Hornby ; 9, Norfolk 
Street, Strand, W.C. 


Second Supplementary Report on the Extinct Birds of the Mascarene 
Islands.*—The small portion of the grant so liberally voted by the Asso- 
ciation at the Birmingham Meeting in 1865, to aid my brother, Mr. Edward 
Newton, in his researches into the extinct birds of the Mascarene Islands, 
which remained unexpended at the time of my last reporting his progress, 
has during the last year or so been employed by him in a renewed examina- 
tion of the caves in the island of Rodriguez, which had already produced so 
much of interest. This examination has been conducted, as before, by 
Mr. George Jenner, lately the chief executive officer of the island; and 
though I am not in a position to give anything like a detailed account of 
the results, I am happy to say that I believe they will be found in time to 
be fully as instructive as those of the former examination have been. We 
are now in possession of several parts of the skeleton of Pezophaps which 
have hitherto been wanting, and of more perfect specimens of some of 
those bones which we before obtained. We have also additional remains of 
the large Psittacine bird, described from a single fragmentary maxilla by 
Prof. Alphonse Milne-Edwards as Psittacus(?) rodericanus, and these, 
I hope, will enable that accomplished paleontologist to determine more 
particularly the affinities of the species, which have hitherto been doubtful ; 
and I may add that thus some further light may be thrown upon the 
position of the P. mauritianus of Prof. Owen. In the course of last year 
my brother had the pleasure of receiving from Mr. Jenner proof of the con- 
tinued existence of one of the species described by Leguat as inhabiting 
Rodriguez, but thought to have become extinct. This proof consisted of a 
specimen preserved in spirit of an undescribed and very distinct Paleornis, 
which I have since described (‘ Ibis,’ 1872, p. 33) as P. exsul. Among the 
bones sent by Mr. Jenner are, I believe, some which belonged to this bird. 
But more remarkable and interesting still are some remains which are 
obviously those of a Ralline bird, unquestionably allied to Ocydromus, and 


* From the ‘ Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science’ 
for 1872, Communicated by the author. 


a 


THE ZooLocist—Marcu#, 18783. 3449 


these M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards informs me he is inclined to refer to the 
 Gelinotte” mentioned by Leguat, the nature of which has hitherto been 
only open to guess. There are also bones of other species of birds, perhaps 
only inferior to this in interest. Most of these specimens have been entrusted 
to the care of M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards, for my brother and I believe 
that the distinguished author of ‘ Oiseaux Fossiles de la France’ has esta- 
blished a claim upon the assistance of all who are interested in extinct 
Ornithology by that admirable work of his; and I learn from him that he 
will shortly make public the results of these recent discoveries.—A fred 
Newton. 

Aretic Auguries.*—During the discussion which followed the reading of 

a paper on the Renewal of Arctic Exploration, at the last meeting of the 
British Association for the Advancement of Science, Mr. Francis Galton, 
F.R.S., the President of the Geographical Section, in which the paper was 
read, did me the honour of asking me to state to the audience what 
zoological discoveries might be reasonably expected to be made in the 
regions hitherto hitherto unvisited by Arctic expeditions. To this re- 
quest I had to reply that I felt my inability then to deal with a 
subject so extensive, though I was prepared to believe that in no part 
of the world would investigations, conducted by competent zoologists, 
meet with a richer reward than in the seas or lands situated beyond the 
limits as yet reached by the hardy adventurers in this direction. However, 
not to disappoint a large and deeply-interested assembly, I hazarded. some 
remarks which, if they did not exactly answer the demand of the President, 
seemed to me to suggest reasons for further circumpolar exploration; and as 
these remarks have not to my knowledge appeared in print, I venture to 
reproduce them here, in the hope of their being found interesting to some 
of the readers of this journal. Instead of forecasting the nature of zoological 
discoveries which might or might not be made by those whose good fortune 
may lead them to unexplored regions, why should we not see what light is 
thrown upon those regions by the zoological knowledge we possess? The 
shores of the British Islands, and of many other countries in the northern 
hemisphere, are annually, for a longer or shorter period, frequented by a 
countless multitude of our fellow-creatures, who, there is every reason to 
believe, resort in summer to very high northern latitudes, for purposes the 
most important, and, since they continue the practice year after year, one 
may confidently suppose they find the migration conducive to their ad- 
vantage. If this supposition be correct, it may not be out of place to 
consider what attracts these creatures to regions so remote. First of all, 
there must be some water which is not always frozen ; secondly, there must 
be some land on which they may set their feet; and thirdly, there must be 


* From the February number of ‘Ocean Highways.’ Communicated by the 
author. 


8450 Tue ZooLocist—Marc#, 1873. 


plenty of food, supplied either by the water or by the land, or by both, for 
their nourishment and that of their progeny. Now the creatures I mean 
are many kinds of birds, and it may be worth while to give a short account 
and to sketch the movements of one of them called the knot—the Tringa 
Canutus of ornithologists. This bird is something half way between a snipe 
and a plover. Examples of it are commonly to be seen in the cage at the 
southern end of the Fish-House in the Zoological Gardens, and may be 
seen there at the present time. Like many other kinds of birds belonging 
to the same group, the colour of its plumage varies most wonderfully 
according to the season of the year. In summer it is of a bright brick-red ; 
in winter it is of a sober ashy gray. Kept in confinement it seldom assumes 
its most brilliant tints, but some approach to them is generally made. Now 
the knot comes to this country in vast flocks in spring, and, after remaining © 
on our coasts for about a fortnight, can be traced proceeding gradually 
northwards till it takes its departure. People who have been in Iceland 
and Greenland have duly noted its appearance in those countries; but in 
neither of them is it known to tarry longer than with us—the summer it 
would there have to endure is not to its liking; and as we know that it 
takes no other direction, it must move further north. We then lose sight 
of it for some weeks. The older naturalists used to imagine it had been 
found breeding in all manner of countries, but the naturalists of the present 
day agree in believing that we know nothing of its nidification. Towards 
the end of summer, back it comes to us in still larger flocks than before, and 
both old birds and young haunt our coasts till November; if the season be 
a very open one, some may stay later; but our winter as a rule is too much 
for it, and away it goes southwards, and very far southwards too, till the 
following spring. What I have said of the knot in the United Kingdom is 
equally true of it on the eastern shores of the United States. There it 
appears in the same abundance and at the same seasons as with us, and its 
movements seem to be regulated by the same causes. Hence, I think, we 
may fairly infer that the lands visited by the knot in the middle of summer 
are less sterile than Iceland or Greenland, or it would hardly pass over those 
countries, which are known to be the breeding-places of swarms of water- 
birds, to resort to regions worse off as regards supply of food. But the 
supply of food must depend chiefly on the climate. Is there, then, beyond 
the northern tracts already explored a region which enjoys in summer a 
climate more genial than they possess? The evidence furnished by the 
knot would seem to answer this question in the affirmative, and it would be 
easy to summon more instances from the same group of birds, tending to 
show that beyond a zone where a rigorous summer reigns there may be a 
region endued with a comparatively favourable climate. If so, surely the 
conditions which produce such a climate are worth investigatiug. The 
scientific man has the comfort of knowing that these conditions will be dis- 


TuHE Zoo.octist—Marcu, 1878. $451 


covered before long by the voyagers of some nation or the other; but an 
Englishman may be pardoned for thinking that his own countrymen, from 
their experience of the Arctic Regions, might achieve the task with less risk 
than other people, and that to his own countrymen should belong the glory 
of the achievement.—Alfred Newton. 

New Fossil Birds with Teeth in both Jaws.—Prof. Marsh has drawn 
attention to a new sub-class of fossil birds from the cretaceous shales of 
Kansas. The specimens, while possessing the scapular arch, wing, and 
leg-bones of the truly ornithic type, present the very aberrant conditions 
of having biconcave vertebra and well-developed teeth in both jaws. These 
teeth are quite numerous and implanted in distinct sockets; the twenty in 
each ramus of the lower jaw are inclined backwards and resemble one 
another. The maxillary teeth are equally numerous and like those in the 
mandible. The sternum has a carina and elongated articulations for the 
coracoids. The lower of the posterior extremities resemble those of 
swimming birds. The last sacral vertebra is large, so it may have carried 
a tail. Professor Marsh proposes the name Odontornithes for the name of 
the new sub-class, and Ichthyonithes for the order to contain-this remarkable 
species, which is about the size of a pigeon.—‘ Nature,’ Feb. 20, 1873. 

Notes from North Lancashire.—More snipes appeared at St. Michael’s- 
on-Wyre, North Lancashire, this last season than have been known for 
many years on the Sowerby meadows; they arrived literally in hundreds as 
early as the third week in July (but very few remaining to breed of late 
years in the neighbourhood). When the water was so high as to drive 
them off the meadows, they were always to be found in some damp turnip 
and potato fields about a mile and a half from Sowerby. Except a few 
stragglers, they took their departure about the end of Oetober. During 
their stay, however, we shot about two hundred and sixty, nearly every one 
of which we carefully weighed: four ounces was the average weight, a few _ 


turning the scale at four ounces and a quarter, and others being somewhat 


under the four ounces. The four heaviest were—one on September 26th, 
four ounces and three-quarters; October 12th, four ounces and a half; and 
two on October 25th, respectively weighing four ounces and three-quarters 
and five ounces. The first jack snipe was seen on September 21st. The 
first woodcock was killed on October 29th, and weighed sixteen ounces ; 
two more were killed in December weighing eleven ounces each. Three 
specimens of the spotted crake (Crex porzana) were killed on the Sowerby 
meadows, and others were seen, but we did not molest them, hoping they 
might remain to breed. The first was killed on September 17th, the last 
seen about December 9th. One of those killed weighed four ounces and 
three-quarters, another barely four ounces, and the third was not weighed. 


-Landrails, which were till 1871 very abundant about us, have since then 


been very scarce, and we have therefore spared every one we have seen, 


$452 Tue ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 


We saw one later than usual this last season, viz. on October 19th. Sand 
martins last seen to my knowledge on September 26th; house martins, 
October 3rd; and swallows on October 16th. Quails are not so numerous 
as five or six years ago, but a few remain every year to breed with us. In 
1865 we shot twenty; in 1866, nineteen; in 1867, eight; in 1868, six; 
in 1869, one; in 1870, nine; in 1871, one; and this last season, two. As 
they sit very close we probably pass by a good many.—Hugh P. Hornby. 

Early Nesting of Birds.—This exceedingly mild weather has had a 
marked effect upon the amatory propensities and consequent early nest- 
building of several birds. On the 3rd of the present January I saw a 
thrush’s egg, and heard the song of both this bird and the missel thrush on 
several mornings. I am also informed, on reliable authority, that a robin’s 
nest containing three eggs was found on New Year’s Day.—G. B. Corbin. 

A Happy Family.—April 1. Ona tree in front of the house a pair of 
kestrels have taken an old crow’s nest, so that we have a good chance of 
watching them. The male is very noisy. There is a carrion crow’s nest 
just behind the house, so we have an aviary without trouble. May 12. My 
aviary flourishes; the crows are hatched, and the kestrels will not be long. 
A pair of wood pigeons have built a nest within six feet of the hawks, on 
the same level, and not a branch to divide them, so that the ladies can 
watch each other, and relate their experiences, provided they have the same 
language. June 5. The crows are flyers; the kestrels are a fortnight or 
more old. I think there are some young pigeons, but the tree is so thin 
T am afraid to send a boy up to make sure, and the young moorhens are 
real black beauties.—From létters of the late Thomas Dix, dated Clwynbedw, 
North Pembrokeshire, 1871. 

Bohemian Waxwing at Bishop’s Lydeard.—I saw a Bohemian waxwing 
on my lawn this morning —Murray A. Mathew; Bishop’s Lydeard, Taun- 
ton, February 7. 1873. 

Bohemian Waxwings near Pickering —On Wednesday morning a flock 
of ten of these beautiful birds, the Bohemian waxwing or chatterer, was 
observed near Pickering. Eight of them were shot by G. C, Hawson, and 
are now in his possession.—‘ Leeds Mercury,’ Feb. 9, 1873. 

The Common Wood Pigeon and Stock Doye.—At this season of the year 
these two species of wild dove may be found mixed together in their 
feeding grounds, but their food is different, and may be worth noticing as a 
useful fact for agriculturists and interesting to naturalists. My nephew, 
who is at present residing in Pembrokeshire, tells me that he fired into a 
flock in a clover-field after barley ; the result was two wood pigeons and three 
stock doves. At a distance they are scarcely distinguishable, although very 
dissimilar in size. The crops of the wood pigeon, or ring dove, contained 
ivy berries, a quantity of little brittle stick-like roots, which blister the 
tongue, and a great pulp of clover-leaves, turnip-tops and bulbs. Those of 


THE ZooLoc IsT—Mankcu, 1873. 8453 


the stock dove contained not a leaf of clover, but an egg-full of charlock 
seeds, some barley, and several weed seeds.— Edward Hearle Rodd ; 
Penzance, February 14, 1873. 

Distinctive Marks of the Redlegged and Barbary Partridges.—The 
chief distinction between the Barbary and the redlegged partridges is of 
course in the feathers of the neck. There is, however, another difference, 
which I have not seen mentioned, and which seems to me quite as marked. 
It is in the feathers about the flanks. The markings of these feathers in 
the two birds are quite different; the Barbary partridge being richer and 
having two bars of black, instead of one, as in the redlegged. The colours 
of the feathers are as follows, beginning from the top :— 


REDLEGGED. BaRBARY. 
Bar of reddish brown. Bar of reddish brown. 
Bar of black. Bar of black. 
Bar of yellowish white. Bar of white. 
Grey about the shaft, reddish about Bar of paler reddish brown. 
the edge. Bar of black. 
Reddish light brown Gray, very slightly bordered with 


Grey fluff tipped with light brown. reddish brown. 
Light brown. 
Gray fluff, tipped with brown in 
parts. 


The way the bars go in the two feathers is different. In the redlegged 
they slant; in the Barbary they are nearly semicircular, with the exception 
of the bar of black nearest the gray, which goes straight till it reaches the 
shaft; on the other side of the shaft it begins again, either higher up or 
lower down, but not quite even, then gets narrower as it nears the edge,— 
C. B. Carey. 

Lizard-eating Pheasant.— During last summer a hen pheasant having 
been found dead, and being in very fine plumage, it was given me to stuff, 
Having skinned it, and finding no marks which seemed to be the cause of 
death, I proceeded to dissect it, as I often do after skinning a bird. In 
the crop I found a few barley-corns, and some other seed-like bodies, whilst 
in the stomach was a full-grown lizard, which had been swallowed whole, 
and had not even cast its tail. I need scarcely say that the lizard was dead 
when I found it, and that its discovery in such a situation somewhat 
surprised me. Could the swallowing of it have occasioned the death of the 
pheasant, or do these birds occasionally make a meal of the agile littles 
teptile in question during the summer months? I never observed them do 
so, and I never before dissected a specimen except at the time when the 
lizards are hybernating. Perhaps some of my more experienced brethren 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. Q 


$454 Tue Zootocist—Marcu, 1873. 


can throw more light on the subject than I, in my limited sphere of obser- 
vation, am able to do. I may state that the reptile was the common sand 
lizard (Lacerta agilis). Had I found it in the stomach of such a bird as the 
kestrel it would not have surprised me, for in that case the occurrence would 
seem to accord more with the habits of the bird—G. B. Corbin. 

Gray Phalarope in Winter Plumage.—I have just received and mounted 
a gray phalarope, shot a couple of days since on Braunton Burrows, in 
North Devon. It is in perfect winter plumage, and differs from all other 
gray phalaropes I had before examined in the flesh, in being in excellent 
condition, the body being well lined with fat.——Murray A. Mathew ; 
Bishop’s Lydeard, January 28, 1873. 

Heronries in Ulster.— Allow me to make a few additions from this 
neighbourhood to Mr. Harting’s list of British heronries. These are, in 
County Donegal, one at Kilderry (Mr. G. V. Hart), of upwards of twenty 
nests in Scotch firs, and about half-a-dozen in beech trees. This is the one 
referred to by Mr. Harting (Zool. S. S. 3407). Formerly there used to be 
many more nests, built principally in Scotch fir trees; it is only of late 
that they have begun to build in the beeches. One at Glen-Gollan (Mr. T. 
Norman), and one at Dunmore (Mr. R. M‘Clintock). This gentleman 
writes to me as follows:—‘t With regard to the herons, there were only 
nine nests here last spring. All were built in beech trees except one, which 
was built in a silver fir. They used to build very much in Scotch firs, but 
now seem to prefer the beech. In old times we used to see forty or fifty of 
them in the pairing season sitting on the lawn. The invention of ‘arms of 
precision’ has played the mischief with them.” In County Londonderry 
there is one at Willsborough (Captain Scott). Even with these additions, 
I think it by no means improbable that the list of heronries in Ulster still 
remains incomplete.—W. EF. Hart; Kilderry, Co. Donegal. 

Heronries: Errataa—As a Welshman, there are a few words in the 
‘ Zoologist’ for the current month that offend my ears, and I cannot help 
calling your attention to them. At p. 3407 there is mention of a heronry 
at “ Vorlas Hall, belonging to Mrs. Wynn Finch.” Now, setting aside the 
fact that Mr. Wynne Finch is alive, and I believe in good health, the name 
of the place is Voelas, the really correct spelling (‘‘ Foelas”) being now 
considered pedantic. Two lines lower down on the same page, “ Rug” 
should be spelt “ Rhug.” Pardon my impertinence for calling your atten- 
tion to the errors above mentioned: a Welshman is always jealous for his 
native language. You will see that Wynne Finch has an “e”, which is 
wanting in the name of the Hon. Charles Wynn. Your correspondent has 

espclled both alike.—W. H. Heaton; Meadow Croft, Reigate; Feb. 18, 1872. 

Guillemot moulting its Quill-feathers.—Mr. Gatcombe seems to be quite 
right in his supposition that the guillemot moults so many of its wing- 
feathers at the autumnal moult as to be unable to fly (Zool. S. 8. 3392). 


THE ZooLocist— Marcu, 1873. 3455 


In September, 1871, Mr. Gurney, jtin., and myself had a chase after one 
which was in the same predicament: the quills were just beginning to show 
themselves. Mr. Gurney mentioned this in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1871 
(S. 8S. 2845). This moulting of the quill-feathers is not peculiar to the 
guillemot alone, for I have found common scoters off Dawlish, in October 
and November, quite unable to fly: this was the more extraordinary as it 
was their first appearance on the coast for that year, and they must have 
made the whole or part of their migratory journey by swimming, as they 
would have had but little or no use of their wings.-—Cecil Smith ; Lydeard 
House, near Taunton. 

Iceland Gull at Mount’s Bay.—Our smaller white-winged gull may be 
regarded as a rare visitor generally on our coasts in Cornwall, but during 
the last month a considerable number have come to us. I have not seen 
them myself, but Mr. Vingoe is my informant, whose son has noted their 
appearance in large numbers, especially in a cove named in the maps 
“ Lamorna Cove,” about three miles from Penzance. All the birds appeared 
to be clouded in their plumage, denoting immaturity—Edward H. Rodd; 
February 18, 1873. 

Leach’s Petrel and Black Tern near Newbur -—On the 27th December 
T saw a specimen of Leach’s petrel that was shot by a gentleman in the 
neighbourhood some time since. T have a very nice specimen of the black 
tern in my collection, which was killed by a friend of mine in this neigh- 
bourhood.— William H. Herbert ; Newbury. 

Ray’s Wagtail in Hertfordshire in the Winter.—As an instance of the 
mildness of the season, I may mention that I yesterday noticed a pair of 
Ray’s wagtails (Motacilla Rayi) feeding at the edge of a water-cress bed 
between Cassiobury Park and Rickmansworth. — C. Bygrave Wharton; 
Bushey, Herts, January 16, 1878. 


Proceedings of the Entomological Society, 


January 6, 1873.—Prof. WeEstwoop, M.A., F.L.S., President, in the chair. 


Donations to the Library. 


The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors :—Stal, ‘Monographie des Chrysomélides de l’Amerique,’ 3 pts. ; 
‘Homoptera nova vel minus cognita’; ‘Bidrag till Reduviidernas Kanne- 
dom’; * Bidrag till Hemipternnas Systematik’; “Synopsis Saldarum Suecize’: 
‘Hemiptera Fabriciana,’ 2 pts. ; ‘ Bidrag till Membracidernas Kiinnedom a 
‘Hemiptera insularum Philippinarum’; ‘Bidrag till Philippinska darnes 
Hemipter-fauna’; ‘ Enumeratio Hemipterorum,’ i. & Le Orthoptera 
queedam africana. —Wallengren, : Heterocer-fjarilar, samlade i Kafferlandet 


3456 Tur ZooLocist—Marcu, 1878. 


af J. A. Wahlberg’; ‘ Nordéstra Skanes Fauna’; ‘Anteckningar i Ento- 
mologi’; ‘ Skandinaviens Neuroptera,’ i—Fahreus, ‘ Coleoptera Caffrarie, 
annis 1838—1845 a J. A. Wahlberg collecta, Heteromera.— Boheman, 
‘ Spetsbergens Insekt-fauna’; ‘ Bidrag till Gottlands Insekt-fauna.’—Kind- 
berg, ‘ Anteckningar om Ostergitlands Dagfjarilar.—Neuman, ‘ Vester- 
géthlands Hydrachnider.'—Stuxberg, ‘ Bidrag till Skandinaviens Myrio- 
podologi; i. Sveriges Chilognather.’—Porath, ‘ Redogérelse for en un der 
sommaren 1868 utford zoologisk resa till Skane och Blekinge’; ‘Om nagra 
Myriopoder fran Azorerna.—Thomson, ‘ Entomologiska anteckningar un 
der en resa i Skane 1866.—Thorell, ‘Om Aranea lobata, Pallas (A. sericea, 
Oliv.);’ ‘ Araneze nonnulle Nove Hollandie descripte.’—Reuter, ‘ Ofver- 
sigt af Sveriges Berytide.—Malm, ‘ Om tva for vetenskapen nya Amfipod- 
species fran Bohuslan, af hvilka det ena ar typ for ett nytt genus inom 
Pontoporeirnernas grupp. —Holmgren, ‘ Bidrag till Kannedomen om Beeren 
Eilands och Spetsbergens Insekt-fauna.'-—Presented by the Royal Swedish 
Academy of Sciences. ‘ Coleopterologische Hefte,’ ix. & x.; by the Baron 
KE. v. Harold. ‘Recherches physico-chimiques sur les Articulés aquatiques,’ 
Qe partie; by the Author, M.F. Plateau. ‘ Histoire Naturelle des Punaises 
de France,’ par MM. Mulsant & Rey,—Scutellerides, Pentatomides; by 
Francis Walker, Esq. ‘ Exotic Butterflies,’ part 85; by W. W. Saunders, 
Esq. ‘Lepidoptera Exotica,’ part 15; by E. W. Janson, Esq. ‘ Pro- 
ceedings of the Royal Society,’ no. 139; by the Society. ‘ Mélanges 
Orthoptérologiques,’ fasc. iv. Mantides & Blattides; by the Author, M. H. de 
Saussure. ‘The Zoologist’ for January; by the Editor. ‘Newman’s 
Entomologist’ for January; by the Editor. ‘The Entomologist’s Monthly 
Magazine’ for January; by the Editors. ‘Ona new Family and Genus 
and two new Species of Thelyphonidea’; by the Author, the Rey. O. P. 
Cambridge, M.A., C.M.Z.S. 


Election of Members. 
The following gentlemen were balloted for, and elected, viz.—G. C. 
Champion, Esq. (formerly a Subscriber), as Member; and B. G. Cole, Esq., 
as Subscriber. 


‘ 
Exhibitions, &c. 


Mr. M‘Lachlan exhibited (on behalf of Mr. George Lewis), a magnificent 
collection of coloured drawings of the metamorphoses of twenty-one species 
of Jupanese Sphingide. These drawings had been executed, under the 
direction of Mr. Lewis, by a native artist, and were remarkable for the full 
details shown of the various states; in some cases three different varieties 
of the same larva were figured. Mr. Lewis requested it to be announced 
that he was willing to present the drawings to any Member of the Society 
who would undertake to publish them. 


bow. 


—_ 


THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 3457 


Prof. Westwood exhibited the beautiful net-work cocoon of a species of 
small moth from New Granada. This was attached to, or suspended from, 
a leaf on which was also a species of Hesperiide strongly affected by fungoid 
growths. 

Mr. E. Saunders exhibited two species of Buprestide, from the Pelew 
and Caroline Islands respectively, which appeared to pertain to a new 
genus, notwithstanding that they bore much external resemblance to two 
species of Chrysodema from the East India Islands. 

Mr. Champion exhibited Nanophyes gracilis and Apion sanguineum, two 
species of Coleoptera rare, or recently detected, in Britain. 

Mr. Miler called attention to a recently-issued Government Report, 
intituled “ Papers respecting the Phylloxera vastatrix, or new vine-scourge,” 
detailing an account of the ravages of this insect in various continental 
districts, and the means that had, with more or less success, been adopted 
for preventing its spread. Prof. Westwood stated that the occurrence of 
the insect in England had been noticed by him in 1862, in a paper read 
before the Ashmolean Society. 


Papers read, dc. 


Dr. Sharp communicated a list of the water-beetles of Japan, chiefly 
drawn up from materials collected by Mr. George Lewis, with remarks on 
the distribution of the said insects. 

Mr. Wollaston communicated two papers. First, on a new genus 


(Pseudotarphius) of Colydiide from Japan; and secondly, on the Cossonide 


of the same islands. In the latter paper the author commented upon the 
apparent absence of European types in the districts of Japan visited by 
Mr. Lewis, and stated that their place seemed to be taken by representative 
forms. Mr. Pascoe thought the fauna of Japan might be indicated as 
“satellite” (like that of Madagascar, &c.), having a quantity of peculiar 
species mixed with others; and a great deal in common with the coasts of 
China and Siberia. Mr. H. W. Bates asked that judgment upon the 
affinities of the Japanese fauna be suspended pending further information. 
He said that although there were many Western European species found 


also in Japan, the collective faunas of the two regions were totally distinct. 


New Part of ‘ Transactions.’ 


Part iv. of the ‘Transactions’ for 1872 (published in December, 1872) 
was on the table. 


Annual Meeting, January 27, 18738.—Prof. Westwoop, M.A., F.L.S., 
President, in the chair. 


3458 THE ZooLocist—Marcu, 1873. 


The Treasurer’s accounts for 1872 were read in abstract by Mr. Stainton, 
one of the Auditors, and showed a balance of £160 12s. 1d. in favour of 
the Society. 

The Secretary read the Report of the Council for 1872. 

The following gentlemen were elected Members of Council for 1873 :— 
Messrs. H. W. Bates, Butler, Grut, M‘Lachlan, Miller, S. S. Saunders, 
F. Smith, Stainton, Stevens, Verrall, C.0. Waterhouse, Weir and Westwood. 

The following officers for 1873 were subsequently elected :—President, 
Prof. Westwood; Treasurer, Mr. R. M‘Lachlan; Secretaries, Messrs. F. 
Grut and G. H. Verrall. Librarian, Mr. E. W. Janson. 

The President read his Address. 

Mr. Dunning proposed, and Mr. Weir seconded, a vote of thanks to the 
officers for the past year; this was carried unanimously, and Prof. Westwood 
and Mr. Stevens returned thanks. 

Mr. Pascoe proposed, and Mr. Stainton seconded, a vote of thanks to 
Mr. Dunning for his donation of £50 to the Society’s funds; this also was 
carried unanimously.—R. M‘L. 


February 3, 1878.—H. W. Bates, Esq., Vice-President, in the chair. 


Donations to the Library. 


The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors :—<‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ vol. xxi., no. 140; presented 
by the Society. ‘Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale des Naturalistes de 
Moscou,’ 1872, no. 2; by the Society. ‘Berliner Entomologische 
Zeitschrift,’ t. xvi., 2—4; by the Soeiety. ‘Memoires de la Société de 
Physique et.d‘Histoire Naturelle de Genéve,’ t. xxi., 2e partie; by the 
Society. ‘L*‘Abeille,’ tome ix., livr. 1 and 2; by the Editor. ‘The 
Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine,’ for February; by the Editors. 
Newman’s ‘ Entomologist,’ for February; by the Editor. ‘The Zoologist,’ for 
February; by the Editor. ‘The Canadian Entomologist,’ vol. iv., no. 12; 
by the Editor. ‘Notes on the Species of Saturnide, or ocellated Silkworm 
Moths, in the collection of the Royal Dublin Society,’ by W. F. Kirby; by 
the Author. ‘Un mot sur le mode d’adherence des males de Dytiscides 
aux femelles pendant l’acte de l’accouplement,’ par Felix Plateau; by the 
Author. ‘ Excursions Lepidopterologiques aux Hautes-Fanges pendant 
lété de 1872,’ par MM. Ch. Donckier et L. Quaedvlieg; by the Authors. 


Election of Member. 
William Cole, Esq., of 10, Aberdeen Terrace, the Downs, Clapton, was 
balloted for, and elected a Member of the Society. 


THE ZooLocist—Marc#, 18738. 8459 


Exhibitions, dc. 

Mr. F. Smith brought for exhibition a box of Indian Hymenoptera 
collected at Nuddea, in the district of Minchindipore, about eighty miles 
from Calcutta. It comprised about 200 specimens of Fossores, 160 Apide, 
and 230 Formicide. Of the Fossores there were, apparently, only two 
undescribed species out of about forty, and the same with the Apide ; but 
amongst the species of Formicide there were eight or ten which appeared 
to be undescribed. They were all in extremely fine condition; the most 
interesting species in the collection being a new Astata, and four or five 
beautiful species of the genus Nomia among the bees. 

Mr. M‘Lachlan exhibited the quadrangular case of the larva of a species 
of Trichopterous insect, together with the larva itself, preserved in glycerine. 
These had been placed in his hands by the Rey. A. EK. Eaton, who found 
them in the Dove, a swiftly running stream in Derbyshire. He supposed 
it to pertain to Brachycentrus subnubilus, as the larve of that species were 
not known to manufacture quadrangular cases. Mr. Eaton, however, 
stated that he was not quite satisfied that the case and larva found by him 
were actually those of Brachycentrus, for he had uever seen that genus in 
the part of the Dove in which he found them, though it occurred lower 
down the stream. 

Mr. Champion exhibited specimens of a large species of Pulex found by 
Mr. F. Walker in a mouse’s nest in the Isle of Sheppy. 

Mr. Bird exhibited a specimen of Cerastis erythrocephalus, taken on the 
28th of October last at Darenth Wood. 

Mr. Meldola exhibited a living specimen of a myriapod of the genus 
Spirobolus, which had been sent to him from San Francisco. Also eggs of 
a leaf insect (Phyllium pulchrifolium) from Java. He also showed a 
specimen of a Noctua impaled on a thorn, supposed to have been done by a 
shrike. Mr. Weir was inclined to think that, in this case, the insect was so 
impaled; but he believed that insects were frequently impaled by other 
means. 

Mr. Pascoe called attention to a remark made by Mr. Walker in the 
February part of the ‘ Entomologist,’ to the effect that the fireflies (Succiola 
Italica), seen in abundance in Italy, had probably entered that country from 
the East, and were hindered by the Maritime Alps from occupying the 
Mediterranean coast of France. He (Mr. Pascoe) had seen the insect in 
abundance in France between Cannes and the Var, and was desirous of 
ascertaining if any entomologist had noticed it further westward in France. 

Mr. Albert Miiller communicated the following notes regarding the 
originators of the pouch-galls on cinnamon :— 

“On the 4th of March, 1872, I exhibited before the Society some 


_ specimens of an open pouch-gall on the leaves of Cinnamomum nitidum, 


from Bombay; and in a note on the subject (Proc, Ent. Soc. Lond. 1872, 


3460 THE ZooLocist—Makcg, 1873. 


p. ix., and ‘ Zoologist,’ 1872, p. 8036), I was inclined to attribute them 
probably to the action of a mite, belonging perhaps to the genus Phytoptus. 

“Tn reference to this question, my valued correspondent, Dr. Fr. 
Thomas, to whom I had communicated the said note, has since expressed 
the opinion that it will have to be tested by further observations, whether 
the gall owes its origin to a mite, and that he doubts it (Giebel’s Zeitschr. 
f. d. ges. Naturwissensch. 1872, p. 475). 

“Tam quite of the same opinion as my learned friend, that the matter 
requires further elucidation, but residents in the East can best solve the 
riddle, either by careful investigations on the spot, or by the transmission 
of materials to Europe. 

‘This seems the proper place to allude to the fact that an allied, if not 
identical creature, attacks the leaves of cinnamon bushes in Ceylon. John 
Nietner has placed on record that in the neighbourhood of Colombo, where 
there exist old Dutch plantations of cinnamon bushes, 6000 to 8000 acres 
in extent, the bushes often form a single, monstrous, tangled mass, their 
leaves being curled up by numerous swellings of the size of peas or beans. 
The acorn-shaped fruits of the same plant are often similarly affected, 
swelling up until they assume the size and colour of a walnut. Nietner 
puts the question whether these excrescences might not be the work of a 
Cynips; but as he subsequently compares them to the bulged-out leaves of 
some species of Ribes, inhabited by Aphide, we must leave his former 
supposition out of consideration (Stettin Ent. Zeitung, 1857, p. 39). 

“Tn a letter which I have since received from Dr. Thomas, this gentle- 
man expresses his supposition that the Bombay excrescences may be 
produced by one of the Psyllodes. If we bear in mind what Nietner says of 
the Singalese form, Dr. Thomas’s opinion undoubtedly becomes entitled to 
much consideration, and may eventually turn out to be founded in fact. 
For my own part I prefer to suspend my judgment until fresh materials 
from the East shall have enabled me to examine the excrescences in 
question, as well as their inhabitants, more in detail.” 

The Rey. Mr. Eaton stated that he had had a specimen of a Trombidium 
given to him, which had been taken by Mr. Benjamin Lee Smith, in Sep- 
tember last, at Spitzbergen. | 


Papers read, &c. 
“On the Hydroptilide, a Family of the Trichoptera,” by the Rey. A. E. 


Eaton, M.A. 
“A Monographic List of the Species of Gasteracantha or Crab-Spiders, 


with descriptions of new species, &c.,” by Arthur G. Butler, F.L.S., 
F.Z.S., &. 


; 
] 
7 
4 
f 
a 
4 
} 


THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 1878. 3461 


Notes on the Right and Sperm Whales. 
By Prof. N. S. SHALER. 


{In connection with Dr. Gray’s papers on the Whales and Dolphins in- 
habiting or visiting the seas surrounding the British Islands, the following 
notes by Professor N. 8. Shaler, which have just appeared in the ‘ American 
Naturalist’ (vol. vii. p. 1), appear to me of such great interest that I cannot 
hesitate to reprint them. With a few exceptions, and those written by sea 
captains, and not by naturalists, we seem to have no knowledge whatever of 
the whale as a living animal. We have plenty of descriptions and pictures 
of the halves of ships descending from the skies into the ocean and men 
tumbling out of them; and the artists have kindly informed us that these 
are “boats attacking whales”; yet I imagine that no thirst for sensational 
excitement can accept these pictures as truthful representations of events 
that take place. I acknowledge therefore, most willingly, that I feel myself 
under great obligation to Professor Shaler, who thus places us face to face 
with an eye-witness of scenes quite as marvellous as those fictions which 
astonished our childhood.—E. Newman.] 


TaHE following notes on the habits of the right whale were taken 
down in a conversation with Captain John Pease of Edgartown, 
an old whaler, whose powers of observation as well as of accurate 
and clear statement I have rarely known equalled. As far as 
possible these statements have been collated with those of other 
experienced whalers. 

All of the south latitude right whales are without calves up to 


July 1st; the females are found in the bays about this time. 


The calves all come at once, it being but two or three days 
between the bearing of the first and last calves. None are found 
with the herd up to the Ist of July, and every female has her calf 
by the 3rd or 4th of the month. 

The right and humpback whales are very fond of their young, 
taking no care of themselves in their efforts to save it; the sperm 
whales, on the other hand, are quite without affection, as far as can 
be determined by their behaviour. 

Sperm whales have leaders of the herd, which they follow with a 
certain obstinacy; these leaders seem to give the alarm to the 
others. No such subordination can be observed among right 
whales. Sperm whales, as is well known, have the males very 
much larger than the females, while the reverse is the case among 
the right whales. This is interesting in connection with the fact 
that the male sperm whales struggle furiously together, while the 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. R 


34162 THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 1873. 


males of the right whales seem to have no conflicts with each 
other. Captain Pease had seen males struggling with each other, 
and often found their bodies scarred with the imprints of the rival's 
teeth; the scars showing their origin very distinctly by their 
form—the distance apart of the wounds answering to the intervals 
of the teeth. The great superiority in the size of the males 
among the sperm whales is just what would be expected in a 
species where the males struggled in the combats of rivals. The 
gain in size under the influence of these conflicts of the males is 
generally limited in land animals within pretty narrow bounds. 
There are probably no land animals where the male is double the 
weight of the female, yet the male sperm whale would seem to 
excel the female by more than this proportion. This extreme 
development of the males occurs also among the Otaride as well 
as among many groups of fishes, so it would seem as if there was 
some reason why the influences tending to limit size were less 
active in the sea than on the land. The reason for the greater 
freedom to acquire size in the sea is undoubtedly to be found in 
the less weight of bodies in that element, the effect of which is 
shown as well in the structures of man as in the structures of 
nature; the ship exceeds all vehicles for land transportation for 
the same reason, and in something like the same proportion, that 
marine animals, when size is the advantage, exceed terrestrial 
forms. 

The conflicts between the males of sperm whales lead to great 
damage to the lower jaw; the evidence goes to show that at least 
two per cent. are crooked more or less, and one in several hundred 
very badly bent by these struggles. There are two specimens in 
the small museum at Nantucket which are singularly contorted ; 
one of them is bent laterally into one turn of a spiral. Captain 
Pease tells me that he found one that was bent sideways at right 
angles to the proper position and firmly fixed there, seeming to be 
a permanency in this singular place. In fighting, the males rush 
at each other with open jaws, and strike in passing. The great 
speed and power of these massive creatures must lead to the most 
serious results from these collisions. Capt. Pease found a sperm 
whale nearly dead on the water with the lower jaw hanging by a 
single band of ligament afew inches through. The creature was 
being devoured by sharks and crustaceans, but the wrench which 
had crippled this whale must have come from one of his kind. 


ee a 


THE ZooLocist—APriL, 1878. 3463 


Captain Pease has several times seen the killer attack right and 
humpback whales; they strike for the tongue if possible. They 
often jump many feet from the water and fall upon him. Many 
individuals, fifty or more, join in this attack. They tear out large 
pieces from the blubber, food being evidently the object of *their 
attack. Their great activity makes the whale helpless against them, 
though he will struggle furiously before overborne. They some- 
times drag down the whale after it has been killed by the whale- 
men. 

The Captain was quite sure that the chief article of food of the 
sperm whale is squid, as they vomit large quantities of them in 
their death agonies; he thinks that the whales take them by 
swimming with the mouth so wide open that the lower jaw stands 
at nearly right angles to the upper. Squid, he thinks, will grasp 
at the jaw as the whale passes among them, and are cut in frag- 
ments by the sudden closure of the jaws. He says that the jaw 
is closed with prodigious force and suddeuness, so that when out 
of water the noise can be heard for two or three miles, and is 
even noticeable under water. He stoutly maintains that he has 
seen fragments of squid, where the whales had cut them in two, 
exposing the cavity of the body, which was as large over as the 
head of a forty gallon cask. In one case he saw the head of a 
squid which he believes to have been as large as a sugar hogshead. 

The Captain is convinced that the right whale has a trace of 
hair within the skin. He says that when the skin is fresh, if it be 
scraped with a knife so as to remove the superficial parts, there 
will then be seen a trace of hair in the inner section. This point 
is worthy of attention from those naturalists who have opportuni- 
ties for such work. It is evident that if the whale is the descend- 
ant of some land mammal form it would be likely to preserve a 
trace of the hairy covering. In this connection it is interesting 
to note that, in the museum at Nantucket, there is a tooth of a 
sperm whale with two fangs after the fashion of an ordinary 
mammalian canine. The specimen was taken many years ago, 
but with it is the statement that the other teeth of the whale 
were of the same fashion. This clearly looks like a reversion of 
some higher mammalian form of dentition. 

Captain Pease thinks that right whales attain very nearly their 
adult size in three years, there being about three distinct sizes 
found at one time in the sea. He thinks, however, that they may 


8464 THE ZooLocist—ApPrIit, 1878. 


continue to grow very slowly for some years longer, the ultimate 
size depending a good deal upon the haunt of the whale; some 
regions having larger specimens than others. If the whales are 
descendants of our marine Carnivora we should expect them to 
preserve something like the same growth rates, for this feature 
seems to be tolerably permanent in any group of related animals. 
The rate of growth, deducible from the observations of the prac- 
tical students of the whale, coincides pretty closely with what we 
should be inclined to expect on the supposition that the Cetacea 
were descended from some ancestor like the marine Carnivora. 

The great decline of the whale fishery in all countries seems 
likely to deprive us of the ill-used opportunities, which naturalists 
have long had, of making themselves acquainted with the habits 
of the greatest of the mammals. There are many questions which 
should be discussed and settled before the class of clear-headed 
and observant whalemen has passed away; else we may remain 
for centuries without a competent knowledge of the ways of this, 
the greatest living monument of animal life. 


Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. 
By Joun CorpeEavux, Esq. 


(Continued from S. S, 3402.) 


JANUARY AND Fesruary, 18783. - 


Blackbird.—January 9th. Blackbirds and mistletoe thrushes 
have been singing during the last week in December and the first 
week of the new year. I heard the spring notes of the starling in 
December. 

Green Plover.—Very large flocks have wintered in the marshes 
and middle marsh district. I lately had an opportunity of making 
a careful estimate of the probable number of birds composing one of 
the large flocks which we now daily see winnowing to and fro above 
the marsh land: they happened to pass directly over me, in an 
unusually long and extended line; by counting up to one hundred 
and then taking the rest in sections I found there were about four 
thousand. This was only one flock out of many in the marsh. 
What an enormous amount of insects, insect larve, worms, &c., 
they must extract from these lands in the course of a single season. 


Tue ZooLtocist—APRIL, 1873. 3465 


From the mild open weather and excessive rainfall,* they have 
not suffered from a scarcity of food. This is, moreover, evident 
from their fat and plump condition. 

Shorteared Owl.—I am frequently putting up these owls from 
rough grass, drain-banks and stubbles: to judge by their castings, 
which I find on the drain-sides, they prey mainly on field mice 
(Mus sylvaticus, Linn.) These mice have been most numerous 
during the autumn and winter, and have done much damage in 
some of the plantations by gnawing off the bark round the young 
ash plants. It is not unlikely that the large number of owls which 
have visited us this winter may have been attracted to some extent 
by so plentiful a supply of food. 

Golden Plover.—February 15th. Spring note first heard. 

Scaup Duck.—February 15th. A flock of scaup off the coast in 
this parish is composed of males and females in about equal 
numbers. 

Snow Bunting. —February 15th. Observed some of these 
buntings running rapidly along the strip of sand at the foot of the 
embankment, picking up small fragments of chalk and sand. 

Wild Ducks.— February 22nd. We have had scarcely any wild- 
fowl of any description on the ponds, becks and drains, the weather 
having been never sufficiently severe to drive them inland from 
sea and river. Large flocks, however, of various wild-fowl have 
frequented the Humber during the last six weeks: gray geese, 
brent geese, pochards, tufted ducks, goldeneyes and many wigeon. 
I am told also that immense flocks of various wild-fowl have visited 
the upper reaches of the river near the mouths of the Trent and 
Ouse. 

Meadow Pipit—February 25th. Wind east, sharp frost and 
driving snow. This morning during the storm I noticed many pipits 
running over the weeds in our main marsh drain; they were picking 
off some small substances from the floating leaves of the water 
grasses. 

Brownheaded Gull—February 26th. The brownheaded gulls 
have I see in several instances acquired their summer caps. 


JOHN CoRDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 
March 3, 1873. 


s 


* The rainfall in this district in 1872 was 35-74 inches, the average of the last 
seven years, being 27°46 inches.—J. C, 


8466 Tue Zootocist—Aprit, 1878. 


Ornithological Notes from Devon and Cornwall. 
By J. GATcoMBE, Esq. 
(Continued from Zool. 8. 8. 3446). 


Fepruary, 1878. 


Wigeon.—February lst. Cold east wind, with sleet and snow. 
Saw some wigeon on Weston Mill Lake. 

Fieldfare, Longtailed Tit and Merlin.—February 4th. At Com- 
plin, near Plymouth, I observed many flocks of fieldfares and a party 
of longtailed tits; and examined a merlin which had been recently 
killed, the stomach of which contained some feathers and the legs 
of a sky lark and yellow bunting. 

Black Redstart, Green Woodpecker, §c.—February 5th. Walked 
on the coast to Bovisand, where I observed a fine black redstart, 
some blackheaded buntings and a green woodpecker, which latter 
was busily searching for food along the face of the cliffs overhanging 
the sea, some miles from any kind of wood. 1 have often observed 
the green woodpecker on the bare coast before. On the shore 
I found a dead puffin and razorbill. Sky larks were in full song 
to-day. In a former note I gave a list of the birds I found feeding 
on the decaying heaps of sea-weed along the sea-coast; since then 
I have been enabled to add three more species, vzz., rook, jackdaw 
and black redstart. Bullfinches have been rather plentiful during 
the last few months. I generally meet with them in woods, hedge- 
rows, lanes and orchards, but the other day I was rather surprised 
at seeing some hopping about among the grass in an open field, 
and not at all near the hedge. 


Linnet.—February 11th. Saw many fieldfares and some small 


parties of wood larks, and on the mud-banks of Weston Mill Lake 
were congregated thousands of the common linnet feeding among 
some green plants (1 think a kind of Salicaria), with which the 
mud-banks are covered: so numerous were they that they seemed 
almost to perch on each other’s backs, and when they rose the 
rushing noise made by their wings could be heard at a long 
distance off. Although I got pretty close to this immense swarm, 
and watched them closely with a pocket telescope, yet they ap- 
peared to consist almost entirely of one species, nor could I detect 
a single variety among them. When watching some ringed dotterel 
near the same place, I was much interested in seeing one of the 
party draw a long worm from the mud and swallow it whole. I am 


a 


THE ZooLocist—A PRIL, 1873. 3467 


sorry to say that a very large number of linnets have been brought 
to our markets—no doubt killed from the immense flocks I have 
mentioned. 

Blackheaded Gull and Razorbill.—February 13th. Examined a 
specimen of Larus ridibundus, with the black head of the breeding 
season nearly completed; also a razorbill, with the sides of its neck 
and throat strongly mottled with black. On the 16th I watched 
some razorbills diving off the Devil’s Point, at Stonehouse, and a 
small flock of Larus ridibundus, most of which were assuming the 
black head. 

Herring Gull, §c.—February 15th. Herring gulls crying in the 
air, just as in the breeding season. Came across many wood larks 
and sky larks in full song. Saw four or five bullfinches, and met 
with the remains of a wagtail and linnet which had been killed by 
a hawk. On the 19th, at Whitsand Bay, on the Cornish coast, 
were some very large flocks of herring gulls upon the rocks near 
thew usual breeding-place, which on being disturbed made a 
tremendous noise in the air. Since the late gales great numbers 
of this species have left our harbours and retired to the coast. 
Flocks of blackheaded gulls, too, leave our mud-banks towards 
dark, on a fine evening, flying high overhead in strings, like 
curlews. 

Kestrel, Dipper, §c.—February 18th. Went to Bickleigh Vale 
and Roborough Down. Examined the roosting-place of a kestrel, 
where I found an abundance of pellets consisting entirely of the 
fur, bones and a few teeth of mice. Saw some golden plover, 
lapwings and fieldfares. In the river Plym at Bickleigh Vale met 
with some waterhens and several dippers, one of which was hopping 
about in a shallow but rapid part of the stream with its head and 
neck completely under, and water rippling over its back. Gray 
wagtails tolerably numerous, with several marsh and other tits. 

Gray Wagtail and Mountain Finch—February 20th. Gray 
wagtails assuming the black throat. Saw a titlark mount singing 
in the air, and descend without spread wings and tail, as in 
the breeding time. Some mountain finches killed in the neigh- 
bourhood. 

Purple Sandpiper, Knot, §c.— February 23rd. ‘Mews very 
plentiful, but the last kittiwake I saw was on the 6th. Several 
waterhens in the market in beautifnl plumage, with bills and legs 
very fine in colour. Watched a purple sandpiper on the rocks 


8468 THE ZooLoGist—APRIL, 1873. 


near the Hoe. Several knots have been lately killed in the neigh- 
bourhood; they are unusually plentiful this season—indeed I rarely 
see any after the autumn. 

Glaucous Gull, §c.—February 25th. Observed an immature 
glaucous gull and another purple sandpiper; also examined a 
blackthroated diver lately killed. 

Lesser Blackbacked Gull, §c.—F¥ebruary 26th. Chaffinches in 
full song. Lesser blackbacked gulls seem to have taken the place 
of the greater, which have left since the abatement of the late 


gales. 


JOHN GATCOMBE. 
8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth. 


Erratum.—Zool, S. 8, 3448, two lines from bottom, for blackheaded read black- 
backed. 


The Theory of Dr. Baldamus as regards the Cuckoo's Egg. 
By W. C. Hewirson, Esq. 


I cannot read Mr. Smith’s paper, and [ do not believe that 
any one else who took part in the former controversy with regard 
to the eggs of the cuckoo can read it, without coming to the con- 
clusion that it is a personal attack upon myself, and as such I 
accept it. I am at least one of the “ would-be” ornithologists men- 
tioned by him, and if an intense love of the glorious works of the 
Creator, and birds amongst the rest, makes an ornithologist, I was 
one probably before he was hatched: further that my love of truth, 
which he seems to think he monopolises, is as strong as my love of 
Nature, and it was the impulse of both of these feelings which led 
me to attack a theory which I believed to be a libel on both. 

I have now read Mr. Smith’s translation of Dr. Baldamus’s theory 
carefully, and I must begin by confessing that I did the Dr. some 
wrong by attributing to him the notion that the cuckoo can colour 
its eggs at will, when Herr Kunz ought to enjoy the credit of this 
brilliant notion. I was, however, misled by Mr. Smith himself, 
who now accuses me of an “ingenious perversion of the theory,” 
because I copied from his own paper in. the ‘ Zoologist’ (Zool. 
S. S. 1112) the words,—which, to make them more impressive, are 
there printed in italics,—“ that the cuckoo is able to assimilate 
them (its eggs) in colour to the eggs of those birds whose nests she 
selects,” and this he there states is the opinion of Dr. Baldamus 


¢ 


THE ZooLoGcist—APpRriL, 1873. 3469 


himself, and I leave it to you and your readers to determine which 
of us has perverted the truth. 

Mr. Smith is angry with English ornithologists, and accuses us 
of “indolent reluctance” because we have not been able to find 
evidence in support of Dr. Baldamus’ theory. I have certainly 
felt some surprise that he and those who think as he does have 
not themselves brought forth in the past five years some evidence 
in its favour without going to Germany to seek it. That I may 
avoid making a second mistake, I will copy Mr. Smith’s present 
interpretation of the Baldamus theory “ that every hen cuckoo lays 
all her eggs of one colouring only, and consequently (as a general 
rule) lays only in the nest of one species,” and I hope that Mr. 
Smith will not be offended if in “pleasantry” I translate this 
sentence into my own words, as I did before, that each species of 
bird honoured by its patronage has a family cuckoo. 

With the first half of this sentence, “that every hen cuckoo lays 
all her eggs of one colouring only,” I entirely agree, and will take 
it as my text; but that the instinct of each cuckoo leads it to lay 
its eggs amongst those of one species of bird only with which they 
shall agree iu colour, is to me utterly absurd. Nature, however 
lavish, never wastes her resources, and I argue that this ingenious 
theory would be entirely wasted in deceiving birds which need no 
deception, and will sit with equal assiduity upon eggs of any colour, 
or upon pieces of chalk substituted in their places. I affirm that, 
as far as our English cuckoos are concerned and our experience 
goes, they invariably lay their eggs of gray or grayish brown, 
irrorated throughout with darker brown and marked always by 
some minute black spots, and that those eggs are laid, in the 
majority of cases, amongst the blue eggs of the hedgesparrow. 
Out of seven cuckoos’ eggs in my own pleasure-ground six were in 
the nests of the hedgesparrow. It would require some research in 
the female, and she would have to carry her egg for a long time in 
her mouth before she could find any eggs less in harmony with 
her own; and since our cuckoos do not and will not lay blue eggs, 
shall we (as Sir Joseph Banks is said to have done to the fleas) 
anathematise them, or shall we come to the conclusion that our 
gray skies are to blame? 

Mr. Smith extols the Germans for their “ painstaking and very 
persevering diligence,” and gives us long tables to prove it; but 
I contend that it is all worthless, and that they have no proof 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. j s 


3470 Tue Zootocist—ApriL, 1873. 


whatever that any one of the eggs of which such accurate measure- 
ments are given were laid by the cuckoo, and I totally disbelieve 
that the cuckoo’s eggs ever resemble those of the redbacked shrike 
or of the buntings. 

An article appeared in the ‘ Field,’ quite as well authenticated as 
anything that Dr. Baldamus has given us, attested by Herr Kiessel 
and two highly credible witnesses, who treated with contempt the 
notion that they could possibly be mistaken, knowing well the 
nightjar as well as the cuckoo: in this article it was affirmed that 
the cuckoo lays her eggs and hatches them herself upon the ground. 
What does Mr. Smith say to this from his painstaking German 
friends? “I beg to state without hesitation that never by any 
possibility does our British cuckoo either build a nest of her own 
or incubate her eggs on the ground.” 


W. C. HeEwItTson. 
Oatlands. 


[I exceedingly regret the exhibition of acrimonious feeling on this 
question, which is certainly one of the most interesting ever introduced 
to the notice of ornithologists: true naturalists, those whose experience 
best enables them to form a correct judgment, and whose opinions therefore 
are most entitled to respect, frequently hold aloof from discussions of this 
kind from a dread of being drawn into a personal controversy: I know this 
was the case in 1868, and that in consequence the question collapsed: I 
fear a similar collapse now. Controversialists seem to ignore the fact that 
if not established on incontestible evidence, a theory, however specious, must 
fall into oblivion; and if so supported no argument can prevail against it. 
As bearing on this question, although collaterally and not directly, I may 
perhaps be allowed to state that it has been repeatedly stated, and I believe 
the statement remains unchallenged, that more than one foreign species of 
cuckoo lays in crows’ nests, and that the eggs are invariably coloured like 
those of the crows.—Edward Newman.] 


‘ 


The Theory of Dr. Baldamus as regards the Cuckoo's Eggs. 
By GrorGe Dawson Row ey, Esq., M.A. 


THE Rev. A. C. Smith having requested me to say something 
upon the Baldamine theory of the colouring of the eggs of Cuculus 


canorus, in the March number of the ‘ Zoologist,’ I make a few 
final remarks. 


THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 1873. 3471 


Firstly. The cause assigned does not appear to be adequate. 
The lawful proprietor, as I find, never fails to hatch the intruding 
egg, without the supposed resemblance, with undeviating uni- 
formity. Nature’s rule is success. Mr. Darwin, in his ‘ Descent 
of Man’ (vol. i. p. 79), under the head of “ Moral Sense,” speaks of 
the “strong feeling of inward satisfaction” which impels “a bird 
so full of activity to brood, day after day, over her eggs.” With 
some diffidence 1 venture to disagree with so great a naturalist. 
There is no more inward satisfaction, in a moral sense, in a 
brooding bird than in an eating or drinking bird. The desire to 
sit is a burning, overwhelming one, which must be satisfied, like 
that of hunger and thirst. There is no moral sense init. It is 
painful to the bird, which, as I have often seen, will sit on nothing 
rather than not incubate. Hence I contend that the cause assigned 
for the supposed resemblance of the eggs of the cuckoo to that of 
other birds is not satisfactory. Birds are only too glad to sit on 
the cuckoo’s egg. 

Dr. Baldamus says, “There must be proportionably many ex- 
ceptions” to the rule. Query, do not the exceptions become so 
numerous as themselves to form the rule? I have parted with 
many of my specimens, ‘but have still over sixty, which are with 
the nests or eggs of sixteen or seventeen species. Of these in two 
cases I do see a resemblance between the egg of Cuculus canorus 
aud the others. They are cases of Anthus pratensis and Motacilla 
Yarrellii. But different persons view things variously, and an 
advocate of the theory might see other resemblances. Dr. Rey’s 
list is compounded with great care, and I know what an amount of 
trouble and skill must have been exerted to procure those data. 
No doubt it tends to establish the theory. To be like the eggs of 
the redstart (Pheenicura ruticilla), the cuckoo must lay a blue egg, 
to resemble those of C. arundinacea it should be green or greenish. 
Such eggs have never come under my experience, so I can say 
nothing regarding them, except that I have studied monstrous 
specimens of eggs somewhat, and I observe that in the common 
fowl, when one egg is found inside anoter, and both have shells, 
as sometimes happens, the grain of the shell varies, though both 
are the produce of the same hen. I mention this with reference 
to the gigantic eggs named by Dr. Rey, and said to be those of 
C. canorus of a blue colour. A blue and a green egg of C. canorus, 
well authenticated, would do much to convert me, I do not affirm 


$472 THE ZooLoGist—APRIL, 1873. 


that such do not exist; I only say that after some efforts I have 
been unable to find one, though I have discovered both gigantic 
and diminutive eggs of various members of the family of the 
Sylviads. 

In Mr. Smith’s remarks, for the most part, I concur, but must 
still consider that what has been published is only the inception 
of the matter, which is as yet sub judice. For these and kindred 
questions, we want to fall in with “ Alexandro magno rege in- 
flammato cupidine animalium naturas noscendi,” of whom Lewes, 
in his ‘ History of Philosophy,’ quotes Pliny as stating that he set 
all his hunters, fishermen, &c., to collect specimens of Natural 
History in the service of his tutor. : 


GrorGe Dawson Rowtey. 
Chichester House, East Cliff, Brighton, 
March 56, 1873. 


The Eggs of the Cuckoo. By Henry Dovuscenay, Esq. 


I HAVE no wish to enter into a controversy about the eggs of the 
cuckoo, but as I assiduously collected the eggs of British birds for 
thirty years, and during that period saw a great number of the eggs 
of the cuckoo, I may be allowed to state I never met with anything 
to confirm the theory of Dr. Baldamus. 

The eggs of the cuckoo are different from, and probably vary 
less than, the eggs of any British bird which have markings upon 
the shell. I have had a great many brought to me by birds’- 
nesting boys, and they never made a mistake. 

I have several times seen the eggs of the cuckoo in the nest of 
the hedgesparrow and pied wagtail, but they have always been 
similar, differing only in some specimens being a little paler than 
others. 

I very much doubt whether many of the eggs mentioned in the 
list really belonged to the cuckoo, and it is very remarkable that 
the hedgesparrow is not mentioned as one of the foster-parents, 
since, as far as my observation goes, the cuckoo more frequently 
places her eggs in the nests of this bird than in those of any other 
species. 

I was surprised to see the wood wren in the list. I think this 
must be a mistake, on account of the construction and small size 
of the interior of the nest. 


THE ZooLocist—Aprit, 1873. 3473 


I cannot see any reason why the eggs of the cuckoo should 

resemble those of the foster-parents, as the generality of small 
~ birds will sit just as readily upon substituted eges as upon their 
own. 

There is nothing improbable in a hen cuckoo laying only eggs 
of a similar colour, as this frequently occurs with other birds. 
I knew an instance of a hen blackbird’s laying all her eggs of a 
spotless blue; the first nest was taken, and a second nest was soon 
built near the same spot, and the eggs were exactly like those in 
the first nest: the female was probably a bird of the preceding 
year. 

If the cuckoo has not a previous knowledge of what the colour 

of her eggs will be, how can she decide in the nests of which bird 
‘she is to place her eggs? Perhaps Dr. Baldamus supposes that 
she lays one first, and after examining it decides upon the bird 
which is to be the foster-parent of her young one. 
Henry Dovusiepay. 
Epping, March 13, 1873. 


The Cuckoo Question.—A fact that most naturally opposes itself 
in the minds of British ornithologists to the belief that the eggs of 
cuckoos resemble in colour those of the birds in whose nests they 
are introduced, is that, so far as I am aware, no one has ever found 
in the nest of a hedgesparrow a cuckoo’s egg which is similar to 
that of the hedgesparrow. I should be extremely obliged if any 
one or more of your correspondents would, in the course of the 
coming breeding season, try whether the bird last named has any 
objection to foster eggs of a colour entirely different to its own, 

-and communicate with me on the result of the experiment.—Alfred 
Newton ; Magdalene College, Cambridge.— Field. 


Supplementary Remarks on the Propagation of the Cuckoo. 
By the Rev. ALFrep Cuarues Suitu, M.A. 


As in this month’s ‘ Zoologist’ I have again taken up my parable 
on the cuckoo (S. S. 3433), in reference to the colouring of its eggs, 
Lam desirous to follow up the subject with some further observations 

‘in regard to another interesting particular in the economy of that 


3474 Tue ZooLocist—APRIL, 1873. 


bird’s propagation ; viz. the means by which its foster-brethren are 
summarily ejected from the nest wherein the newly-hatched cuckoo 
appears; a question also much disputed amongst ornithologists, 
and for which I have valuable testimony from the pages of the 
same ‘ Journal fiir Ornithologie,’ from which I quoted last month; - 
though I would not then confuse the one question before me, by 

drawing off attention to another point. I return therefore now to 

the enquiry ; and whereas last month I adduced the authority of 

Dr. Rey, whose investigations were conducted in the heart of Ger- 

many, I shall now have the pleasure of quoting Dr. Dybowski, 

whose observations were made in Eastern Siberia, and whose very 

interesting communication on the subject I beg to introduce in as 

literal a translation as I can make. 

Let me first, however, remind my readers that in treating of the 
life-history of the cuckoo on a previous occasion (Zool. 8. S. 
1110), I ventured to state that it was not the newly-hatched, but 
the parent cuckoo, which cast from the nest the unfledged young 
of the foster-parents; and I mentioned in support of this view 
the honoured name of Charles Waterton, whose opinion was very 
decided on the point, as he plainly expressed it in his Essays on 
Natural History,* and as he repeated it to me on more than one 
occasion; inasmuch as he declared it to be absolutely impossible 
for any bird just hatched to exert itself to the degree required, since 
the ejection of the young birds from any nest would necessarily entail 
a considerable amount of physical exertion. Perhaps in my admira- 
tion for the attainments of that eminent ornithologist, I too fondly 
thought that the authority of Waterton would carry conviction to 
most minds on a question which required accurate observation and 
practical knowledge. I was soon however undeceived by Mr. 
Briggs, who advanced (Zool. S. S. 1208) on the opposite theory 
not only the name of Dr. Jenner, who originated the story of the 
precocity of the young cuckoo, but also that of Colonel Montagu, 
whom I will never mention without the respect which is his due: 
moreover Mr. Briggs had himself (though I had overlooked the 
circumstance) seen with his own eyes the attempted expulsion of a 
young pipit from its nest by an infant cuckoo (Zool. 8. 8S. 914). 
Of course I am not about to dispute for one moment the testimony 
of either of these gentlemen, when they record that which they 


* See the one yol, edition, 1871, edited by Norman Moore, pp. 317, 343, 555. 


THE ZooLoctst—ApRIL, 1873. $475 


themselves have seen: perhaps however I shall be forgiven if 
I surmise that in each of these cases the young cuckoo had, either 
from the untimely end of its real mother, or from some other 
unforeseen accident, been left on the horns of a dilemma; and 
that then it had been taught by nature to exert itself to its utmost 
in order to obtain that sole possession of the nest which was almost 
necessary to its existence: not however in the period of its first 
infancy, when it would have been incapable of any such exertion, 
but in process of time, as it began to acquire strength enough to 
enable it to raise itself on its legs ; and even then, be it observed, 
not always with success, as in the instance which Mr. Briggs so 
confidently puts forward as witnessed by himself, the young cuckoo, 
upon repeated attempts, signally failed to effect the ejection of its 
comrade, until aided by Mr. Briggs. However I proceed to state 
the evidence by Dr. Dybowski, as he gives it in his valuable com- 
munication to the ‘ Journal fiir Ornithologie.’ * 

** With regard to the theory that the newly-hatched cuckoo turns 
the young of its foster-mother, either mechanically or involuntarily, 
out of the nest, I cannot declare myself to coincide, since I have 
facts to produce which tend to quite different conclusions. For we 
found in an uninhabited valley near the river Alengui, in Dauria, a 
nest of Anthus Ricardi. It was inserted in a depression at 
the foot of a rather large heap of earth, whose surface up above 
projected over the nest on all sides to a considerable extent. In 
this nest there was only a young, still quite unfledged cuckoo, and 
from two to three days could barely have elapsed since it had crept 
forth from the egg. Not far from the nest two young pipits were 
lying, which were certainly still alive, though extremely feeble ; 
and a little farther off, a similar young bird already dead. As we 
took the little birds in our hands, it was apparent that their crops 
were full and their stomachs also well filled. Nevertheless the 
poor things were so exceedingly cold that they gave hardly any 
distinguishable signs of life. Now the question arises, what could 
be the reason of this (at all events, to say the least of it,) involun- 
tary abiding of the above-named young birds outside their nest ? 
The young cuckoo certainly could not have caused it, as he was still 
much too young for such a task ; the young pipits themselves could 
not have got out of the nest, because it lay much too deep down for 


* Vol. xix for 1871, pp. 393—4. Zur Fortpflanzungsgeschichte des Kukkuks. 
Briefliche Mittheilung aus Ost-Sibirien. 


3476 Tue ZooLocist—ApriL, 1878. 


them to have done so. There remains only the theory that the 
parents (cither those of the pipits, or those of the cuckoo) must 
have done the deed. Of the pipits, there can surely be no ques- 
tion; indeed, in my opinion, in the case before us one can lay the 
blame solely and entirely on the cuckoo, and indeed on the female 
bird, 

“ Again: not far from Darasun, where several cuckoos had been 
killed a short time before, we found in the month of June,in a 
nest with a young cuckoo, a young pipit nearly full-grown. The 
young cuckoo could not yet leave the nest, nor did he even know 
how to make his escape out of it, to get away from us ; so he sat still 
in his place, and hissed at us; whilst the young pipit could already 
run, and was just preparing to slip out of the nest away from us. 
In this case it must be assumed that there was none near at the 
proper time who could cast out the young pipit. 

“ Again: in one and the same nest, we found two cuckoo’s eggs, 
the colouring of which entirely differed, the one from the other. 

“ Again: in a nest of Phyllopneuste fuscata we found a 
cuckoo’s egg, green speckled with black, like that of Uragus 
sibiricus, which (as is well known) will not receive the egg of the 
cuckoo, but will rather destroy the nest, and remove its materials; 
but near the aforesaid nest, lay the eggs of the Phyllopneuste, of 
a pure white colour. 

“ Again: we often found damaged nests, some even torn asunder; 
the eggs of which were not eaten, but for the most part lay around, 
at a little distance from the nests, broken. 

“The above facts, as well as many other cases, cause us to express 
the following opinions upon the cuckoo :— 

“ (a.) The female cuckoo lays her eggs in the nests of other birds ; 
she does not cast out the eggs of those birds intentionally, and if 
this should sometimes happen it ought to be considered as done 
by accident. . 

“(}.) Every female cuckoo has her own district, and certain 
chosen nests, in which to lay her eggs. If she sees that another 
female cuckoo comes near this district, then she pursues it, and 
drives it away: but if the other female cuckoo is able to slip into 
such a district without being seen, then it may well come to pass 
that two cuckoo’s eggs may be laid in one and the same nest. 

* (¢.) With the spoiling of the nests and scattering of the eggs 
we must not charge the female, but in every case the male cuckoos, 


Tar Zootocist—Apnrit, 1873. 3477 


which probably adopt these means to force their mates to a pro- 
longation of the pairing-time. (Zur Verlangerung der Paarungs- 
zeit). 

(d.) After hatching, the female cuckoo turns the young of her 
nurse out of the nest, in order to secure a more certain existence 
for her own offspring.” 


- Dr. Dybowski concludes his paper by declaring that each one of 
the views he has put forward requires further confirmation, and 
entreats that careful observations may be made on each of these 
points. With these remarks of the worthy doctor I most cordially 
agree ; for though I have my own opinions on the subject, I am by 
no means bigoted in their favour, and I cannot consider that we 
have as yet by any means arrived at any positive knowledge of all 
the strange circumstances which attend the breeding of that very 
peculiar bird, the cuckoo: and it is with the view of bringing 
forward any well-authenticated facts I can glean, and inviting dis- 
cussion upon them, as well as hoping to elicit the publication of 
other observers’ experiences on the same subject, that I so often 
harp (not however, I trust, to the weariness of the readers of the 
‘ Zoologist’) on this cuckoo note. 

I had hoped to have concluded these remarks on the cuckoo, 
with an account of the well-being of a bird of this species which 
had passed most successfully through the greater part of its second 
winter in captivity in this neighbourhood, but which unfortunately 
died last month. It was taken from the nest at Potterne, near 
Devizes, in the summer of 1871, and was reared in the bakehouse 
of the chief confectioner in that town. Though it never attained 
to other than ragged plumage, the bird seemed lively and in good 
health, and in all probability would have survived this winter, at all 
events, if it had not been incautiously exposed to a draught of cold 
air in the bitter weather of last month, when it seemed chilled to 
the bone, and very soon drooped and died. This was the more to be 
deplored, as it had been carefully and constantly sheltered from the 
Severity of winter, and had seemed to thrive in its exceptionally 
suitable place of abode; and it was only by a most unlucky accident 
that it was taken from its customary warm quarters, for a few minutes, 
to be shown to a neighbour, when it caught the chill which proved 
fatal to its existence. It survived, however, longer than any other 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. T 


$478 Tue ZooLoGist—APRiL, 1878. 


cuckoo brought up from the nest in this country which has come 
under my personal notice. 


ALFRED CHARLES SMITH. 
Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 


March 3, 1873 


Postscript.—Sinuce writing the above, I have received a letter 
from my friend Professor Newton, in which he demurs to my 
somewhat sweeping accusation of apathy on the part of British 
ornithologists in regard to the subject of Dr. Baldamus’ theory, and 
points out how he himself had handled this question in an article 
which he had sent to ‘ Nature, (No. iii. Noy. 18, 1869), and how 
that article had been followed by sundry communications on the 
subject in subsequent numbers of the same periodical. It there- 
fore becomes me to apologise to my friend for such apparent, 
though most unintentional, disregard of his article on the question. 
Most assuredly I should be one of the last voluntarily to overlook 
the published opinion of one I esteem so highly as Professor 
Newton, and the more so when that opinion was given on a 
question in which I am deeply interested; but in real truth it 
was not until my paper on the cuckoo in this month’s ‘ Zoologist’ 
was in type, that I was aware that he had written on the subject; 
for it is one of the drawbacks which naturalists who live in rural 
districts must suffer, that it is impossible for them to get sight of 
all the many Natural History publications which seem to multiply in 
number with every month ; nor had any of my ornithological friends~ 
chanced to call my attention to the paper in question. I have now 
obtained acopy of that paper, and have read it with great pleasure, 
and am delighted to find that the Professor agrees so entirely with 
Dr. Baldamus, whose rules he completely endorses. Let m not, 
however, be deemed perverse and obstinate, if I still maintain that 
no British ornithologist,\so far as I can ascertain, has yet investi- 
gated this question in the systematic way, and after the excellent 
example of painstaking and diligence set us by Dr. Baldamus and 
Dr. Rey, neither of whom entered upon the subject until he had 
carefully studied every particular in colour, markings and size, 
not only of a large series of nearly one hundred cuckoos’ eggs, 
(Zool. 8. 8. 1150), but also (what was little less important) of the 
eggs of the foster-parent with which they were severally found. 
That British ornithologists should be able to examine so large a 


THE ZooLocist—Aprit, 1873. 3479 


number of cuckoos’ eggs in this country, I do not think possible, 
because I imagine the cuckoo does not abound in our more thickly 
populated land, as it does in some parts of Germany : still, if every 
enquirer, who may chance to meet with one single cuckoo’s egg 
in the coming season, would make a point of very accurately de- 
scribing its size, colour, and markings, and those of the other eggs 
found with it, (assisting his description with a water-coloured 
drawing, if practicable) we might by degrees, and by the ex- 
perience of many, gain a mass of information which would be of 
the greatest value as well as interest; and this I again heartily 
commend to the attention of all out-door observers. Let me, how- 
ever, once more remind my readers that there are avowedly and of 
necessity, many exceptions to the rule (if rule there be) of the 
similarity of colour between the egg of the cuckoo and those of 
the nurse to which it is entrusted, as was pointed out by Dr. Bal- 
damus, who indeed took pains to repeat and dwell upon this 
caution. 


A. Gy Ss, 
March 6, 1873, 


| Hotites of Ary Books, 


Autumns on the Spey. By A. E. Knox, M.A., F.L.S., &c. 172 pp. 
post 8vo; four litho. plates by Wolf. London: Van Voorst, 
Paternoster Row. 1872. 


Mr., or as he is usually called “ Captain,” Knox, is always an 
agreeable, and often an instructive companion, but as he advances 
in age he loses, as we all do, the vigour and freshness of youth, 
and trusts rather too much to his book-learning for what is 
irreverently called “padding.” One would have fancied that his 
theme, the breezy hill-side and the “ foaming river,” would have 
sufficed him for materials without unapt quotations from Herodotus, 
Geoffroy St. Hilaire, Gordon Cumming, Bishop Stanley or Hugh 
Miller, and that the spirit of the motto he has taken for his first 
chapter would have led him to trust for inspiration exclusively to 
Nature in her unadorned beauty, as revealed in the river and the 
hill-side: here is the motto, and nothing could be more appropriate 
or harmonize better with the author’s subject :— 


| 3480 THE ZooLoGist—APRIL, 1873. 


“The river nobly foams and flows, 
The charm of this enchanted ground, 
And all its thousand turns disclose 
Some fresher beauty varying round; 
The haughtiest breast its wish might bound, 
Through life to dwell delighted here; 
Nor could on earth a spot be found 
To Nature and to me so dear.” 


But Mr. Knox has introduced into his little book the apocryphal 


story of 
“That clever bird on the banks of Nile 
That picks the teeth of the crocodile,” 


and that other little bird that warns the ponderous rhinoceros of 
the approach of his ruthless murderer, and has detailed in eatenso 
the somewhat threadbare discoveries in “old red” made by our 
friend Miller, chronicled in all our memories, and copied into all 
our books, long, long ago: thirty years, a generation, have passed 
away again since those wonderful creatures Pterichthys, Coccosteus 
and Cephalaspis were figured and described in the ‘ Zoologist,’ to 
astonish the simple and perplex the speculative, who hesitated to 
decide whether they were endosteate or exosteate. It is pleasant 
to see such speculations revived, and to read of Mr. Knox’s 
researches at’ Tynet Burn, which if they do not emulate those 
of Hugh Miller, at least testify to a lively interest in his dis- 
coveries. . 

Before I quite relinquish the critic’s pen, I may state that some 
of Mr. Knox’s expressions are not in exact accordance with my own 
ideas of cosmical phenomena; thus the Scotch firs, which we see 
on many of the Scotch hills, are called, at pp. 10,58, &c., “ primaval 
pines.” I will not assert that these pines are not “ primeval,” but 
their appearance, and I am very familiar with them, seems to bring 
the rather indefinite period expressed by that word much nearer 
our own time than I had supposed. ‘This primeval vegetation 
afforded our author an opportunity of observing a flock of crossbills 
splitting the fir-cones and extracting the seeds. 


« T was especially surprised at the total absence of all kinds of small birds, 
some of which, such as the great tit, the blue tit, or their congeners, the marsh 
or the cole tit, I should have expected to see or hear even at this season, or 
at least to have caught a glimpse of some feathered inhabitants of the forest. 
This circumstance had just recurred to my memory with redoubled force, as 


i i es 


—— se 


THE ZooLocist—A PRIL, 1873. 3481 


I perceived by the declining sun that the evening was approaching, when 
suddenly a singular, continuous, shrill chirping sound reached my ears, as 
of several small birds together, but the notes were strange to me. Although 
well acquainted with the call of most British birds, I could not recognize 
this one, and the longer I listened the more I was puzzled. Gradually it 
approached, and seemed to proceed from one of the taller Scotch firs at a 
little distance. Fixing my eyes on the spot, I soon saw several little birds, 
something larger than bullfinches, emerging from the foliage, and flying one 
by one towards the tree that was nearest to me, alight on the very boughs 
that hung over my head. I could hardly believe my eyes, as I realized the 
delightful fact that I was actually within a few yards of a whole family of 
crossbills(Lowxia curvirostra), busily engaged at their marvellous employment 
of splitting the fir-cones and extracting the seeds. Need I say that the recol- 
lection of previous bad luck, and even my sufferings from the gnats, were 
obliterated by such an interesting sight, not the less welcome from its 
being so unexpected. The very plumage of these little creatures added to 
the charm of their presence. Some were of a beautiful deep crimson colour, 
others orange or yellow; others, again, were clad in a plain brown livery, 
and all were busily intent on their occupation of rifling the cones, during 
which they kept flying about from one twig to another, incessantly uttering 
their shrill monotonous notes. After close observation, I noticed that they 
seldom attempted to operate upon a cone on the exact spot where it grew, 
but after snapping one off from a slender terminal twig, each bird would hop 
or fly to the central part of the branch, and in parrot-like fashion hold it in 
his foot, but more frequently wnder it, as a hawk holds a small bird when 
in the act of devouring it, and quickly inserting his bill between the scales 
split them open by means of that wonderful tool, and extract the seeds with 
the greatest facility. Occasionally a cone would fall to the ground just as 
it was snapped off; but, in such a case, a fresh one was instantly selected, 
no further notice being taken of the one that had dropped. Their powers 
of climbing appeared fully equal to that of the titmice, as they swung about 
in all directions and in every imaginable attitude, twisting and twirling, 
fluttering and chattering, within a few yards of me, and evidently quite 
unconscious of my presence.”—P, 35. 


Mr. Knox dwells at considerable length on the singular manner 
in which the squirrels have immigrated and emigrated into and 
from different localities they frequent. The story of their having 
been introduced by a lady who had admired their lively habits and 
sprightly attitudes in England receives collateral support from that 
observant naturalist, Dr. Gordon, who attributes their introduction 
into this district of Scotland to Lady Lovat in 1844. A story is 
told of a squirrel having ascended a man in the treeless region of 


3482 THE ZooLoGist—APRIL, 1873. 


the glen of Holme, greatly to his discomfiture, he never having 
before seen an example of “ the queer wee beastie”: the tale shows 
that the squirrel was unfamiliar in that region. 

I was rather surprised and very much pleased to find a word in 
favour of the otter: it is so common to hear it condemned by any 
resident in the country, in the same unsparing manner as the diurnal 
and nocturnal mousers, the kestrel and the owl, that one seems 
hardly to believe one’s eyes when a passage like this meets the 
astonished gaze :— 


“The otter (Lutra vulgaris) still survives, though gradually yielding to 
persecution. I have long felt satisfied that the depredations of this beautiful 
and graceful quadruped are far less serious than is generally supposed. In 
the smaller streams and burns they certainly consume a number of trout; 
but, as a set off to this, they kill quantities of pike, wherever that voracious 
fish has contrived to establish itself. As to salmon, they rarely capture one 
of considerable size, while the arch-enemy of the species, the seal (Phoca 
vitulina), has become quite a rare visitor to the mouth of the Spey. I have 
seen a greater number in one day off the Moy, in Killalla Bay, than could 
probably now be observed during an entire season on the southern side of 
the Moray Firth.”—P. 66. 


I sincerely regret that I am unable to corroborate this view of 
the otter’s conduct: having seen and heard much of otters in 
Herefordshire, I have failed to find evidence of its pike-destroying 
propensities, while its taste for the delicate grayling, the beautiful 
trout, and the coarse roach and dace, is established on the clearest 
evidence. 

It would have been pleasant to have learned more particulars of 
that reputed Scottish mammal, the wild cat; but of this mythical 
creature Mr. Knox saw but one, and that in a “large iron cage.” 
There is no British mammal, or reputed British mammal, of whose 
character, locality, and even.existence, we are so totally ignorant as 
the wild cat; and it is fair to assume that Mr. Knox would 
have gladly imparted any information he possessed respecting it. 
Dr. Gordon includes it in his “ Fauna of Moray” (Zool. 423), and 
gives the following meagre information respecting it :— 


“ Wild Cat.—Found only in the largest forests and among the subalpine 
rocks and valleys of the province. One killed above Cawdor Castle measured 
from the nose to the tip of the tail three feet nine inches, of which the tail 
itself occupied fifteen inches.” 


TuE ZooLocist—Apnrit, 1873. $483 


I pass on to the golden eagle, and concerning this monarch of 
Scottish birds I find details of great interest. In 1862 Mr. Knox 
passed a week or ten days in the forest of Braemar, in the very 
heart of the Grampians, and had the gratification of seeing this 
royal bird almost daily, and of observing peculiarities which have 
escaped the notice of ornithologists generally; for instance, his 
hovering like a kestrel, and his nesting in fir trees, or as Mr. Knox 
would prefer calling them “primeval pines.” He first saw the 
golden eagle soaring at a great height, and every now and then 
arresting his career and hovering in the air like a kestrel, apparently 
watching for some victim in the heather below: he was attended 
by a “rabble rout” of hooded crows, who kept up their pertinacious 
annoyance as long as he remained in view. Braemar was once the 
paradise of the naturalist, but it is now forbidden ground; for one 
cannot write half-a-dozen lines about this wild district without 
making the “angry passions rise” of those who would wander and 
those who would prevent from wandering. A tourist in the wilder 
parts of Scotland must now lie submissive in the arms of gillies, 
foresters, keepers and rangers, et id genus omne, as does an infant 
in the arms of its nurse; or must submit to the bullying and 
badgering that no Englishman can relish; but I return to the eagles 
and Mr. Knox. | 


“ My surprise, however, was not greater than my delight when the forester 
pointed out the royal nest on an old Scotch fir tree, which, with several 
others, at some distance from each other, studded the side of a hill near 
the base of Ben-y-Bourd. Every ornithological authority that I was 
acquainted with had invariably assigned lofty inland crags and precipices 
to the golden eagle as the situation of his eyrie; and, indeed, the high 
cliff behind Corriemulzie, where he used to breed, owes its present title 
to the circumstance, but this was the only instance I had ever known of 
the nest being constructed in a tree. Such is the result of preservation, 
or in other words, the absence of persecution, for the services of the eagle 
have been long appreciated and the birds themselves protected by the 
proprietor of the forest, so that it would really appear as if the establishment 
of confidence had rendered them less anxious to select an inaccessible 
position for their eyrie. The nest itself was not above twenty feet from the 
ground, built on one of the larger horizontal branches extending from the 
naked trunk; and with the assistance of a gillie I succeeded in climbing to 
it and examined its structure and contents. The enormous fabric was about 
eight feet wide. Some of the external sticks of which it was composed were 
nearly as thick as my wrist, their size gradually diminishing towards the 


$484 THe ZooLocist—APRIL, 1878. 


centre, which was lined with birch twigs and heather. In the interior was 
an addled egg, where it had remained since the previous spring, white like 
that of the sea eagle, and without any of the ferruginous or reddish colour 
that is more characteristic of the golden eagle’s—although this pale variety 
is occasionally found even among prolific eggs of the latter species. Besides 
this the nest contained several large wing- and tail-feathers of the owner, . 
a quantity of down from the young birds, the foot of a blue hare, the wing 
and leg of a ptarmigan, and the half-devoured body of a recently-killed 
hooded crow. It was evident that the parents still used it as a larder, which 
was satisfactorily explained, a few days afterwards, on my perceiving two 
immature golden eagles, whose ringed tails were distinctly visible through 
my spy-glass, flying about the tree and alighting occasionally on the 
ground, evidently expecting to be fed by their parents, neither of whom, 
however, appeared on that occasion, although repeatedly summoned by the 
loud screams of the younger birds. . 

“For several years the golden eagle has established its eyrie on a Scotch 
fir in this forest. A stout bough, with strong lateral branches, is selected 
in the first instance, and the nest, such as I have described, constructed on 
the platform. In the following spring the fabric, even when apparently 
uninjured by the winter storms, is added to, or ‘ put out,’ as the foresters 
call it. The same process is repeated annually, until at length the over- 
burdened bough gives way and snaps off, carrying with it to the ground 
the accumulated mass of sticks, brushwood and heather, and next year a 
new tree is chosen for the eyrie, sometimes at a great distance from that 
which had been previously occupied.”—P. 141. 


I am happy to agree entirely with Mr. Knox as to the innocence of 
the dipper. I have attentively studied its habits both in Scotland 
and Wales; have examined it alive and dead ; have found abundant 
evidence of its feeding on caddis-worms in all their marvellous 
multiplicity of form and structure; but never could obtain a tittle 
of evidence that it sought after the spawn of trout or of salmon, or 
of any other fish. I regret that the Rev. George Gordon, of Birnie, 
should ever have stooped from his high position as a naturalist to - 
pen a paragraph for the ‘ Zoologist’ (Zool. 505), which confirmed 
the persecutors of this poor bird in its ruthless destruction. I will” 
cite the objectionable passage :— 


“ The rocks of Killas on the Lossie is a favourite haunt of the ouzel; it 
was observed there, by one of the water bailiffs, to contend with the common 
trout in carrying off and eating the ova of the sea trout, even at the very 
time that the latter was lying and shedding its spawn on the reeds or 
spawning ground. From its known partiality to, and destruction of, the 


THE ZooLocist—Aprit, 1873. 8485 


spawn of the salmon tribe, this bird has probably obtained no enviable place 
in the following distich :— 


The Gordon, the guile,* and the water craw 
Are the three warst ills that Moray ever saw.” 


So this innocent bird is ruthlessly slaughtered on the evidence 
of an old wife’s fable, backed by the assertions of an ignorant water 
bailiff. The burning of witches for dmpossible acts is happily 
abandoned: when shall we obtain a little immunity for our owls 
and our hedgehogs and our goatsuckers, our water ouzels and our 
swans. It is grievous to find Dr. Gordon writing of the dipper’s 
“known partiality to, and destruction of, the spawn of the salmon 
tribe”; but let us hear Mr. Knox :— 


“Of the many indigenous birds unjustly proscribed and gradually 
diminishing in number, the water ouzel or dipper (Cinclus aquaticus), appears 
to me to be the most flagrant example, and I gladly avail myself of this 
opportunity of recording my belief that he is not only an injured innocent 
but an ill-used benefactor. For ages he has been condemned as a supposed 
devourer of trout and salmon spawn, but I am convinced that such a charge 
. has no more foundation in truth than the once popular fables of cows and 
goats being milked by the hedgehog and the nightjar. I have had many 
opportunities of observing this bird narrowly, more frequently in Ireland 
and Wales than even in Scotland, and I may add, though not without a 
slight pang of remorse, that in the stomachs of the many specimens I have 
shot and dissected, even when in the commission of the supposed act of 
larceny, I never could detect any portion of the spawn of either trout or 
salmon. Let us fora moment watch the manceuyres of a dipper. The 
scene shall be one of his favourite haunts, the rocky banks of a mountain 
burn or the gravelly shallows of a larger stream. Perhaps you are quietly 
seated among the heather above, resting during the heat of an autumnal 
noon, and admiring the various colours of the mosses, lichens and Lycopodia 
that clothe the margin. You are struck by the loneliness of the scene. 
Nothing living appears to animate it. Suddenly a water ouzel darts by, in 
swift, even flight, close to the surface, and alights on a flat stone in the 
middle of the burn lower down. You are no less struck by his beauty—his 
snow-white breast contrasting with his otherwise dark plumage—than with 
his attitudes and performances: nodding his head and jerking his short tail 
after the manner of a wren, and then suddenly plunging into the stream, 
where you lose sight of him until he reappears on the surface in a few 
seconds a little lower down, and perhaps resumes his position on the same 
rock, or flies to a stone nearer the bank. You have probably read or heard 


* The guile is Chrysanthemum Segetum. 
SECOND SERIES—VOL, VII. U 


3486 THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 18738. 


that he can dive with facility and walk about at his ease on the gravelly 
bottom. Now is your time to watch his actions under water, and to judge 
for yourself. You run quickly towards the spot, but are careful to check 
your speed and lie down before you reach it, lest you should alarm him 
prematurely. Again he rises from the burn, rests for a moment on a stone, 
and soon disappears once more beneath the surface. Now you repeat your 
former manceuvre and reach the margin in time, above the very spot where 
he has just plunged into the clear shallow stream, and, looking down, you 
distinctly see him struggling with violent efforts to reach the bottom, 
towards which his head and neck are already protruded; working his wings 
all the time with considerable exertion and apparent difficulty, quite unlike 
the comparatively facile movements of a coot or cormorant or any bird of 
similar specific gravity when in the act of diving. Now he seems to clutch 
the round pebbles for a few seconds, and to be employed in extracting 
something from among them; but the ripple of the current prevents more 
accurate observation on your part. At last he comes once more to the 
surface, and, alarmed at your presence, darts along the burn. His flight is 
as even as that of a partridge, and he presents an easy shot. ‘To satisfy 
yourself of his guilt or innocence, you—reluctantly—pull the trigger, and 
he floats lifeless on the stream. Now for the trial. You carefully dissect 
his crop and stomach and examine their contents, and you discover several 
larve of Phryganee and Ephemere, minute beetles, and other aquatic 
insects, and several very small fresh-water snails, but you search in vain for 
the ova of trout. Such an incident as I have just hurriedly described has 
occurred to myself repeatedly, and the result of my observations induces me 
to believe not only in the harmlessness of this interesting little bird, whose 
spring song, by the way, is exceedingly melodious, but that instead of being 
a destroyer of fish-spawn, he really assists in its preservation, by acting as a 
check on the increase of various predacious water-beetles and other aquatic 
insects whose ravenous grubs or larve furnish his favourite food. His 
persecutors are therefore, in my humble opinion, amenable to the double 
charge of injustice and ingratitude.”—P. 150. 


And now I close a book which has given me so much pleasure 
that I can do no other than cordially commend it to my readers: 
it is delightful to contemplate the taste for Natural History thus 
carried into the decline of life. I could gladly have been spared 
the “ details of death,” but the very word “ sportsman” implies the 
love of killing: Mr. Knox has shown us that this can in some 
degree be mitigated by a taste for Natural History. 

Epwarp NEWMAN. 


—— se 


a 


Tue ZooLocist—A prit, 1873. $487 


Large Otter.—With regard to the otter whose capture I mentioned in a 
previous number (S. 8. 3304, 3407), I ought perhaps to have designated it 
a heavy rather than a large otter. It was not nearly so long as one or two 
others which I had seen in previous years, but it was the most bulky 
specimen that had ever come under my observation, and it undoubtedly was 
of an unusual size, as the old fisherman—to whom an otter is not an 
unfamiliar creature—sent for me to inspect it, as he had never seen one of 
like dimensions before. Its length, which I took at the time, was just 
under forty-eight inches, but its tail seemed short in proportion to its bulk. 
It was a male, and reached the extraordinary weight of fifty-three pounds 
and a few odd ounces. The fisherman’s son had fortunately noted down its 
weight at the time it was weighed, and although I was somewhat uncertain 
about its exact weight without consulting him, yet I knew it weighed some- 
thing less than half a hundred weight. I may state that the specimen in 
question was of a very dark rich brown colour, and not of that rusty hue 
which I have sometimes seen. It was taken at a part of the river where 
several kinds of fish are very abundant, being preserved, and where the 
fortune of ‘a fine salmon” not unfrequently rewards the patience and tact 
of some disciple of Izaak Walton.—G. B. Corbin ; Ringwood, Hants. 

The Pigmy Hippopotamus (not Guy Fawkes),.—This specimen of the 
extremely rare Liberian Hippopotamus (Cheropsis liberiensis) from Scarcies 
River, just north of Sierra Leone, arrived at Liverpool last week, but it unfor- 
tunately died on Friday, almost as soon as it reached its destination, Dublin. 
This second true hippopotamus was first described in 1844 by Dr. Morton, 
of Philadelphia, in the ‘ Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences’ of that 
city. Prof. Leidy,in 1850, showed that its peculiarities rendered its differences 
from Hippopotamus more than specific, and in 1852 gave it the generic 
name by which it is now known. The full-sized animal is said to be no 
larger than a heifer, and the specimen under consideration, which was at 
least seven weeks old, weighed only 23 lbs., whereas the one born in London 
last November weighed just upon 100 lbs. shortly after birth. But the chief 
peculiarities of the genus Cheeropsis are found in the teeth, as there are 
only two lower incisors instead of four, and the anterior premolars remain 
functional throughout the life of the animal, instead of being lost as is the 
case in Hippopotamus. In addition to these points, in which Cheeropsis is 
peculiar, it may be mentioned that the top of the head is convex instead of 
concave, the central upper incisors are slightly smaller than the outer, 
instead of larger, and the premaxillary bones are less developed than in 
Hippopotamus, from a young one of which, as M. A. Milne-Edwards 
remarks, ‘it would be difficult to distingush it externally —* Nature,’ 
March 22. 

_ [The anonymous author of this paragraph has made a mistake in 
saying that this little creature is a true hippopotamus, when he shows us 


$488 Tue ZooLocist—APRriL, 1873. 


that he is perfectly aware that the genus Cheropsis has been instituted, 
and very properly, purposely to receive it: the following additional parti- 
culars are extracted from the ‘ Field’ of the same date.—E. N.] 

The animal stands not much higher than the largest wild boar, only very 
much more bulky in the body, and it has a proportionally shorter head than 
is that of the now familiarly known huge hippopotamus, exemplified by the 
pair, with their offspring, which are living in the Regeut’s Park. I further 
remarked that it was well to have an opportunity to bring to notice this 
small hippopotamus, as it might lead to travellers and others directing their 
attention to the animal, and to the much-needed acquisition of skulls and 
other specimens of it, for the museums of this part of the world. Until a few 
days ago I believe that I am correct in asserting that there were no spoils of 
it whatever in any European museum, with the exception of a skull in that 
of Paris, which has been minutely described by Professor Milne-Edwards. 
Yet the animal is known to abound in the interior of the free black colony 
of Liberia; and Dr. Gobeen, of Munroyia, informed Professor Morton of 
Philadelphia, that it is plentiful in the river St. Paul, and that it varies in 
weight from four hundred to seven hundred pounds. ‘ They are slow and 
heavy in their movements,” remarks Dr. Gobeen, “ yet will sometimes 
stray two or three miles from the river, in which situation they are killed 
by the natives. They are extremely tenacious of life, and almost invul- 
nerable, excepting when shot or otherwise wounded in the heart. When 
injured they become irritable and dangerous, but are said by the natives 
- never to attack them when in their canoes. The negroes are very fond of 
their flesh, which seems to be intermediate between beef and veal. This 
specimen was brought by Mr. Pope Hennessey. It was obtained by 
Governor Hennessey from Mr. Pria, who, with himself, was officially em- 
ployed on the west coast of Africa. He purchased it from a Mandingo 
trader, and it was kept for some time at the Government House at Sierra 
Leone. 

Perception in the Lower Animals.—Many years ago I was ona mail- 
coach, and as soon as we came to a public-house the coachman pulled up 
for the fraction of a second. He did so when we came to a second public- 
house, and I then asked him the reason. He pointed to the off-hand 
wheeler, and said that she had been long completely blind, and she would stop 
at every place on the road at which she had before stopped. He had found 
by experience that less time was wasted by pulling up his team than by 
trying to drive her past the place, for she was contented with a momentary 
stop. After this I watched her, and it was evident that she knew exactly, 
before the coachman began to pull up the other horses, every public-house on 
the road, for she had at some time stopped at all. I think there can be little 
doubt that this mare recognized all these houses by her sense of smell. With 
respect to cats, so many cases have been recorded of their returning from a 


J 


THE ZooLocist—APrRiL, 1873. 3489 


considerable distance to their homes, after having been carried away shut up 
in baskets, that I can hardly disbelieve them, though these stories are dis- 
believed by some persons. Now, as far as I have observed, cats do not 
possess a very acute sense of smell, and they seem to discover their prey 
by eyesight and by hearing. This leads me to mention another trifling 
faet: I sent a riding-horse by railway from Kent vid Yarmouth, to F'resh- 
‘water Bay, in the Isle of Wight. On the first day that I rode eastward, 
my horse, when I turned to go home, was very unwilling to return towards 
his stable, and he several times turned round. This led me to make 
repeated trials, and every time that I slackened the reins he turned sharply 
round and began to trot tothe eastward by a little north, which was nearly 
in the direction of his home in Kent. I had ridden this horse daily for 
several years, and he had never before behaved in this manner. My im- 
pression was that he somehow knew the direction whence he had been 
brought. I should state that the last stage from Yarmouth to Freshwater, 
is almost due south, and along this road he had been ridden by my 
groom ; but he never once showed any wish to return in this.direction. I 
had purchased this horse several years before from a gentleman in my 
own neighbourhood, who had possessed him for a considerable time. 
Nevertheless it is possible, though far from probable, that the horse may 
have been born in the Isle of Wight. Even if we grant to animals a 
sense of the points of the compass, of which there is no evidence, how can 
we account, for instance, for the turtles which formerly congregated in 
multitudes, only at one season of the year, on the shores of the Isle of 
Ascension, finding their way to that speck of land in the midst of the great 
Atlantic Ocean ?—Charles Darwin ; ‘ Nature’ of March 13. 


Shorteared Owl in Nottinghamshire.— Whilst shooting at Ramsdale, 
on the 23rd of December, we put up eight of these birds: we found them 
in a gorse cover. Is it not unusual to find so many together? If it had 
been earlier, one would have thought that they had only just arrived. There 
are several about the same place now.—J. Whitaker, jun.; The Cottage, 
Rainworth, Notts. 

Great Gray Shrike.—A fine old male was killed at Lambly, about the 
middle of December. The bird was in beautiful plumage.—d. 

Great Gray Shrike near Newbury.—A very fine specimen of the great 
gray shrike was shot near Newbury on the 21st of November, 1872: I saw 
it in the flesh: I think it was a bird of the year. The great gray shrike 
is extremely rare in this immediate neighbourhood. — W. H. Herbert; 
Newbury. 

Supposed Redwing’s Eggs.—The eggs which Mr. Whitaker sends are 
certainly blackbird’s: the female bird was probably one of a late brood last 
year.— Li. Newman. 


3490 Tue ZooLocist—Aprit, 1878. 


Firecrested Regulus at Torquay.—On the 6th of March a beautiful 
female of the firecrested kinglet was brought in the flesh to Mr. Shopland, 
naturalist, at Torquay, who informs me that it is the first he has met with 
during his long experience in this district —J. H. Gurney; Marldon, Totnes. 

Waxwings at Bishop’s Lydeard.— A waxwing appeared on my lawn 
yesterday. It was about the middle of the day, when the gardener had left 
for his dinner, and everything was quiet, that I chanced to look out of 
window, and saw the pretty stranger under the same tree where I had 
previously seen one on the 7th of last month. I watched the bird both 
from an upper and lower window, and, the sun shining bright at the time, 
I had a very clear view of it. A hawfinch has also been paying me repeated 
visits for some days past, and this bird is nearly as great a stranger in this 
part of the country as a waxwing.— Murray A. Mathew ; Bishop's Lydeard, 
March 23, 1873. 

Ray’s Wagtail.—The late Rev. Gilbert White, of Selborne, evidently con- 
founded the gray and yellow wagtails, as he says, “ Wagtails, both white and 
yellow, remain with us the whole year;” and Iam convinced that Mr. Wharton 
(S. S. 3455) has made the same mistake. The birds which he saw in 
January, “feeding at the edge of a water-cress bed,” were no doubt gray 
wagtails, adult specimens of which are of a brilliant yellow on the under 
parts. The yellow wagtail never arrives before April, and is not attached 
to water like the gray wagtail, but frequents open fields and commons. I 
do not think that the state of the weather here in the spring can have any 
effect upon birds, when they are in their winter quarters in Africa; they 
generally arrive here about the same time every year, but if the weather 
happens to be cold and stormy they do not sing, and are not observed. 
I have seen the grasshopper warbler creeping about the hedge-banks, like a 
mouse, when there was not a leaf to hide it; and Wilson, in his ‘ American 
Ornithology,’ says the summer birds of passage generally arrive in the 
United States about the same time, whether the spring is early or late, and 
that he has often seen them skipping about the leafless boughs in a late 
spring.—Henry Doubleday ; Epping, March 18, 1873. 

Abundance of Snow Buntings, Song Thrushes and Bramblings in the 
North.—At Formby, on the Lancashire coast, on Shrove Tuesday, 1872, 
I shot five snow buntings from a small flock of sixteen which had been 
with us all the winter; and being in want of some more this year, I went 
again, also on Shrove Tuesday, during the late snow-storms, and killed four 
light-coloured ones out of a flock of about, thirty. I also killed a few 
bramblings out of a very great number seen, and above three dozen song 
thrushes as they flew over towards the coast line in an almost uninterrupted 
stream: every field had a scattered flock in it of from twenty to fifty birds 
each, whilst on my warren there must have been two hundred in one flock. 
Three days afterwards the thrushes not captured or killed had left us; but 


ee 


Tue ZooLocist—Aprit, 1873, 8491 


since I saw seventy dozen dead in one house, a tolerable idea of the numbers 
taken by the birdcatchers may be formed. Sky larks, which up to that 
day were very scarce, came with the thrushes, but no fieldfares or redwings 
were to be seen. Having offered a birdcatcher a good price each for all 
the snow buntings he could get me alive, he has up to now secured me 
upwards of thirty birds, which are doing well in my aviary,—rather more 
than I hoped for, but a harvest he was too wise to leave ungathered, in the 
face of a hard winter and dear coal.—C. S. Gregson; March 6, 1873. 

Hawfinch and Brambling at Ringwood.—Considerable flocks of bram- 
blings have visited this neighbourhood during February, and some I have 
seen were in superb plumage. They congregated much with sparrows, green- 
finches, yellowhammers, &c., amongst the stacks of the farmers’ corn and 
hay, and I fear that many of them were wantonly killed, as one man boasted 
to a friend of mine that he had shot more than a score for his ferrets. I have 
also seen several hawfinches, but they appeared to be exceedingly shy and 
wary. A few days ago a gardener brought a specimen he had killed whilst 
in the act of pulling up some of his early peas. It is not a very rare bird 
in this neighbourhood, and I have no doubt it sometimes nests in the New 
Forest, although I have never met with the eggs or nest there, and do not 
know of any one who has, but I once saw a pair of the old birds in the forest 
in the summer, and on two occasions J have seen young or immature 
specimens from the locality. Their usual food is, I believe, the seeds of the 
hornbeam or garden fruits, and as the former is rare and the latter are not 
frequent in the forest, the birds of necessity are compelled to seek a more 
favourable spot for nidification and its requirements.x—G. B. Corbin. 

Kingfisher and Hawk at Sea.—During a voyage, a few years ago, a king- 
fisher took refuge in the rigging of the ship ‘Chatham,’ and was shot, the 
vessel being then in the centre of the Gulf of Aden, seventy miles distant 
from the nearest land. Shortly afterwards the carpenter at work on deck 
was “taken aback” at seeing his favourite pigeon’s head fall beside him. 
Looking up, he saw a small hawk devouring the rest of its body in the 
mizen top. In great wrath the man summoned the captain to take 
vengeance on the murderer, and the hawk (believed to be a sparrowhawk) 
was also shot, but unfortunately fell overboard. I do not know if the king- 
fisher was our common English species or the little Indian kingfisher. 
Both are included in Shelley’s ‘ Birds of Egypt,’ the former as “ abundant,” 
the latter as “ not so common.”—Henry FP. Bailey. 

Little Bustard in Hants.—A female specimen of the little bustard was 
shot on the 4th of January in a turnip-field on the farm of Mr. Twitchen, at 
Whitchurch, near Andover, and has since been presented to the collection 
at the British Museum, as recorded by Mr. R. B. Sharpe in the ‘ Field’ of 
January 18th. Mr. Twitchen has himself informed me of the correctness 
of the date of this capture.—Henry Reeks ; East Woodhay. 


$492 Tue Zootocist—APprIL, 1873. 


Spotted Redshank. —A beautiful specimen of this bird was shot on the side 
of a small pond in Beetwood Park, last August. There was another with it, 
but the man only having a single-barrelled gun it escaped.—J. Whitaker, jun. 

Gray Phalarope and Pike.—The gray phalarope seems to be com- 
paratively rare along the Hampshire coast during the winter. One has 
been taken, I believe, near Poole, but it is the only record I have seen. In 
1870 this handsome little bird was taken in some numbers in this neigh- 
bourhood, and I saw a small flock of six or seven on several occasions in 
different parts of the River Avon. I also saw one which was shot on the 
river some twenty miles from the sea. During the same winter a fisherman 
brought me a specimen which he obtained under the following circum- 
stances :—He had shot the bird, which had fallen upon a pile of weeds in 
the bed of the river, and as he was rowing towards it he distinctly saw a 
large pike rise and take the bird the instant it fell. The fish, however, was 
either mistaken in his victim or such a feathery mouthful did not exactly 
suit him, for he immediately threw the interesting little bird up again, 
when it was secured by the fisherman.—G. B. Corbin. 

Black Swans.—On Sunday, the 9th inst., about 7.30 in the evening, 
two black swans (vara aves in terra of the poet, Cygni atrati of the learned) 
were seen wending their way along the coast at Walton-on-the-Naze from 
the direction of Felixstow and Harwich harbour. They flew about ten 
yards above the sea and fifty from the shore, passed the old jetty and took 
a peep at the new, and then onwards towards Clacton. An enthusiastic 
sportsman—spite of the Sabbath and gun-tax—set off from the hotel in a 
boat, on murderous thoughts intent, and at Frinton he came up with his 
quarry, and fired his shot, which missed the swans, but, report saith, hit a 
girl standing on the shore. Disgusted with their inhospitable reception, 
the swans wended onwards, and were next heard of on the main at Brad- 
well, opposite Mersea Island, where A. Mussett found, shot, and killed one. 
He positively says that the bird which escaped had no white on the wings, 
and was more black than the one captured, which was a male, with an 
entirely empty stomach. Will any swan-keepers on the eastern coast inform 
me if they have lost two black swans from their lakes or ponds? And will 
Z. account for the entirely black bird? Most of your readers are aware that 
Australia is the peculiar home of the black swan, and that it has never 
appeared in Europe in a wild state. Still, extraordinary things do happen, 
as for instance when the spine-tailed swift was shot near Colchester, and 
the Egyptian vulture was killed at Peldon—to say nothing of the sand 
grouse which a year or two ago paid a visit in force to our shores.—C. R. 
Bree; July 25.—From the ‘ Field.’ 

Ferruginous Ducks and Gadwalls in Leadenhall Market——My brother 
procured two ferruginous ducks (Anas Nyroca) on the 29th of January, in 
the plumage of the first year, sex unascertained; and two gadwalls (Anas 


THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 1873, $493 


strepera), apparently both young males, on the 80th January, from Leadenhall 
Market; the latter birds were from a Lincolnshire decoy.—H. Durnford ; 
1, Stanley Road, Waterloo, Liverpool, March 9, 1873. 

Gadwall in Ireland.—Sceing the extreme rareness of the gadwall in 
Treland mentioned in Mr. Harting’s most useful ‘ Hand-List of British 
Birds,’ I beg to record the appearance of a young male that was shot on 
Lough Erne, Co. Fermanagh, by my brother (H. V. Brooke), in the month 
of February, 1866, and is now in our collection.—A. B. Brooke; Colebrooke, 
Ireland. 

Note on the Early Assumption of Breeding Plumage in the Bridled and 
Foolish Guillemots and Great Northern Diver.—Through the kindness of 
Mr. Shopland, birdstuffer, Torquay, I had the opportunity of examining the 
following specimens, which were obtained in Torbay on the undermentioned 
dates in December, 1872 :— 

December 21st. A bridled guillemot in full breeding dress. 

us 26th. An adult female great northern diver, which showed a 
considerable advance towards attaining the breeding dress on the wings, 
back and rump, and slightly so on the lower part of the throat. Two other 
specimens of this diver shot the same day were in full winter dress, and 
showed no signs of change. 

re 28th. Two foolish guillemots, one in full breeding dress and 
the other about half-way advanced in the process of its assumption. 

In all the above cases the breeding plumage appeared to me to be without 
doubt newly assumed, and not the remains of the breeding dress of the 
spring of 1872. Possibly the mild weather which characterized the month 
of December Jast conduced to the early assumption of breeding dress in the 
instances here recorded.—J. H. Gurney ; Marldon, Totnes. 

Glaucous Gull in Nottinghamshire.—One of these fine birds was shot on 
the Trent, at Beeston, by Mr. Watson’s keeper: it was a young bird in good 
plumage, measuring fifty-eight inches from tip to tip and twenty-eight 
inches in length. This is the first occurrence of this rare gull in Notting- 
hamshire.—J. Whitaker, jun. 

Gulls off Valparaiso The little gray-headed gulls are extremely 
numerous in this harbour, and extremely fearless. They swim about in 
large flocks all round the ship, and it is great fun watching them when a 
tit-bit of some kind or another floats astern. They dart on it like a swarm 
of bees, and squabble and fight and shriek most vigorously. Their cries, 
however, often attract the attention of a villainous thief, who on swift 
pinions comes gliding like a small fiend round the side of the ship, and is 
suddenly in their midst, and the poor little gulls fly away at once and leave 
this dark-coloured creature master of the situation and of the grub. Should 
a gull endeavour to fly off with a morsel he is pursued and swooped at until 
he gives it up. This bully is a skua of some sort, and very prettily marked 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. x 


3494 THE ZooLocist—APRIL, 1873. 


with a white patch on his shoulders. The little gulls live quite close to the 
landing-place, and may be seen all day flying about our people’s heads 
looking out for food, or sitting on the gunwales of the boats. I have often 
seen a man sitting in the stern sheets of a boat and two or three gulls 
perched on the bows preening their feathers. No one tries to kill them 
here, hence their tameness."—G. F’. Mathew (in litt.) ; H.M.S. ‘ Repulse,’ 
off Valparaiso, January 31, 1873. 

Crocus-blossoms cut off in their Prime.—Every gardener resident near 
London must have observed the blossoms of his yellow crocuses cut off 
obliquely, just at the base where the golden yellow is replaced by a white 
tube descending into the ground. I shall be greatly obliged to any reader 
who will inform me what is the cause of this annual calamity, or disease, 
or phenomenon, which occurs every year at this season, as if to frustrate 
the attempts of this favourite flower to make our gardens look gay, regardless 
of wind or weather.—Kdward Newman. 

Zoological Gardens.—The new strip of garden belonging to the Zoological 
Society, on the north side of the Regent’s Canal, is now being put into 
order. The bridge over the canal is already finished, and the new lodge 
opposite Primrose Hill only wants the entrance-gates and turnstiles to make 
it complete. It is intended to open it to the public on Easter Monday. 


Serialia growing on a Hippocampus.—tI am not sufficiently familiar with 
these animals to know whether the fact I am about to relate is new. 
Yesterday I was at Mr. King’s, the well-known dealer in aquariums and 
their denizens, at 190, Great Portland Street, when he invited my attention 
to a specimen of that singular fish, Hippocampus ramulosus, having an 
abundant growth of a small and delicate zoophyte on its head, neck, and the 
anterior part of its body: on comparing this little animal-plant with those 
in a collection made and named by Mr. Bean, of Scarborough, I found it 
correspond with a specimen which that distinguished naturalist had labelled 
Serialia lendigera. The fish and its parasite seemed both to be enjoying as 
much healthful vigour as falls to their respective allotments in life; I will 
say nothing about activity, for it is certain that a very small allowance of 
locomotive power has been vouchsafed to either, but I suppose that 


“Even to know that they live and they breathe” 


is worth all the active and muscular feats which seem to afford such 
pleasure to many members of the animal world. Nothing certainly can be 
more stolid than the conduct of sea-horses in general, unless it be that of 
the branched zoophytes, which are settled for life wherever they cast anchor 
in their extreme infancy.—Hdward Newman; March 15, 1873. 


Tue Zootogist—ApniL, 1878. $495 


Callionymus Lyra at St. Leonards.—About a week since, a beautiful 
specimen of the gemmeous dragonet was taken among the rocks on our 
shore. It was exceedingly beautiful in its colouring and marking; it was 
nine anda half inches in length. It is the second specimen that I have 
seen here. (See Yarrell’s ‘ British Fishes,’ 1st ed. vol. i. p. 261.)—J. 8. 
Bowerbank ; 2, East Ascent, St. Leonards-on-Sea, Feb. 18, 1873. 

Callionymus Lyra in the Aquarium at Sydenham.—In the Aquarium 
at Sydenham, the gemmeous dragonet may be seen in perfection. Citizen 
Lacepede dwells in his delightful manner on the beauty of its name. 
“What pleasing images,” says he, “‘ what touching recollections, does it 
not recall! Celestial beauty charming our eyes, enchanting music touch- 
ing our hearts; these two names happily associated restore, through 
memory, your sweet but irresistible power!” I am always so enthralled 
by the poetic writings of the Citizen, that I feel little inclination to 
criticise his meaning when he ascends to what is called “ tall writing ;” but I 
cannot pass over his eulogy of the name Callionymus Lyra without saying 
that I am unable to understand it. Callionymns, as he himself has explained, 
means simply “ beautiful name,” and does not apply to any distinguishing 
characteristic of the fish; and Lyra signifies a lyre, to which musical 
instrument the dorsal fin of the little fish is supposed to bear some resem- 
blance. ButI can forgive any little inconsistency in so delightful and reliable 
a teacher; and I use the word “reliable” advisedly, for, although I cannot 
always follow him in his fancies, Lacepéde is particularly trustworthy in his 
facts. The older name of Uranoscopus is more classical and more appro- 
priate, but implies a character, that of star-gazing, which is equally 
possessed by several other species; and, moreover, the name is applied to 
a Mediterranean fish (Uranoscopus scaber) which possesses the star-gazing 
accomplishment in a a still more eminent degree. This star-gazing, however, 
is not acquired, and therefore scarcely an accomplishment ; it is due to the 
position of the eyes, which are placed near together on the very crown of the 
head, so that they look directly upwards. In the dragonet they are pro- 
tected, especially on the side where they aproximate, by a raised rim; this 
rim seems to form portion of a cup in which the eye can revolve at the will 
of its owner, the whole apparatus reminding one of the free motion of a ball- 
and-socket-joint. The eyes have the power of turning, simultaneously or 
separately, like those of the chameleon, but they have no leathery covering 
with a median perforation like the eyes of that strange reptile. They are 
wondrous eyes, those of the dragonet, glowing like living sapphires, or eme- 
ralds, or amethysts, or like that glorious colour of a beetle’s wing which we 
entomologists call “golden-green.” Mr. Lloyd truthfully remarks in his 
‘Guide,’ that their eyes give more the idea of actual fire than any other 
animal organism known; but, after all, no comparisons or epithets can 
possibly give any just idea of the objects themselves—their beauty exceeds 


$496 Tur ZooLocist—APprit, 1873. 


that of every other object with which Ican compare them. The delicate 
but brilliant colouring of the male dragonet has obtained for it the name 
of “‘ gemmeous,” while the female is called the “ sordid” dragonet, the term 
“ dragonet ” equally applying to both. It is rather singular that Lacepéde, 
Yarrell, Couch, and other ichthyologists, should have thought proper in 
this and so many other instances to divorce man and wife, and to elevate the 
sexes to the rank of species. These fishes, possessing no swim-bladder, are 
not swimmers ; they reside constantly at the bottom of the seas, either 
lying motionless on the mud or buried in the sand, all except the eyes; and 
when they move it, seems only by compulsion, or under the impulse of a 
sudden freak, and in a few seconds they settle down as they were before, 
often returning, after these little excursions, to the very spot from whence 
they started. In the intervals between these journeys the fish will 
suddenly raise its first dorsal fin, hold it straight upright for a second only, 
and then as suddenly depress it and render it invisible. This first dorsal is 
a strange organ almost as wonderful as the eyes ; it is very narrow, and has 
but five rays, the first of which reaches to the tail, the second is scarcely 
more than half as long, and the others regularly decrease in length until the 
fifth, which is hardly a fifth of the length of the first. Another fact, and 
to myself a most interesting fact, with regard to these dragonets or skulpins, 
is that they appear entirely destitute of a gill-opening; or, more precisely 
speaking, of a gill-opening in the usual situation. The gill-cover seems 
to occupy its usual place, but its margin appears soldered all round, without 
leaving the smallest aperture for the passage of water for respiratory 
purposes: this, the usual function of the gill-opening, is delegated, at least 
so far as I understand the mechanism, to two nearly circular holes, some- 
what resembling the blow-holes of Cetacea, and situated behind the head, 
on the dorsal surface of the neck, and near the margin of the gill-cover; 
they are closed by a sort of valvular process of the skin, and the respira- 
tion, which is evidently rhythmical, appears in some measure dependent on 
the will of the fish. When partially buried in the sand, these “ blow- 
holes,” as well as the eyes, remain exposed, and, thanks to the utter quies- 
cence of the owner, may be examined at leisure. I should also observe that, 
although I have carefully examined the living fish under a lens of consider- 
able power, I have as yet been ‘unable to detect any trace of scales. This 
fish rejoices in a variety of names; on the coast of France it is “ lavan- 
diére” and “doucet;” in Scotland, “ gowdie;” in Cornwall, “ sculpin.” 
Tyson, who first described it as British, called it the “ yellow gurnard; ” 
Pennant, the “ gemmeous dragonet,” a name now generally adopted in this 
country. Its peculiarities are so striking that every naturalist has des- 
cribed it ; but now, for the first time, we have the opportunity of seeing it 
alive—Edward Newman. 


” 


~~) 


ee — 


q 


THe ZooLoctst—Apnrit, 1873. $497 


Proceedings of the Entomological Society. 


February 17, 1873.—Prof. Wrstwoop, President, in the chair. 


Donations to the Library. 

The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors :—‘ Illustrations of Diurnal Lepidoptera,’ part v. Lycenide ; 
presented by the Author, W. C. Hewitson, Esq. ‘ Bidrag till Rannedom 
af ,;Finlands Tryphonider*; and, ‘ Materialier till en Ichneumonologia 
Fennica’; by the Author, F. W. Woldstedt. 


Election of Members. 
Alfred EK. Hudd, Esq., of Redland Park, Bristol, was balloted for and 
elected an Ordinary Member; and Dr. Hermann Burmeister, of Buenos 
Ayres, was elected a Foreign Member of the Society. 


Exhibitions, dc. 

Mr. F. Bond exhibited a series of bred specimens of Acronycta tridens 
and A. Psi, with preserved larvee of the two species. The specimens of 
A. tridens had all been reared on the common pear. He remarked that 
the dark specimens so often occurring in A. Psi were never repeated in 
A. tridens ; and that the latter always exhibited a pinkish tint in fine fresh- 
bred specimens, which, however, was very evanescent. 

Mr. Miiller exhibited some cases of a species of Psyche, formed of 
twigs arranged spirally, and also the egg-case of a species of Mantis; these 
had been sent from Calcutta by Mr. James Rothney. 

Professor Westwood exhibited two Dipterous larvee preserved in spirits 
which were probably those of Psila rose. These had been discharged by 
a female in a clot of phlegm. He suggested when they were submitted to 
him that the person had probably been eating raw carrots, which, upon 
enquiry, turned out to have been the case. After they had been immersed 
in spirits for three or four days he took them out for examination, when he 
was surprised to find they were still alive. He also exhibited drawings of 
a dipterous larva (probably Merodon clavipes, Fab.) infesting some bulbs 
sent to him from the Continent. Also drawings of woody excrescences on 
stems of vine, which had probably been formed by a beetle of the genus 
Otiorhynchus. Mr. Miiller remarked that Mr. Riley had recorded a similar 
habit in an American beetle allied to Baridius. 

Professor Westwood further exhibited drawings of the root-fibres of a 
vine, dilated and constricted in a joint-like manner, which he thought was 
owing to former attacks of Phylloxera. 

Mr. Briggs exhibited parallel series of the large and small forms of 
Anaitis plagiata taken by him in Tilgate Forest, in the month of June, 
stating that he had found only the larger form last year, in the same place 
in which he had found only the smaller form three years before. It was 


8498 Tue ZooLocist—ApriL, 18738. 


commonly supposed that the smaller form was only a second brood, but this 
did not appear to be the case. 


Papers read, dc. 

‘On the Geodephagous Coleoptera of Japan, chiefly collected by Mr. 
George Lewis,’ by H. W. Bates, F.L.S., &c. 

‘Contributions to Entomological Bibliography up to 1862, No. 1,’ by 
Albert Miller, F.L.S. 

Mr. F. Smith read the following translation of some notes :—‘ On the 
Salivary Organs of the Honey Bee,’ by C. Th. v. Siebold. 

« At the annual agricultural meeting held in October, 1871, at Munich, 
a well-known apiarian, Herr Mehring, had exhibited a peculiar kind of 
honey, named by him ‘ Kunst-Honig’ (artificial honey), which he had pro- 
duced by feeding his bees exclusively with malt. This honey excited great 
interest; and the question was raised (and denied by many), whether this 
substance was real honey; and whether, consequently, the bee was able to 
change malt-sugar in its stomach into honey. The physiologico-chemical 
part of the inquiry into the production of the bee was taken up in Liebig’s 
laboratory by Dr. Von Schneider, who, unfortunately, was prevented from 
carrying the investigation to the end, but arrived at the conclusion that 
the hydrates of carbon (malt-sugar and malt-deatrin) contained in the malt 
are actually changed by the bee into honey-sugar; and that Mehring’s 
honey does certainly not differ from other honies, except in the absence of 
specific aromas which are imparted to them from the flowers on which the 
bees have been collecting. Practically, Herr Mehring’s discovery is of 
importance ; inasmuch as the malt-food prepared by him contains not only 
all the ingredients necessary for the life of the bee, but also for the forma- 
tion of honey; and therefore can be used with advantage in parts of the 
country where flowering plants are scarce. With regard to the wax, Dr. 
Von Schneider maintains that it is undoubtedly a secretion of the honey- 
bee, formed chiefly out of different kinds of sugar ; but that the production 
of wax from sugar is not continued without the simultaneous addition of 
food containing nitrogen. After the fact had thus been established that honey 
and wax are not substances found ready made, and simply gathered by the 
bee; but productions which have undergone chemical changes through 
having come in contact with the secretions of the insect; Prof. Von Siebold 
directed his attention to the investigation of the secreting organs, a portion 
of the anatomy which, indeed, had previously been entirely neglected, but 
is now treated for the first time with regard to the special functions those 
organs appear to perform in the preparation of the products of the bee. 
Prof. Von Siebold distinguishes three entirely distinct and very complicated 
systems of salivary glands; two of which, a lower and an upper, are situated 
in the head, and the third in the anterior part of the thorax, the latter 


THE ZooLoGist—ApRIL, 1873. 3499 


having been erroneously regarded by Fischer as a lung. Each of them has 
Separate excretory ducts, and is distinguished by a specifically different form 
and organization of the vesicules secreting the saliva. Hach consists of a 
right and left glandular mass, with right and left excretory ducts. 

“For the detailed account of their minute structure we must refer to the 
paper itself, and the plate accompanying it, but we must add that this extra- 
ordinary development of the salivary organs has been observed by Prof. 
Von Siebold in the workers only. The Queen possesses only a rudiment of 
the lower cephalic system in the form of the two orifices of its ducts, 
whilst the ducts themselves with the glands are absent; and the two other 
systems are much less developed than in the workers. In the drones not 
even the orifices of the lower cephalic system could be found. (Bienen- 
zeitung, 1872. No. 28).” 

Mr. Meldola, at the request of Mr. J. Jenner Weir, referred to the chemical 
composition of malt-sugar as compared with sugar in honey. It was stated 
that malt-sugar had the same composition as glucose; while honey, in 
addition to glucose, contained cane-sugar or saccharose. Mr. Weir remarked 
that it was an interesting fact that this chemical transformation of malt- , 
sugar into a sugar containing a different percentage of carbon should take 
place in the economy of the honey-bee. 

Mr. Smith read ‘ Descriptions of Aculeate Hymenoptera of Japan, col- 
lected by Mr. Geo. Lewis, at Nagasaki and Hiogo. Ofseventy-three species, 
forty-nine were previously unknown. He remarked that the distinctness of 
his Apis nigrocincta from A. mellifica, recently questioned by Dr. 
Gersticker, had been abundantly confirmed by the discovery of a queen of 
A. nigrocincta. 


March 8rd, 1873.—Prof, Westwoop, President, in the Chair. 


Donations to the Library. 

The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors :—‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ No. 141 ; presented by the 
Society.—‘ Bulletino della Societa Entomologica Italiana,’ iv. Pt. 4; 
by the Society.‘ The Entomologist’ Monthly Magazine’ for March; by 
the Editors.—‘ The Entomologist,’ and « The Zoologist for March ;’ by the 
Editor.—‘ Hore Societatis Entomologice Rossice,’ t. viii. No. Ae tele 
No. 2; by the Society.—* Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung,’ xxxiv, Nos. 
1—3; by the Entomological Society of Stettin. 


Election of Members. 


Noah Greening, Esq., of Warrington, a subscriber to the Society, and 
Edward Charles Buxton, Esq., of Daresbury Hall, Warrington, were balloted 
for and elected Ordinary Members of the Society. 


8500 Tue ZooLocist—APRIL, 1873. 


Exhibitions, dc. 

Mr. Howard Vaughan exhibited a box containing about two hundred 
specimens of Japanese Lepidoptera, collected near Yokohama by Mr. Henry 
Pryer; many of the species being apparently new. Some also were re- 
markable as bearing a close resemblance to British species. Mr. Moore 
noticed a strong Indian character in several of the insects. 

The President remarked that Mr. Higgins had shown him a specimen of 
a Cremastocheilus from Japan, which was identical with a species that had 
been taken by Mr. Lord on the West coast of North America. 

Mr. F. Smith exhibited some insects bearing a most remarkable re- 
remblance to each other, although: belonging to different orders. Thus, 
Euglossa dimidiata and another Euglossa, a Genus of Apide, bore a striking 
resemblance to two species of the Dipterous family Asilide, namely, 
Dasyllis hemorrhoa and Mallophora tibialis, all from South America. 
Also, Abispa splendida, one of the Vespide, and an insect of the Dipterous 
genus Lachites(?), both from New Holland. Also, a bee of the genus 
Megachile, and one of the Asilide, Mallophora calida, Wied., from South 
America. With regard to the two last-mentioned insects, Mr. Smith noticed 
that the Asilus not only resembled the bee in its general appearance, but 
that also it was furnished on the under side of the abdomen with a brush 
similar to the pollen-brush of Megachile; although it was not apparent for 
what purpose the insect required it. 

The President remarked that when he was at Casa Brucciata, near 
Ancona, he observed several insects of the genus Osmia extracting the black 
pollen from poppies; and on the sandy shore he noticed the same insects 
collecting the sand on their ventral brushes. He therefore concluded that 
the brushes were used, not only for collecting the pollen, but also for 


carrying the grains of sand to their nests, which he observed them in the 


act of constructing on walls. 

Mr. Champion exhibited specimens of Bagéus brevis, Schaum ; taken in 
this country by Dr. Power, although not hitherto observed in Britain. 

Mr. Miller directed attention to an article in the last number of the 
‘ Petites Nouvelles,’ explaining,a method of obtaining silk from cocoons 
which had been eaten through by the insects; and that the silk so obtained 
from the damaged cocoons was equal in quality to that obtained from the 
perfect cocoons, and did not require to be carded. 

The President remarked that the library at the new Museum at Oxford 
had been very much infested, of late, with Anthreni; and he was very glad 
to observe that there was a paper by Dr. Emery in the ‘ Bulletino della 
Societa Entomologica Italiana,’ on a new method of preserving collections 
from their ravages.—I’. G. 


ee ee 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3501 


The Cuckoo. By Dr. A. EK, Bream. * 


Durine the pairing time the cuckoo acts like a headstrong, 
passionate idiot. How angry sounds his cry, and what a rage he 
gets into when another of the same species dares to invade his 
territory. _ He will come blindly to the call of the sportsman, who 
understands how to imitate his note. Sitting on a branch, with 
raised tail and ruffled head-feathers, he cries “ cuckoo” as a note 
‘of defiance to the world at large. While flying he will often glide 
slowly in front of his mate, and tell his passion with a low 
“ cwawawa,” to which the latter answers, “ kwikwikwik,” &c., with 
great rapidity, a cry savouring more of laughter, or a chuckle, 
than a favourable response to his affectionate invitation. When 
both are at the height of their courtship the one cries ‘ cuckookook 
cuckookook,” while the other laughs and chuckles. After the 
breeding season is over both sexes are silent. It is possible that, 
as a rule, the cuckoo is content with one mate; yet it is more 
likely that neither sex is particular in the matter of conjugal 
fidelity ; it seems much more likely that each male should court 
all the females alike, and vice versd, else why this unbounded 
jealousy ? 

At the commencement of the pairing time the female begins to 
hunt diligently amongst the bushes for some suitable nest in which 
to lay her egg, for this traitor to other birds, impatient and rest- 
less, does not care to take upon herself the trouble of rearing her 
own brood, but leaves them entirely to the care of others. The 
little warblers must exercise all their activity to keep such an in- 
satiable bird as a young cuckoo supplied with food, while the real 
parents are enjoying themselves, flying hither and thither to their 
heart’s content, laying other eggs, and abandoning them without a 
pang of remorse. As we have said before, the hen cuckoo, before 
laying, searches ever crack, crevice, or bush, until she has found 
a nest suited to her requirements. She then lays her egg; if 
necessary, first on the ground, whence she picks it up with her beak, 
and places in the home she has selected for it. The foster-parents 
generally chosen by the cuckoo are generally picked out from 
amongst some fifty different species of insectivorous birds: those 


* Extracted from ‘Bird-Life,’ Part_VII., a translation of which is now in course 
publication by Mr. Van Voorst. 


SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. Y 


3502 THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


principally selected are whitethroats, wrens, wagtails, tree pipits, 
redbreasts, hedgesparrows, willow wrens, sedge warblers, meadow 
pipits, whinchats, and even the smallest of our European birds— 
the goldcrest! The egg of the cuckoo is small, and always 
marked like that of the foster-parent selected. Some people 
assert that the cuckoo which has been brought up by a water 
wagtail always lays eggs similar to those of that bird. Others, 
again, believe that the female cuckoo first seeks out a nest wherein 
to deposit her egg, and that when the right one is found, she looks 
earnestly at the eggs, with a view of being thereby so affected in 
her state of pregnancy that she may by this means cause her own egg 
to assume markings similar to those already in the nest. Neither 
of these two suppositions has, as yet, been proved to be correct. 
Naumann believes that he has discovered that one female cuckoo 
will deposit eggs in the nests of different species, which, if true, 
quite upsets one of the above suppositions. Sometimes two 
cuckoo’s eggs are found in one nest; these are probably laid by 
two different birds. Be this, however, as it may, there is no doubt 
on one point, and that is that the little foundling is deposited in the 
nest of the foster-parents by ils unnatural mother in a most 
cunning and surreptitious manner. Our readers will labour under a 
great mistake if they suppose for a moment that the intruder is 
in any way regarded as a blessing by its foster-parents; on the 
contrary, they exhibit great animosity if they chance to detect the 
cuckoo in her insidious proceeding; many of those little birds of 
whose nests the cuckoo avails herself mob her with every demon- 
stration of hostility, as though she were a bird of prey. Fullyaware 
of this, the cuckoo always selects a nest where the entire com- 
plement of eggs have not been laid, so that she can take ad- 
vantage of the temporary absence of the parent birds. She glides 
to and from the nest with the caution of a thief; rejoices over her 
success, should she be ablé to accomplish her end without being 
observed by the birds she has so cruelly wronged. In the act of 
depositing her egg the cuckoo often breaks one of the others, 
perhaps tosuck it, but probably the egg is more often accidentally 
broken. Usually the rightful owners of the nest lay other eggs 
after the introduction of the stranger, and then commences the 
work of incubation. On very rare occasions they will turn the 
cuckoo’s egg out of the nest, though usually they do not entertain 
the slightest suspicion on the subject, and pursue the business of 
sitting without further ado. 


~~ a 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3503 


Up to the present time no one has been able to give any ex- 
planation of the motive for this singular habit of the cuckoo, of 
imposing the care of her young on strangers. It has been sup- 
posed that the cuckoo lays, at the most, eight eggs every spring, and 
on account of their being deposited at great intervals she would be 
unable to hatch and rear them herself. This induces another 
question: Why does she lay her eggs at such long intervals? 
This also remains unexplained! Every theory on these points 
is replete with interest, at least in our eyes. The small size of 
the cuckoo’s eggs is very remarkable. This large bird lays an 
egg which rarely exceeds in size that of the house sparrow. 
Besides which, these eggs vary as- much in size and shape as in 
colouring, though amid all the variations of colour the experienced 
eye can readily distinguish them, but it is difficult to express 
the difference in words. The shell is always thin, fragile, and but 
slightly shining. The first eggs are laid in May, the last often as 
late as July, so that they may be deposited amongst the first or the 
second brood of other birds. 

There are but very few birds which, like the common cuckoo, 
leave their progeny to the care of strangers; and amongst our 
European Avifauna only one other species, the great spotted cuckoo 
(Coccystes glandarius). This bird is an inhabitant of Spain, and 
has been known to occur also in Germany: it does not, however, 
deposit its eggs in the nests of small birds, but has been observed 
in Africa to avail itself of that of the hooded crow, and in Spain of 
that of the magpie. The eggs of this species are much larger than 
those of our common cuckoo, and are always similarly marked to 
those of the birds to whose care they are entrusted. Amongst 
foreign birds, besides the true cuckoos, there are several species 
which, so to speak, put their young “ out to nurse.” 

The foster-parents of the common cuckoo behave nobly towards 
their charge, bestowing on the intruder a care and affection equal 
to that evinced for their own young, and rearing it with the greatest 
care and self-sacrifice. Not only is the appetite of the foundling 
insatiable, taxing the efforts of its foster-parents to the utmost, 
but it grows so fast as soon to occupy the greater portion of the 
nest, thus outstripping its foster-brothers and sisters in size; it 
soon disposes of these by shifting and fidgeting, until it gets them 
one after another on its broad shoulders, and then heaving them 
bodily out of the nest, finally remains in sole possession: then 


3504 TueE ZooLtocist—May, 18738. 


it settles itself at ease, opening its immense, yellow mouth wider 
than ever, and clamouring more eagerly even than before for food. 
Its hunger is unlimited, and it swallows the food brought by its foster- 
parents with the utmost avidity. ‘The more it wants,” says my 
father, “the harder the little songsters labour to satisfy it: they 
fly backwards and forwards, taking no rest until their voracious 
foster-child has been satisfied. It is quite touching to watch the 
anxiety and care which they display. The little wren, and still 
more strange, the diminutive goldcrest, in their care for the 
cuckoo under their charge, are perfectly oblivious of themselves 
and their own requirings. They scarcely allow themselves time 
to satisfy their own hunger: the feeding of their foster-child is 
their first and principal object.” In olden times it was asserted 
that the young cuckoo devoured its foster-parents ; this is, however, 
manifestly untrue, though we may easily understand that observers, 
on seeing the young bird’s immense and ever-open mouth, might, 
without any great stretch of the imagination, have arrived at that 
conclusion. Others have given a finishing touch to the romance 
by saying that the young cuckoo did not devour its foster-parents 
until it had no further need for them! This has led to the custom 
of holding up the cuckoo as typical of those ungrateful children, 
who, when their parents have nothing more to give, neglect, 
despise, and ill-use them. 

Throughout Nature there is no more striking exemplification of 
the storgé, or maternal solicitude of birds for their young, than this 
exhibited by the foster-parents of the cuckoo for their adopted child. 
These birds might well be regarded as patterns worthy of imitation 
by our human step and foster-parents ! The stranger, who has turned 
the legitimate children out of their home, is tended by the now 
childless parents with as much tenderness and love as if it was 
their own. If one only approaches the uncouth foundling, which is 
the produce of a strange egg palmed upon their credulity, they 
show the most painful anxiety on its behalf, and seek by all means 
in their power to preserve it from danger and defend it. Fearlessly 
they flutter round a person coming near the nest, crying pitifully, 
and apparently totally oblivious of their own safety, when intent 
on protecting their charge. ‘The foster-child understands their 
warning notes, for it instantly becomes silent, though just before 
it has heen calling out “hip, hip,” in hungry tones, to the best of 
its ability. This extraordinary care is continued by the foster- 


eh Aah, 


=a se TT 


Tue ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3505 


parents after the young cuckoo has left the nest, and lasts until the 
bird can feed itself; very rarely, indeed, is it abandoned by its 
foster-parents. “In June, 1812,” says my father, “a wren’s nest 
was found ou the manor of Frohlichen-wiederkunft, which con- 
tained two young wrens and a cuckoo,—quite an exceptional case ; 
the dome of the nest had preserved the young wrens from being 
ejected by the cuckoo. A friend of mine took the cuckoo when it 
was almost ready to fly, and, as is often done by bird-fanciers, 
placed it in a cage, intending to bring it to me as soon as it was 
fledged. The foster-parents in this case, however, abandoned the 
foundling, and in two days it was found starved to death; the 
wrens having taken up their abode elsewhere, with their own 
nestlings, had not been able to feed both their own young and the 
cuckoo.” Such a case is, however, very unusual indeed. As a 
tule the young cuckoo is cared for by its foster-parents until able 
to procure food itself. After this it frequents the neighbourhood 
of its birth-place until August, when it prepares for its migratory 
flight. 


Cuckows’ Egqs. 


[The following is a verbatim reprint of Professor Newton's article inti- 
tuled as above: it appeared at p. 74 of the third number of ‘ Nature’ 
(dated November 18, 1869): allusion having been made to it by Mr. Smith 
in the April number of the ‘ Zoologist ’ (SS. 3478) I have thought it best 
to lay it before my ornithological readers.—Edward Newmam.] 


SCARCELY any bird has so much occupied the attention, not 
merely of naturalists, but of people generally, as the common 
cuckow of Europe, and (we might almost add, consequently) 
scarcely any bird has had so many idle tales connected with it. Set- 
ting aside several of its habits wherein it differs from the common 
run of birds, its strange, and, according to the experience of most 
persons, its singular mode of entrusting its offspring to foster- 
parents, is enough to account for much of the interest which has 
been so long felt in its history. Within the last twenty years a 
theory (which is, as I shall presently show, by no means a new 
one) with respect to an important fact in its economy, has attracted 
a good deal of attention, first in Germany, and latterly in England; 
and as this theory seems to be especially open to misconception,. 


3506 THE ZooLocist— May, 1878. 


and in some quarters to have been entirely misunderstood, I shall 
endeavour to give an account of it in a manner more distinct than 
has yet (I think) been done; and to show that there is no good 
ground for believing it to be irrational, as some have supposed, 
and for scouting it as something beneath contempt. 

It has long been notorious to oologists that the eggs of the 
cuckow are subject to very great variety in colour, and that a large 
number of birds laying eggs of very different colours enjoy the 
doubtful advantage of acting as foster-parents to the young cuckow. 
Now the theory to which I refer is that “the egg of the cuckow is 
approximately coloured and marked like those of the bird in whose 
nest it is deposited, that it may be the less easily recognised by 
foster-parents as a substituted one.” 

This theory is old enough, for it was announced and criticised 
nearly a hundred years ago by Salerne,* who, after mentioning 
that he had seen two stonechats’ nests, each containing eggs of 
that bird, as well as a cuckow’s (which was as blue as the others, 
but twice [?] as large), goes on to say that he was assured by an 
inhabitant of Sologne (a district in France to the south of Orleans), 
that the cuckow’s egg is always blue; and then comes this remark- 
able statement :—‘ As to thefassertion of another Solognot who 
says that the hen cuckow lays its eggs precisely of the same colour 
as those in the nest of which she makes use, it is an incompre- 
hensible thing.”” Many of my readers will, I doubt not, be at once 
inclined to agree with Salerne. 

Little attention seems to have been paid to this passage by suc- 
ceeding naturalists ;f but in 1853 the same theory was prominently 
and (I believe) independently brought forward by Dr. Baldamus, 
then editor of ‘ Naumannia,’ a German ornithological magazine, 
now defunct ; so far as I know, however, itwas not until April, 1865, 
that an article in the English ornithological journal, the ‘ Ibis, by 
Mr. Dawson Rowley, gave anything like an idea of it to the public 
of this country. Some months later (14th September) Mr. A. C. 
Smith introduced the subject to the Wiltshire Archzological and 


* L’histoire naturelle, éclaircie dans une de ses parties principales, l’ornithologie, 
&c. Paris; 1767, p. 42. 

+ Montbeillard (Hist. Nat. des Ois. vi. p. 309) mentions it, but Iam not aware of 
any one else who has done so, tintil M. Vian in the ‘Revue et Magasin de 
Zoologie’ for 1865 (p. 40), referred to it, and from this reference I became ac- 
quainted with it. 


a 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. $507 


Natural History Society, and the paper he then read, having been 
since printed in the ‘ Wiltshire Magazine’ (vol.ix. p. 57), and else- 
where, has, with Mr. Rowley’s article, made the theory very 
generally known. Mr. Smith also published, subsequently, in the 
‘Zoologist’ for 1868, atranslation of Dr. Baldamus’s elaborate essay ; 
but this translation being unaccompanied by the coloured plate 
which illustrated the original, unfortunately fails to do justice to the 
Doctor’s theory, for without seeing the specimens on which this is 
founded, or good figures of them, the evidence in its favour can 
scarcely be appreciated fully. 

Dr. Baldamus’s theory had been some time known to me, when 
in 1861 I had the pleasure of being shown by him his collection 
of cuckow’s eggs, and I can declare that his published figures re- 
present the specimens (sixteen in number) from which they are drawn, 
as faithfully as figures of eggs usually do, and that an inspection of 
the series convinced me that the belief he entertained was not 
groundless. All the eggs in question, some departing very widely 
from what I had been used to regard as the normal colouring, bore 
an unmistakable resemblance to those of the birds in the nests of 
which they were asserted (in most cases, I was assured, on very 
good authority) to have been found; while in some cases there was 
just enough difference between them and those they “ mimicked,” 
to show that it was far more unlikely that they should have been 
extraordinary varieties of the eggs of the species in question, than 
eggs of the cuckow. 

Dr. Baldamus’s allegation therefore seemed to me to be in part 
proved. If the history of the eggs before me could be trusted— 
and I had no reason to doubt it—the fact of the likeness was in many 
respects self-evident, in others certainly not so striking, and in some 
perhaps questionable. In further corroboration of the theory also, 
there were the similar instances cited with much assiduity from 
foreign sources by Dr. Baldamus in his essay,* and one, apparently 
not known to him, but given by Mr. Blyth in Sir William Jardine’s 
‘ Contributions to Ornithology” for 1850 (p. 69 bis, pl. 52). Another 
and very remarkable case had also come to my own knowledge. In 
the autumn of 1857 I had received from Mr. Tristram all the eggs 
collected by him in Algeria during the preceding season. When 


* I do not here enumerate them; they will be found in ‘Naumannia’ for 1851, 
p. 317, note. The plate which illustrates the paper is in the volume of the same 
magazine for the following year, 


3508 THE ZooLoctistT—May, 1873. 


they were unpacked, it appeared that there were two more speci- 
mens of the egg of a large North-African cuckow (Oaxylophus 
glandarius) than I had been led by him to expect. On examina- 
tion, I found that the first two eggs of this species which had been 
obtained by him so much resembled eggs of the magpie of the 
country (Pica mauritanica), in the nests of which they had been 
found, that, skilful oologist as he was, they had passed, even to his 
practised though unsuspecting eye, as those of the latter bird. 
Had I known then of Salerne’s words, I should have exclaimed 
with him, “ c’est une chose incompréhensible ! ” 

Having said thus much, and believing as I do the Doctor to be 
partly justified in the carefully-worded enunciation of what he calls 
a “ Law of Nature,” I must now declare that it is only “ approxi- 
mately” and by no means wniversally true that the cuckow’s egg is 
coloured like those of the victims of her imposition. Increase as 
we may, by renewed observations, the number of cases which bear 
in favour of his theory, yet, as almost every bird’s-nesting boy 
knows, the instances in which we cannot, even by dint of straining 
our fancy, see resemblances where none exist, are still so 
numerous as to preclude me from believing in the generality of the 
practice imputed to the cuckow. In proof of this I have only to 
mention the many eggs of that bird which are yearly found in nests 
of the hedge-sparrow in this country, without ever bearing the 
faintest similarity to its well-known green-blue eggs. One may 
grant that an ordinary English cuckow’s egg will pass well enough, 
in the eyes of the dupe, for that of a titlark, a pied wagtail, or a 
reed-wren, which, according to my experience, are the most common 
foster-parents of the cuckow in this country ; and indeed one may 
say, perhaps, that such an egg is a compromise between the three, 
or a resultant, perhaps, of three opposing forces; but any likeness 
between the hedge-sparrow’s egg and the cuckow’s, so often found 
alongside of it, or in its place, is not to be traced by the most 
fertile imagination. We must keep therefore strictly to the letter 
of the law laid down by Dr. Baldamus, and the practice imputed 
to the cuckow is not universally but only “ approximately ” fol- 
lowed. 

Now, is it possible to give a satisfactory explanation of the 
process by which the facts alleged are produced? Dr. Baldamus 
assigns none. He lays down a number of aphorisms, most of 
which are very interesting, and, I believe, true; but they do not 


Pe a ee eee ee 


Dy > ae 


THE ZooLocistT— May, 1873. 3509 


touch the'question. A good many people who have only read hastily, 
and still more those who have to all appearance only read at second 
or third-hand what has been written on the subject, seem to 
imagine that the Doctor has wished to assert that the cuckow 
can voluntarily influence the colour of her egg, so as to assimilate 
it to those already in the nest in which she is about to deposit it.* 
Dr. Baldamus, indeed, mentions such a supposition, but expressly 
says that he rejects it, and herein I think that nearly every physio- 
logist will agree with him. 

It will be admitted, I think, that Dr. Baldamus’s inference as to 
the object of the practice being that the cuckow’s egg should be 
“less easily recognised by the foster-parents as a substituted one,” 
is likely to be true. This being the case, only one explanation of 
the process can to my mind be offered. Every person who has 
studied the habits of animals with sufficient attention will be con- 
versant with the tendency which certain of those habits have to 
become hereditary. It is, | am sure, no violent hypothesis to sup- 
pose that there is a very reasonable probability of each cuckow 
most commonly placing her eggs in the nests of the same species 
of bird, and of this habit being transmitted to her posterity. With- 
out attributing any wonderful sagacity to the cuckow, it does seem 
likely that the bird which once successfully deposited her eggs in 
a reed-wren’s or a titlark’s nest should again seek for another 
reed-wren’s or another titlark’s nest (as the case may be), when she 
had an egg to dispose of, and that she should continue her practice 
from one season to another. We know that year after year the 
same migratory bird will return to the same locality, and build its 
nest in almost the same spot. Though the cuckow be somewhat 
of a vagrant, there is no improbability of her being subject to thus 
much regularity of habit, and, indeed, such has been asserted as 
an observed fact. If then this be so, there is every probability of 
her offspring inheriting the same habit, and the daughter of a 
cuckow which always placed her egg in a reed-wren’s or titlark’s 
nest doing the like. 

Further, I am in a position to maintain positively that there is a 
family likeness between the eggs laid by the same bird, even at an 
interval of many years. I know of more than one case in which a 


* Thus Mr. Cecil Smith (not to be confounded with Mr. A. C. Smith, before men- 
tioned) in a work published within the last few weeks, falls into this mistake 
(“ Birds of Somersetshire,” p. 265), after having stigmatised the Doctor's theory as 
“wild,” which he well might if it had been as it is represented. 


SECOND SERIES—VOL., VIII. Z 


3510 Tue ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


particular golden eagle has gone on season after season laying eggs 

that could be at once distinguished by a practised eye from the 
eggs of almost any other golden eagle; and I know of one case 
in which the presumed daughter of a particular golden eagle, re- 
markable for having produced eggs of very great beauty, has in 
two successive years laid eggs which unmistakably resembled 
those of her reputed mother in the brilliant character of their 
colouring. 

Hence I am not afraid of hazarding the supposition, that the 
habit of laying a particular style of egg is likely to become here- 
ditary in the cuckow ; just as I have previously maintained that 
the habit of depositing that egg in the nest of a particular kind of 
bird is also likely to become hereditary. 

Now it will be seen that it requires but an application to this 
case of the principle of “ Natural Selection” or “Survival of 
the Fittest” to show that if my argument be sound, nothing can 
be more likely than that, in the course of time, that principle would 
operate so as to produce the facts asserted by the anonymous 
Solognot of a hundred years ago, and by Dr. Baldamus and others 
since. The particular gens of cuckow which inherited and trans- 
mitted the habit of laying in the nest of any particular species of 
bird, eggs having more or less resemblance to the eggs of that 
species, would prosper most in those members of the gens where 
the likeness was strongest, and the other members would (ceteris 
paribus) in time be eliminated. It is not to be supposed that all 
species, or even all individuals of a species, are duped with equal 
ease. The operation of this kind of “ Natural Selection” would 
be most marked in those cases where the species are not easily 
duped, that is, in those cases which occur the least frequently. 
Here it is that we find it, for it has been shown that eggs of 
the cuckow, deposited in the nests of the red-backed shrike, of the 
bunting-lark, and of that bird which for some reason best known to 
the donor bears the English name of “ Melodious Willow-warbler,” 
approximate in their colouring to the eggs of those species— 
species in whose nests the cuckow rarely (in comparison with 
others) deposits her eggs. Of species which would appear to be 
more easily duped, or duped in some other manner—the species in 
whose nests cuckow’s eggs are more commonly found, I may 
have something to say in another paper. 

ALFRED NEWTON. 


se re re 


7). va 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3511 


Further Remarks on the Colouring of Cuckoos’ Eggs. 
By the Rev. A. C. Smiru, M.A. 


I ru1nk I may venture to say that in the opinion of most orni- 
thologists (1) the question of the colouring of cuckoos’ eggs, 
according to the theory of Dr. Baldamus, is an interesting one; 
and (2) whether it shall eventually be proved to be founded on 
fact, or unfounded, at all events it deserves investigation. Such 
being at all events my own opinion, I thought to contribute a 
harmless, if not a useful, article on the subject, by sending to the 
‘ Zoologist’ for March last [S. S. 3433] a translation of what I 
considered a very valuable paper, which was published in the 
‘Journal fiir Ornithologie’; but as I never dreamed of giving 
offence to any body by so doing, I was considerably surprised at 
the indignation which my unfortunate paper seems to have excited 
in Mr. Hewitson’s mind, and the vehemence with which he has 
attacked me: Moreover, I cannot but think that in this matter I 
have been somewhat hardly treated by that gentleman: but letting 
that pass, I desire to reply to him as concisely as his many charges 
against me will allow. 

Mr. Hewitson is undoubtedly a keen-eyed observer, for he has 
discovered in my paper the following extraordinary points, all of 
which had completely escaped the notice of the author :—(1) that 
my paper was “a personal attack upon him;” (2) that I had 
styled him “a would-be ornithologist;” (3) that I “seem to think 
I monopolise the love of truth ;” (4) that lam “angry with Eng- 
lish ornithologists, because they have not been able to find evidence 
in support of Dr. Baldamus’ theory ;” and in addition to these heavy 
charges he declares, (5) that it was through my misleading that he 
had misunderstood Dr. Baldamus’ theory from the first; and im- 
plies (6) that I, as a comparative novice, have no right to hold an 
opinion at variance with so old an ornithologist as himself; (7) 
that the long series of cuckoos’ eggs so carefully examined and 
tabulated by the German naturalists were not laid by the cuckoo 
at all; and (8) that having commended the painstaking of those 
indefatigable observers, I ought to advocate the cause of some 
other gentleman, because he is a German, who seems to have 
mistaken a nightjar for a cuckoo! I will take these accusations 
seriatim, and briefly reply to them. 


3512 THE ZooLtocist—May, 1873. 


(1.) That my paper was not a personal attack upon any body is 
clear, inasmuch as I never alluded from first to last to any single 
individual, thongh I did protest against the ridicule with which 
Dr. Baldamus’ theory was received in certain quarters, which I 
took the liberty of showing was neither a respectful, a philoso- 
phical, nor a convincing way of meeting a theory, however it might 
at first sight appear to some to be mistaken. I can only add to 
this, that if Mr. Hewitson chooses to put on the cap, and finds it fit, 
and likes to wear it, he is a volunteer champion in the anti-Baldamine 


ranks, and may fairly single me out for attack, and run a tilt at me; 


but then it is not fair to charge me as his aggressor. (2.) It isa 
graver matter when Mr. Hewitson misquotes my words, in making 
me fasten on him the title of “ a would-be ornithologist,” inasmuch 
as neither to him individually, nor to those collectively who tried to 
pooh-pooh Dr. Baldamus, did I apply any such words, though I 
did speak of “some would-be leaders in the ornithological world,” 
which I maintain isa totally different matter ; and for the accuracy 
of this I beg to refer the readers of the ‘ Zoologist’ to the passage 
(S. S. 3434). (3.) It is also a somewhat serious charge which Mr. 
Hewitson brings against me that I “ seem to think | monopolise the 
love of truth.” Had I written a word which savoured of such pre- 
sumption, | would, indeed, retract it, and most humbly apologize ; 
but after carefully examining my paper from beginning to end, I 
cannot find a single sentence which would give a colour to such 
an accusation, and I know not to what he alludes. Moreover, it is 
somewhat strange that at the end of my article, | happen to express 
the exact contrary, when inviting Mr. Rowley, who bad opposed 
the theory of Dr. Baldamus, to give his present opinion on the 
subject, I remarked that “both he and I are only desirous 
to elicit the truth of the matter.” Neither can I discover (4) on 
what grounds I am told that I am “angry with English ornitho- 
logists, because they have not been able to find evidence in support 
of Dr. Baldamus’ theory.” Most assuredly I was not aware that I 
had shown any anger or ill-temper in the matter; and I am equally 
certain that I have uever written anything which betokened annoy- 
ance, because I have never felt any, either with those who have 
expressed disagreement with the theory in qnestion, or a fortiori 
with those who have held aloof from the subject. Indeed, if I 
know myself at all, it is not in accordance with my natural tempera- 
ment to entertain the slightest shade of petulance against those who 


.: an 


a 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3513 


take the opposite view in such discussions as this. (5.) As to the 
charge of misleading Mr. Hewitson in the way that gentleman 
describes, and so of perverting the truth, I confidently leave the 
verdict on this to unprejudiced readers. When Mr. Hewitson 
quoted my words in the first instance, they were, I can assure him, 
the words of the German Doctor himself; but it was not quite fair in 
Mr. Hewitson to stop short at that sentence, and jump to the con- 
clusion that the cuckoo (according to Baldamus) “could lay eggs 
of what colour she pleased.” In common fairness he should have 
read farther on, when he would have found the Doctor saying, 
“that the same cuckoo lays all her eggs of one colour and 
markings only, and so is limited to the nests of but one species.” 
I need not, surely, remark how mischievous and how unfair it 
is to quote a single sentence, and then ignore what follows; more 
especially in a somewhat intricate question which requires exact 
and full development, before the real view of its author is com- 
prehended. (6.) Even if Mr. Hewitson was, as he says, “an 
ornithologist probably before I was hatched (!) I do not know that I 
ought to be precluded thereby from holding my own opinion, not- 
withstanding his ipse dixit. Then, Mr. Hewitson must certainly be 
a very old bird indeed, for I am a chicken which has seen half a 
century go by, and so far as age was concerned I should have 
thought myself now (if ever) qualified to form an opinion. However, 
I most sincerely hope that Mr. Hewitson has many years yet 
before him for ornithological work ; for that he has done good service 
in the cause, with his beautiful book on the § Eggs of British Birds’ 
before me, I am one of the first to allow; only I think that pre- 
judice in favour of old opinions, and impatience of discoveries 
hitherto unforeseen in one’s favorite pursuits, may perchance attend 
advancing years. Hence, too, perhaps the general distrust and 
dislike of foreigners which Mr. Hewitson evidently entertains, and 
which were too commonly felt by Englishmen in bygone years, but 
which for the most part have now happily given place to less 
prejudiced and more liberal sentiments. (7.) To distrust the 
series of cuckoos’ eggs which the German ornithologists have col- 
lected with so much patience and care, and to disbelieve their 
authenticity, is of course a very easy way of shelving the argu- 
ment; but I do not think this view will commend itself to many 
who have marked with what admirable perseverance, and with what 
infinite painstaking, those large collections were formed. Mr, 


$514 Tue ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


Hewitson, at all events, should be the last to originate such a 
charge, for what indignation would he feel—and as I maintain, 
justly feel—did any one insinuate fora moment that some of 
the rarer eggs figured in his valuable book, alluded to above, were 
not genuine, but spurious? (8.) It seems almost unnecessary to 
answer the last paragraph of Mr. Hewitson’s paper. Does he 
seriously maintain that it is my duty, because I admire the genius 
and the diligence of certain German ornithologists, to uphold the 
opinions of all other Germans, whatsoever and wheresover they 
may be? Does he himself feel called upon in like case, and with 
regard to the wild and random assertions, sometimes rife even among 
British naturalists, to endorse them? But this is childish: it is 
not argument; it is not logical; neither is it philosophical or in- 
structive. I will only repeat that I deprecate most heartily such a 
way of getting rid of a question, which may not commend itself to 
the judgment of the individual; and 1 would loudly call for a fair 
field and fair play for this or any other kindred question, be it 
broached by an Englishman or a foreigner. 


I have thought it right to vindicate myself from the charges 
brought against me; but I turn now with considerable satisfaction 
from these miserable personalities, from which Natural History dis- 
cussions should be wholly exempt; and I proceed to reply to some 
of the more telling arguments which have been, fairly enough, 
adduced against the theory of Baldamus. First, however, I have 
to thank Mr. Rowley for so readily acceding to my request in 
giving his opinion of the last list (wz. that of Dr. Rey) which I 
have published : and most certainly do I agree with him that this 
matter is as yet sub gudice, and that hitherto we have by no means 
arrived at the bottom of it. 1 acknowledge that Mr. Rowley’s first 
argument is very powerful, if it can be certainly proved ; viz. that 
there is no adequate cause for such assimilation in colour of the 
cuckoo’s egg to those of the foster-parent. But the question which 
starts before my mind here is, whether it 7s establised as a fact that 
birds, as a rule, zed// sit upon eggs so readily, or whether it is not a 
fact that many birds will forsake the nest, if they find that their eggs 
have been tampered with? Itis long since I went birds’-nesting, but 
my recollections of past experiences certainly tend to the conclusion 
that most birds do not like their eggs meddled with at all. I 
perfectly remember that when a boy at Eton, where some hundreds 


—— ee 


~ 


Se ee 


et) © ae ae 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3515 


of prying eyes left the wretched birds which frequented that part of 
the country, but small chance of rearing any young, I used to start 
forth in the early summer morning, as soon as the doors of our 
‘house were unlocked, and hurrying with my pocket full of small 
pebbles to the banks of the Thames, where I had previously found 
reed-wrens’ nests; and there no sooner was an egg descried, but 
it was purloined, and a small stone deposited in its place; and in 
the case of that species the exchange seemed quite satisfactory, and 
the unsuspecting birds laid on as if their eggs had never been 
touched. But this was the only species which I could persuade 
to be so accommodating: it was not so with the hedgesparrow, or 
robin, or yellow-hammer, nor indeed with any other species, so far 
as I can remember ;* but I should like to know what the ex- 
perience of others may be on this point, because if it can be 
proved that ordinarily the sitting bird will accept an intended egg 
of any colour, then I confess such an argument would be to my 
mind exceedingly strong against Dr. Baldamus’ theory, and it 
would require very positive testimony in its favour before I could 
accept it. 

With regard to Mr. Rowley’s inquiry for a cuckoo’s egg of a 
blue colour, it seems to me a very legitimate demand, if the theory 
in question be correct, that such blue cuckoos’ eggs should be 
forthcoming. Mr. Rowley does not evidently consider the blue 
eggs asserted to be cuckoos’ eggs by Dr. Baldamus (Zool. S.S. 
1151, Nos. 2 and 15; see also p. 1154, No. 15) and Dr. Rey, 
(Zool. S. S. 3435—3437) to be positively proved to be authentic; 
nor does my friend Professor Newton seem quite satisfied on the 
point, though he adduces the testimony of Salerne, who a hundred 
years ago had seen “ two stonechats’ nests, each containing eggs 
of that bird, as wellas a cuckoo’s, which was as blue as the 
others,” and quotes the dictum of the Solognat “ that the cuckoo’s 
egg is always blue ” (‘ Nature,’ vol. i. p- 74); and though he tells us 
he had the pleasure in 1861 of being shown by Dr. Baldamus his 
collection of cuckoos’ eggs, of which he says, that his “ published 
figures represent the specimens from which they are drawn as faith- 
fully as figures of eggs usually do,” and amongst which I beg to re- 
mind him was one resembling the blue egg of the redstart (Zool. 


* This, my experience of stones substituted for eggs, successful with the reed-wren, 
but unsuccessful with other birds, I communicated to the ‘ Zoologist’ twenty years 
ago (First Series, p, 4095), 


$516 THE ZooLocist— May, 1878. 


S.S. 1166, No. 4). Still the Professor evidently requires more 
information about these blue eggs, and in a letter to the ‘ Field’ 
March 15, 1873), reprinted in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S.S. 8473), declares 
that “‘ so far as he is aware, no one has ever found in the nest of a” 
hedgesparrow a cuckoo’s egg which is similar to that of the hedge- 
sparrow.” Now I think myself extremely fortunate that I happen 
to have just the evidence which is wanting on this point, and what 
I cannot but consider unanswerable evidence; for a short time 
back a gentleman of unimpeachable veracity told me that he had 
a very interesting fact about cuckoos’ eggs to communicate to me, 
which bore out the theory I had been putting forward, for that he 
had himself discovered in the nest of a hedgesparrow two cuckoos’ 
eggs of a blue colour, and one of these was a very pronounced 
blue ; and that he had watched this nest till the eggs were hatched, 
when he himself saw two young cuckoos therein. This informa- 
tion was so valuable, as my informant was a gentleman I could 
trust, that | begged him to write down the facts of which he was 
an eye-witness, and all the particulars he could recollect, which he 
subsequently did, and now I proceed to quote the words of his 
letter which I have before me. “ Dear Sir,—I have found the 
cuckoo’s egg several times in the hedgesparrow’s nest, and once 
two eggs, but varying from each other both in colour and size. 
Having a doubt whether both belonged to one cuckoo, or even one 
of them to a cuckoo at all, it being of almost as intense a blue as the 
hedgesparrow’s, but very little larger (the other being much lighter 
in colour, and freckled at its larger end), I determined to watch the 
nest, which contained four hedgesparrow’s eggs, besides the cuckoo’s 
two eggs above-mentioned. Of the hedgesparrow’s eggs, one was 
somehow lost; the rest were all hatched, but one of the young 
cuckoos died after two or three days’ existence (I believe from 
being too freely handled and,ex posed): the other managed, in about 
a week’s time, to get rid of its companions, and when fledged was 
himself made a prisoner, lived some months in a cage, and then 
moped and died. I have also found the cuckoo’s egg in the wag- 
tail’s nest (though how it got there I never could tell), in the 
yellowhammer and chaffiuches’ nests, and I have known it found 
in the thrush’s nest, and in all of these I have been remarkably 
struck with the similarity of colour with the eggs of the different 
birds in whose nests they were: indeed, for several years I had the 
egg from the thrush’s nest, which could scarcely be recognized from 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3517 


the egg of the thrush in size, in colour, or in markings. I will add 
only one other fact, that I have found a cuckoo’s egg in a hedge- 
sparrow’s nest two years in the same hedge, which induces me to 
think it probable that both eggs may have belonged to the same 
bird. As the facts above related are strictly within my own know- 
ledge, you may make what use of them you please.—J. E. BRINE 
(Abbey House, Shaftesbury).” 

I do not think I can add anything to that clear statement, every 
word of which I most implicitly believe to be true: neither will I 
trespass any longer on the pages of the ‘ Zoologist,’ at all events 
for the present; though I may, if I be not reckoned tedious, re- 
turn to the question another day. 


ALFRED CHARLES SMITH. 
Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 
April 5, 1873. 


Appearance of an Animal, believed to be that which is called the 
Norwegian Sea Serpent, on the Western Coast of Scotland, 
in August, 1872. By the Rev. Joun Macrae, Minister of 

_ Glenelg, Invernesshire, and the Rey. Davip Tworpeny, Vicar 
of Stockbury, Kent. 


On the 20th of August, 1872, we started from Glenelg in a small 
cutter, the ‘Leda, for an excursion to Lochourn. Our party con- 
sisted, besides ourselves, of two ladies, F. and K., a gentleman, 
G.B., and a Highland Jad. Our course lay down the Sound of 
Sleat, which on that side divides the Isle of Skye from the main- 
land, the average breadth of the channel in that part being two 
miles. It was calm and sunshiny, not a breath of air, and the sea 
perfectly smooth. As we were getting the cutter along with oars 
we perceived a dark mass about two hundred yards astern of us, to 
the north. While we were looking at it with our glasses (we had 
three on board) another similar black lump rose to the left of the 
first, leaving an interval between; then another and another 
followed, all in regular order. We did not doubt its being one 
living creature: it moved slowly across our wake, and disappeared. 
Presently the first mass, which was evidently the head, reappeared, 
and was followed by the rising of the other black lumps, as before. 
Sometimes three appeared, sometimes four, five, or six, and then 
sank again. When they rose, the head appeared first, if it had 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VII. 2A 


3518 THE ZooLocist—May, 1878. 


been down, and the lumps rose after it in regular order, beginning 
always with that next the head, and rising gently ; but when they 
sank they sank all together rather abruptly, sometimes leaving the 
head visible. It gave the impression of a creature crooking up its 
back to sun itself. There was no appearance of undulation: when 
the lumps sank, other lumps did not rise in the intervals between 


Vaam 


them. The greatest number we counted was seven, making eight 
with the head, as shown in the sketch No.1. The parts were 
separated from each other by intervals of about their own length, 
the head being rather smaller and flatter than the rest, and the 
nose being very slightly visible above the water; but we did not 
see the head raised above the surface either this or the next day, 
nor could we see the eye. We had no means of measuring the 
length with any accuracy; but taking the distance from the centre 
of one lump to the centre of the next to be six feet, and it could 
scarcely be less, the whole length of the portion visible, including 
the intervals submerged, would be forty-five feet. 

Presently, as we were watching the creature, it began to approach 
us rapidly, causing a great agitation in the sea. Nearly the whole 
of the body, if not all of it, had now disappeared, and the head 
advanced at a great rate in the midst of a shower of fine spray, 
which was evidently raised in some way by the quick movement 
of the animal,—it did not appear how,—and not by spouting: 
F. was alarmed and retreated to the cabin, crying out that the 
creature was coming down upon us. When within about a hundred 
yards of us it sank and moved away in the direction of Skye, just 
under the surface of the water, for we could trace its course by the 
waves it raised on the still sea to the distance of a mile or more. 


ee eee 


Po 


THE ZooLocist— May, 1873. 3519 


After this it continued at intervals to show itself, careering about 
at a distance, as long as we were in that part of the Sound, the 
head and a small part only of the body being visible on the 
surface; but we did not again on that day see it so near nor so 
well as at first. At one time F. and K. and G. B. sawa fin sticking 
up at a little distance back from the head, but neither of us were 
then observing. 

On our return the next day we were again becalmed on the 
north side of the opening of Lochourn, where it is about three 
miles wide, the day warm and sunshiny as before. As we were 
dragging slowly along in the afternoon the creature again appeared 
over towards the south side, at a greater distance than we saw it 
the first day. It now showed itself in three or four rather long 
lines, as in the sketch No. 2, and looked considerably longer than 
it did the day before: as nearly as we could compute, it looked at 
least sixty feet in length. Soon it began careering about, showing 
but a small part of itself, as on the day before, and appeared to be 
going up Lochourn. Later in the afternoon, when we were still 
becalmed in the mouth of Lochourn, and by using the oars had 
nearly reached the island of Sandaig, it came rushing past us about 
a hundred and fifty yards to the south, on its return from Lochourn. 
It went with great rapidity, its black head only being visible through 
the clear sea, followed by a long trail of agitated water. As it shot 
along, the noise of its rush through the water could be distinctly 
heard on board. There were no organs of motion to be seen, nor 
was there any shower of spray as on the day before, but merely 
such a commotion in the sea as its quick passage might be expected 
to make. Its progress was equable and smooth, like that of a log 
towed rapidly. For the rest of the day, as we worked our way home 
northwards through the Sound of Sleat, it was occasionally within 
sight of us until nightfall, rushing about at a distance, as before, 
and showing only its head and a small part of its body on the 
surface. It seemed on each day to keep about us, and as we were 
always then rowing, we were inclined to think it might perhaps be 
attracted by the measured sound of the oars. Its only exit in this 
direction to the north was by the narrow Strait of Kylerhea, dividing 
Skye from the mainland, and only a third of a mile wide, and we 
left our boat, wondering whether this strange creature had gone 
that way or turned back again to the south. 


3520 THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


We have only to add to this narration of what we saw ourselves 
the following instances of its being seen by other people, of the 
correctness of which we have no doubt :— 

The ferrymen on each side at Kylerhea saw it pass rapidly 
through on the evening of the 21st, and heard the rush of the water: 
they were surprised, and thought it might be a shoal of porpoises, 
but could not comprehend their going so quickly. 

Finlay Macrae, of Bundaloch, in the parish of Kintail, was within 
the mouth of Lochourn on the 21st, with other men in his boat, 
and saw the creature at about the distance of one hundred and 
fifty yards. 

Two days after we saw it, Alexander Macmillan, boat-builder at 
Dornie, was fishing in a boat in the entrance of Lochduich, half- 
way between Druidag and Castledonan, when he saw the animal, 
near enough to hear the noise and see the ripple it made in rushing 
along in the sea. He says that what seemed its head was followed 
by four or more lumps, or “ half-rounds,” as he calls them, and that 
they sometimes rose and sometimes sank all together. He estimated 
its length at not less than between sixty and eighty feet. He saw 
it also on two subsequent days in Lochduich. On all these ocea- 
sions his brother Farquhar was with him in the boat, and they were 
both much alarmed and pulled to the shore in great haste. 

A lady at Duisdale, in Skye, a place overlooking the part of the 
Sound which is opposite the opening of Lochourn, said that she 
was looking out with a glass when she saw a strange object on the 
sea which appeared like eight seals in arow. This was just about 
the time that we saw it. 

We were also informed that about the same time it was seen from 
the island of Eigg, between Eigg and the mainland, about twenty 
miles to the south-west of the opening of Lochourn. 

We have not permission to mention the names in these two last 
instances. 

JoHn MAcrar. 
Davip TworPeny. 


PS. The writers of the above account scarcely expect the public 
to believe in the existence of the creature which they saw. Rather 
than that, they look for the disbelief and ridicule to which the sub- 
ject always gives rise, partly on account of the animal having been 
pronounced to be a snake, without any sufficient evidence, but 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 5321 


principally because of the exaggerations and fables with which the 
whole subject is beset. Nevertheless they consider themselves 
bound to leave a record of what they saw, in order that naturalists 
may receive it as a piece of evidence, or not, according to what 
they think it is worth. The animal will very probably turn up on 
those coasts again, and it will be always in that “ dead season,” so 
convenient to editors of newspapers, for it is never seen but in the 
still warm days of summer or early autumn. There is a considerable 
probability that it has visited the same coasts before. In the 
summer of 1871 some large creature was seen for some time rushing 
about in Lochduich, but it did not show itself sufficiently for any 
one to ascertain what it was. Also some years back a well-known 
gentleman of the west coast, now living, was crossing the Sound of 
Mull, from Mall to the mainland, “ on a very calm afternoon, when,” 
as he writes, “ our attention was attracted to a monster which had 
come to the surface not more than fifty yards from our boat. It 
rose without causing the slightest disturbance of the sea, or making 
the slightest noise, and floated for some time on the surface, but 
without exhibiting its head or tail, showing only the ridge of the 
back, which was not that of a whale, or any other sea animal that 
I had ever seen. The back appeared sharp and ridge-like, and in 
colour very dark, indeed black, or almost so. It rested quietly for 
a few minutes, and then dropped quietly down into the deep, without 
causing the slightest agitation. I should say that above forty feet 
of it, certainly not less, appeared on the surface.” It should be 
‘noticed that the inhabitants of that western coast are quite familiar 
with the appearance of whales, seals and porpoises, and when they 
see them they recognize them at once. Whether the creature which 
pursued Mr. Maclean’s boat off the island of Coll in 1808, and of 
which there is an account in the ‘ Transactions of the Wernerian 
Society’ (vol. i. p. 442), was one of these Norwegian animals, it is 
not easy to say. Survivors who knew Mr. Maclean say that he 
could quite be relied upon for truth. 

The public are not likely to believe in the creature till it is caught, 
and that does not seem likely to happen just yet, for a variety 
‘of reasons,—one reason being that it has, from all the accounts 
given of it, the power of moving very rapidly. On the 20th, while 
we were becalmed in the mouth of Lochourn, a steam launch slowly 
passed us, and, as we watched it, we reckoned its rate at five or six 
miles an hour. When the animal rushed past us on the next day 


8522 THE ZooLocisT—May, 1873. 


at about the same distance, and when we were again becalmed 
nearly in the same place, we agreed that it went quite twice as fast 
as the steamer, and we thought that its rate could not be less than ten 
or twelve miles an hour. It might be shot, but would probably sink. 
There are three accounts of its being shot at in Norway; in one 
instance it sank, and in the other two it pursued the boats, which 
were near the shore, but disappeared when it found itself getting 
into shallow water. 

It should be mentioned that when we saw this creature and made 
our sketches of it we had never seen either Pontoppidan’s ‘ Natural 
History’ or his priut of the Norwegian sea-serpent, which has 
a most striking resemblance to the first of our own sketches. 
Considering the great body of reasonable Norwegian evidence, 
extending through a number of years, which remains after setting 
aside fables and exaggerations, it seems surprising that no natu- 
ralist of that country has ever applied himself to make out some- 
thing about the animal. In the meantime, as the public will most 
probably be dubious about quickly giving credit to our account, the 
following explanations are open to them, all of which have been 
proposed to me, wz. :—porpoises, lumps of sea-weed, empty herring- 
barrels, bladders, logs of wood, waves of the sea, and inflated 
pig-skins; but as all these theories present to our minds greater 
difficulties than the existence of the animal itself, we feel obliged 


to decline them. 
D. Tworeny. 


[I have long since expressed my firm conviction that there exists a large 
marine animal unknown to us naturalists: I maintain this belief as firmly 
‘as ever. I totally reject the evidence of published representations; but 
I do not allow these imaginary figures to interfere with a firm conviction, 
although I admit their tendency is always.in that direction: the figures 
and exaggerated descriptions of believers are far more damaging to a faith 
in such an animal than the arguments, the ridicule, or the explanatory 
guesses of unbelievers. The guess that a little seal was magnified by 
Captain M‘Quhe into a monster several hundred feet in length is simply 
incredible: we smile at the conceit, and that is all—Edward Newmam.] 


Perception in the Lower Animals.—This interesting subject continues 
to occupy the attention of the contributors to ‘ Nature.’ I entirely agree 
with the gifted Editor that “the best service he can at present render to the 


THE ZooLoGist—May, 1873. 8523 


unravelling of this yet unsolved problem is simply to accumulate facts.” 
The extremely crude guesses which have been so liberally and so un- 
advisedly published, certainly tend rather to retard than promote a solution. 
Take the sense of smell, for instance, how can the sense of smell aid a dog 
crossing a river or an arm of the sea? or a salmon in the ocean? or a swallow 
in the air? and yet there are constantly recurring instances of the return of 
marked salmon or marked swallows to the spots where they first saw the 
light. The excessive crudity, or as a would-be wit has expressed it, “ the 
intense verdure of some natural-history guesses” is most refreshing. The 
President of a scientific society lately narrated how that a salt-water lake 
in Norway had lately become fresh; an incredulous wag gravely asked the 
learned narrator what became of the salt? ‘Oh! ah! well! yes! I never 
thought of that—of course it evaporated.” The audience appeared perfectly 
satisfied with this guess, as they were with another philosopher when he 
guessed that the phenomena of perception were due to the olfactory organs ; 
in a word, that the lower animals in their migrations and movements were 
led by the nose. All this guessing is part of the old, old error of trying to 
lead rather than to follow Nature: would that the self-elected teachers could 
reflect a moment before they guess. One passage quoted from Sir Bartle 
Frere’s paper on “ Cutch,” implies the exercise of this rare gift, and is more 
suggestive than anything I have read on the subject. He says, “As else- 
where in the plain country of Sind, and here more conspicuously owing to 
the absence of any prominent natural features or marked tracts, the best 
guides seem to depend on a kind of instinct; they will generally indicate 
the exact bearing of a distant point which is not in sight quite as accurately 
as a common compass would give it to one who knew the true bearing. 
They affect no mysterious knowledge, and are generally quite unable to give 
any reason for their conclusion, which seems the result of an instinct like 
' that of dogs, horses and other animals—unerring, but not founded on any 
process of reasoning which others can trace or follow.” Although giving the 
name of “instinct” to the phenomenon in question is something like using 
a synonym, and therefore leaving the subject where he found it, yet we must 
all of us acknowledge that the word “ instinct” conveys an idea of something 
we have ourselves experienced. I sincerely hope this discussion will be 
followed up with the vigour shown in its commencement, the contributors 
bearing steadily in mind the Editor’s invaluable injunction, “ to accumulate 
facts,” and I would add, abstain from guessing.—Hdward Newman. 
Perception in the Lower Animals.— Reading the paragraph from ‘ Nature,’ 
under the above heading’ (S. 8. 3488), reminds me of an incident, some- 
thing akin to what is there described, which once came under my 
notice. Some years ago, having occasion to see a person who lets horses, 
I went to his stable, and there found him in great surprise about the 
behaviour of both his horses, which were snorting and kicking in a furious 


$524 THE ZooLocist—May, 18783. 


manner; one was fastened to the manger, and the other the man was 
attempting to get into the stable, but the horse would not enter under any 
persuasion. Whatcould be the cause of such a strange freak the man could 
not even conjecture, but at last he recollected that a few days previously a 
menagerie had visited the neighbourhood, and that he had come into pos- 
session of the refuse straw with which the wild animals were supplied, and 
that he had just littered his horses with some of it, and the consequence 
was that one would not enter into the stable at all, and the other became 
quite unmanageable. There is no doubt it was the straw that had caused 
this commotion, for when it was removed the horses became quieter, the one 
outside entering the stable as usual, but each of them showing a great deal 
of caution, as if they feared something. The straw was then thrown to form 
a bed for the man’s swine, but the pigs would rather sleep in the open air 
than go into that portion of their domicile occupied by the much-shunned 
straw. I came to the conclusion that both horses and pigs, by their acute 
sense of smell, had detected the former presence, near or upon their proffered 
beds, of creatures which were by nature their enemies, and the all-powerful 
promptings of instinct had induced them to shun even “ the appearance of 
evil,” and to act in a manner strangely contrary to what they usually did. 
The man to whom the animals belonged, at first almost scorned the idea of 
my supposing that the cause of the horses’ refractory conduct was something 
in the straw, as he said that he had littered his horses with the like on 
previous occasions, and they had never acted so before; he, however, was 
convinced on removing what I had supposed was the cause. I must own 
I should have been sceptical had I heard of and not seen the occurrence.— 
G. B. Corbin; Ringwood. 

Bats in Bamboo.—A curious bamboo was found here, each joint having 
a ring of thorns round it, the joints seldom more than eight inches apart. 
On cutting some of these to build huts, we found enclosed between the 
joints of a bamboo four little bats alive. How they came there, how long 
they had been there, and how, without our assistance, they would ever have 
got out, I leave to be explained by those who know all about the curious 
stories of toads found in coal, &c.—Lieut. R. G. Woodthorpe’s ‘ Lushai 
Expedition,’ 1871—72. I 

The Hoolook.—The stillness of the forest was ever and anon broken by 
the cries of a black monkey known among the natives as the “ hoolook.” 
They go about in troops uttering cries resembling the yelping of beaten 
puppies. One or two commence with a few single cries in one key, when 
suddenly the whole pack join the chorus in every variety of key.—Id. 

Strange Conduct in a Hare.—On the 15th of December I was walking 
on a foot-path in the Dene, when I saw a hare coming slowly towards me. 
I placed the butt of my gun on the ground, and stood perfectly still to see 
how near the hare would approach without seeing me. Judge my surprise 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1878. 3525 


when she came right up to me, and stopping began to smell first at the gun, 
and then, commencing at my toe, she ran her nose up my leg as far as she 
could reach, rising on her hind legs ;. and then quickly bringing her fore feet 
to the ground and clapping her ears to her shoulders, she wheeled round 
and kicked at me. She then went on five or six paces and commenced 
feeding. It was difficult to keep from laughing out at this performance, 
but I managed to keep still, and allowed her to get away. I wonder what 
puss” took me for, perhaps a new-fashioned gate-post or something of that 
sort.—John Selater ; Castle Eden, Durham, April 2, 1878. 

Varieties of Rat.— Within the past year, or year and a half, I have seen 
some very peculiar varieties of this very troublesome and destructive 
quadruped. Since last December I have seen five or six of an uniform 
silver-gray, of various sizes and from different localities. Such variation, 
however, was not new to me, as I preserved one and saw others of a like 
colour during last summer. I have also seen another of a pale yellowish 
brown,—much the colour of a leveret,—with a darker stripe down its back ; 
but the most remarkable variety I have ever seen was one, a few months 
ago, in which the prevailing colour was a dark brown, upon which were spots 
of pure white, reminding one of a prettily marked dog. This latter was a 
full-grown male, but the other specimens were in various stages of growth. 
I believe the spotted specimen was preserved, but the others I think were 
not.—G. B. Corbin. 

Semi-aquatic Habits of the Common Shrew.—I have frequently observed 
and caught specimens of the common shrew in some wet swampy marshes 
in this neighbourhood, which are inundated for a considerable time every 
winter, the water remaining upon them sometimes into March. LEarly in 
the spring of 1872. after a sudden flood, I found numbers of them on the 
small patches of high ground left uncovered by the water, and indeed in 
some places where the ground was quite covered, only the broken-down 
stems of the reeds, &c., being left above water, and about which the shrews 
were running with remarkable activity ; at times they seemed to be actually 
running upon the water, as the scum which had formed upon the surface, 
with a few floating odds and ends, was generally sufficient to support their 
weight. I have found their nests by the sides of ditches, and in such cases 
upon the occupants being disturbed they often take to the water, swimming 
with great ease. The above-mentioned were all examples of the common 
shrew (S. araneus, Linn.). Is it usual for this little animal to frequent such 
situations as these? I have never been able to meet with the water shrew 
here till this year, when my brother picked up a dead one, which had a 
slight wound in the skull, apparently from a bite. This specimen agreed 
in almost every respect with Mr. Bell’s description, except that there was a 
grayish spot in the centre of the black patch round the insertion of the tail. 
Several years ago I caught a very large shrew on the banks of a fish-pond 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 2B 


3526 THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


in this county, the dimensions and description of which I have always since 
much regretted I took no note. I remember, however, that it was black or 
nearly so, both above and below, but in size it far exceeded Mr. Bell’s 
measurement of the oared shrew (S. remifer). My impression is that it was 
as large as a full-sized male short-tailed field vole. I have several times 
since searched the place where I found it, but have never been able to meet 
with a similar one.—G. S. Rope; Leiston, Suffolk. 

Australian Flying Squirrel breeding in Confinement.—It may interest 
some of the readers of the ‘ Zoologist’ to hear of Australian flying squirrels 
breeding in England. A pair which I have had for more than a year in a 
cage have produced one young one. The mother generally carries it in her 
pouch, and when she is engaged in feeding in the open part of the cage the 
father keeps it warm and takes care of it. It is now about a week old, and 
I do not think it can see yet. If you or any of your correspondents care for 
more particulars I shall be glad to give them.—Emma M. Paget ; Hoxne, 
Scole, April 10, 1873. 

Arrival of Spring Migrants, &e.—March 29th.—Stonechat, wheatear, wry- 
neck, swallow ; a stonechat and several wheatears observed about the sand- 
hills near Crosby. Wryneck heard twice at Eton, Bucks. 30th.—Three 
swallows were seen to-day near Eton. 31st.—Plovers have now begun to 
nest and perform their aérial evolutions. Frogs are waking up from their 
state of torpidity: I observed several to-day evidently just come from their 
muddy winter quarters; their backs were covered with a slimy weed, which 
seemed almost to have taken root in their skins.—H. Durnford ; 1, Stanley 
Road, Waterloo, Liverpool, April 10, 1873. 

Ray’s Wagtail.— Mr. Doubleday (Zool. S. S. 3490) is “convinced” that the 
wagtails seen by me at Cassiobury on the 15th of January, and recorded in 
the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 8455), were Motacilla boarula and not M. Rayi, there- 
by taking for granted that I had taken no pains whatever to be certain of 
the identification. Now, as I had watched the birds in question for about a 
quarter of an hour, and at times had them within a few yards of me, I am 
quite convinced that they were M. Rayi. ‘To anyone acquainted with the two 
species, the larger size and longer tail of M. boarula would always serve to 
distinguish it from M. Rayi. Again, because I referred to the mildness of 
the season at the time of seeing the birds, Mr. Doubleday seems to think that 
I supposed that was the cause of their early arrival from their regular winter 
quarters. Of course I never meant anything of the kind, being of opinion 
that the pair of birds noticed by me had remained in this country since last 
summer.—C. Bygrave Wharton; Bushey, Herts, April 8, 1873. 

Serin Finch at Brighton.—A specimen was taken on the Dyke Road, at 
Brighton, on the 16th of April. It was brought to Mr. Swaysland.— 
‘Field, April 19th, 


Tuer ZooLocist—M ay, 1873. 3527 


On the Colour of the Fauces in Nestling Warblers.— Herbert, in his 
notes to ‘ White’s Selborne’ (Rennie’s ed. p. 129, Bennett's ed. p. 177), 
says:—“In all true Curruce, which live mainly on vegetable food, the 
inside of the mouth and throat is of a fine red: in the others of a yellow. 
orange.” I should be very glad if any of your readers would record their 
observations on this point during the coming season, as I haye now-a-days 
few opportunities of birds’ nesting, and I cannot trust my memory in such 
acase. Signor Bettoni, I may remark, in his recent and great work on the 
birds of Lombardy, figures the blackcap with pink fauces, the garden warbler 
with buff, the orphean warbler and greater whitethroat with yellow. Mr. 
Blyth forty years ago quoted Herbert’s note (‘ Field Naturalist,’ i. p. 307), 
with seeming approval, objecting only in the case of the garden warbler; 
but the evidence of Signor Bettoni rather contradicts the general assertion 
of Herbert.—Alfred Newton; Magdalene College, Cambridge, April 10, 1873. 

Nidification of the Kingfisher.—So few instances of the kingfisher nesting 
away from the neighbourhood of water having been recorded, the particulars 
of a nest found by me yesterday between here and Aldenham may perhaps 
be interesting. The handful of fish-bones, on which the six eggs were 
placed, was at the end ofa hole (sloping slightly upwards from the entrance) 
in the side of an old unused gravel-pit, about two feet from the top of the 
bank, and just at the bottom of the stratum of clay. The hole, about eighteen 
inches deep, was the only one in the pit, and must, I think, have been dug 
by the birds themselves. The nearest water (except small farm-ponds) would 
be the River Colne on the one side and Elstree Reservoir on the other; the 
former must be at least a mile distant in a straight line, and the latter about 
two miles and a half. Finding a broken white egg at the bottom of the grayel- 
pit led me to discover the nest.—C. Bygrave Wharton ; April 18, 1872. 

Feeding Habits of the Belted Kingfisher.—On page 48 of Mr. Darwin’s 
‘Expression of the Emotions,’ I find the assertion, ‘‘ Kingfishers when they 
catch a fish always beat it until it is killed.” We have, in New Jersey, one 
species of kingfisher, the Ceryle Alcyon, which is exceedingly abundant for 
about seven months in the year. For several years I have observed them 
carefully, both feeding and breeding about the banks of Crossweeksen Creek, 
and I feel certain that I am correct in saying that I have never seen a king- 
fisher take its food otherwise than by swallowing it whole, while yet upon 
the wing. The fish having been swallowed, or at least having dis- 
appeared, the kingfisher will alight upon the branch of a tree, and will then, 
frequently, stretch out its neck, and go through a “gulping motion,” as 
though the fish was not entirely in the bird’s stomach, or perhaps was only 
in its cesophagus. In the thousands of instances that I have witnessed 
of these birds catching small fish, I never once saw a fish taken from the 
water and killed before being devoured. So far as my recollection serves 
me, in the large majority of instances, the kingfisher, after darting into the 


3528 THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


water and securing a small cyprinoid, will emerge from the stream, uttering 
its shrill cacophonous scream, as if rejoicing over the delicate morsel it had 
captured, and not scolding at its ill-success, as has been thought ; for we have 
frequently shot them as they rose from the water, and invariably found a 
fish, still alive, in the stomach or esophagus. Indeed, I cannot see how 
this characteristic cry of the kingfisher could be accomplished with a fish 
struggling in its beak. When the fish, from its size or other cause, is 
retained in the cesophagus until the bird alights, the movements of the 
bird, to effect the swallowing, are very similar to those of a pigeon while 
feeding her young. The neck shortens and swells; the feathers are ruffled 
and the wings slightly open and shut two or three times. So far as my 
observations of the Ceryle Alcyon extend, Mr. Darwin’s remarks will not 
apply to that kingfisher.—Chas. C. Abbott ; Trenton, New Jersey, Jan. 14.— 
‘ Nature, March 13. 

Cuckoo’s Eggs.—The views of Dr. Baldamus on this subject were made 
known to the British public in ‘ Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal,’ No. 208, for 
December, 1857: this fact was mentioned by an anonymous critic in ‘ The 
Academy,’ vol. i. p.105. I have not the ‘Journal’ at hand, but Professor 
Newton has corroborated the statement.—H. Newman. 

Cuckoo’s Eggs.—I am surprised that no one has asked the rather per- 
tinent question, “If the cuckoo is able to assimilate its egg so closely to the 
eggs of the bird it selects as the foster-parent of its young, how can any one 
poiut out which is the cuckoo's egg in the nest?” For my part, I do not 
believe that these so-called cuckoo’s eggs which so closely resemble the 
eggs of sedge warblers, black redstarts, redbacked shrikes, &c., are cuckoo’s 
eggs at all; for, as far as my experience goes, there is hardly any bird’s 
egg which varies so little as the egg of the cuckoo, and in my birdnesting 
days I have seen a good number of bona jide cuckoo’s eggs, and since then 
in the collections of various friends, and all these eggs possessed the same 
character of colouring, &c., which, as Mr. Henry Doubleday well says, makes 
the egg of the cuckoo well known even to the village urchin.— Murray A. 
Mathew ; Bishop's Lydeard, April 2, 1878. 

ggs of the Cuckoo.—As a lover of the feathered tribes, I may be allowed 
to offer my very small item of experience with regard to the above question, 
about which my more learned brethren have had more than one discussion ; 
so it is with some degree of diffidence I offer my scanty observations. The 
two nests in which I have most frequently found a cuckoo’s egg are the 
hedgesparrow and meadow pipit, more commonly the latter. I have at 
different times taken scores of nests of the redbacked shrike, but on no 
occasion have I found a cuckoo’s egg in them; neither have I ever seen a 
cuckoo’s egg bearing the least approach to the blue of the eggs of the hedge- 
sparrow and redstart. Some two or three seasons ago I noticed that when- 
ever I passed along a particular hedge-bank in the meadows a cuckoo was 


THE ZooLtocist—May, 1873. 3529 


always to be seen somewhere in its vicinity, so I concluded that an egg had 
been deposited not far off. I searched the herbage very closely, and at last 
found what had been so attractive to this summer-loving bird, viz. a nest of 
the blackheaded bunting containing a cuckoo’s egg and five of the rightful 
owner's. Four of the bunting’s eggs were of the usual colour and markings, 
but the other was white, with a single small dark spot upon it. As they 
lay in the nest I thought they were rather a motley group. On another 
occasion I found a meadow pipit’s nest containing six of its own eggs and 
one of the cuckoo. My limited experience would point to the fact that 
cuckoo’s eggs are less variable than many other species as to colour and 
marking, unless indeed their colour is so variable that they are often con- 
founded with the species amongst which they are laid, for as a birds’-nesting 
schoolboy I was often surprised at the abundance of the cuckoo compared 
with the number of its eggs found in a season; and provided that each 
female lays more than one egg, which I believe is said to be the case, the 
proportion seems still greater, as the birds always appeared to be ten to one 
against the eggs. Probably an unskilful way of finding the egg is the chief 
cause of such apparent disparity, but I have noticed that the parent cuckoo 
generally loiters about the spot where her egg is deposited, unless she has a 
circuit,—spots in which she visits at intervals,—ahd thus becomes a kind of 
overseer of her scattered brood. I never found more than one cuckoo’s egg 
in the same nest, nor is it often that nests containing a cuckoo’s egg are 
placed very near to each other. Does the rightful owner of a nest court the 
honour of rearing the young cuckoo, or does the parent cuckoo introduce 
her egg into the nest stealthily during the absence of its builder? If so, 
why do we often see small birds mobbing a cuckoo? Is it love or fear that 
prompts the performance, as these smaller birds in like manner tease rooks 
and hawks? That the cuckoo introduces her egg into the nest with her foot 
or bill sometimes is, I think, unquestionable, as the pipit’s nest before 
adverted to was in such a situation, under a large tuft of heather, that no 
cuckoo could possibly have laid in it, and I found the nest by the mere 
chance of seeing the pipit come out, after nearly treading upon it.—G. B. 
Corbin. ; 

Erratum.—In my short note, “ Gray Phalarope and Pike” (S. S. 3492), 
the first sentence of the paragraph should read, “‘ The gray phalarope seems 
to be comparatively rare along the Hampshire coast during this winter.”— 

G. B.C. 
Woodcock at Clapton.—On the 2nd of Aprila woodcock flew against a 
window in Claymore Road, Upper Clapton, and was taken up nearly dead.— 
‘ Field,’ April 19th. 

Dark Variety of the Common Snipe.—February 8th. To-day I procured 
from our market a Scolopax gallinago whose whole chin, throat, and stomach 
were of a dull slate-colour—H. Durnford. 


3530 Tue ZooLtocistT—May, 1878. 


Waders flying at Dusk.—March 22nd. This evening, about suuset, I ob- 
served large flocks of dunlins and gray plovers, with a few curlews, winging 
their way up the Mersey: I have noticed the same thing before on bright 
evenings. I believe they fly to the extensive mud-banks above Liverpool to 
feed during the night, and take the opportunity of passing the town when 
they will not be molested. They only fly on fine nights, and are then very 
intent on reaching the desired goal, frequently passing close to one; and the 
wary old curlew not performing his usual curve to keep out of gunshot.— 
H. Durnford. 

Common Cormorant and Herring Gull returning to Nest at Flamborough 
Head.—In a note, dated March 29th, Mr. Bailey, of Flamborough, informs 
me that this spring both the cormorant and herring gull have returned to 
nest on the cliffs. Both these species formerly nested in some numbers at 
Flamborough, but were driven away by the ceaseless persecution of the 
shooting excursionists. Speaking of the Specton Cliffs, he says that he 
never before saw so many birds in all his life. When a gun was fired, the 
birds (guillemots, razorbilled auks, puffins, and kittiwake gulls) came off the 
ledges in such numbers as “ fairly to darken the sky.” On the 31st, he 
shot two ringed guillemots, and saw about ten others.—John Cordeaus ; 
Great Cotes, April 3, 1873. 

Blackheaded Gulls and Fieldfares.—On Sunday, the 6th instant, whilst 
walking near Grendon, five miles from here, a flight of about a dozen black- 
headed gulls (Larus ridibundus) skimmed over the ploughed fields, some of 
these within twenty yards of my head: they were passing to the south-west. 
I also observed two rather large flocks of fieldfares. Is it not rather late for 
these birds to be with us in quantities ?—Eygbert D. Hamel; Tamworth, 
April 8, 1873. 

Ostrich-Farming at the Cape.—We have much pleasure in supplying a 
few facts gleaned from Mr. G. F. Heugh, of Aberdeen, who is a most in- 
telligent and enterprising ostrich-farmer. The fine parcel of ‘* tame” 
feathers, as they are termed, which were offered on the public market 
yesterday, and realized what we believe may be considered very satisfactory 
prices, were the pluckings of fifty-four birds, about fourteen mouths old, 
running upon the farm of Messrs. Heugh and Meintjes, in the Aberdeen 
district. The lot weighed 16 lbs., which is a very good yield for young 
birds. The feathers were all taken from the wings, no tails (except 10 oz.) 
having been pulled. The black feathers have not yet become matured, but 
will be fit for plucking in October next. Mr. Heugh farms near Aber- 
deen, and has a flock of seventy birds, that run upon an enclosed land, 
extending over some 1600 acres, which is kept exclusively for their use. 
The enclosure is made by a stone wall, and in most places four feet high, 
but where stone was difficult to get, by wire fencing. The construction of a 
stone wall costs, at an average, 10d. per running yard; the wire cost, put 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3531 


up with four wires, 8d. per yard; the wire required to be filled in with 
bushes, to prevent the ostriches hurting themselves, as when the wires are 
bare the birds are apt to run up violently against them, through not seeing 
any impediment to their flight. The first crop, or ‘ chickens’ feathers,” 
should be allowed to remain on the birds at least ten months; they are of 
little value and protect the second crop, which is much better in consequence. 
As a rule ostriches do not pair until they are three years old, but there are 
exceptions when the birds have been brought up on luxuriant pasturage.— 
Cape Monthly Magazine. 

[As a natural-history question quite apart from ostrich-farming, will 
some of my correspondents at the Cape inform me what authority there is for 
supposing that ostriches pair at all? The opinion that ostriches are poly- 
gamous is very general, but the frequent recurrence of the term “ pairing,” 
and of similar expressions, leads to a belief that this is still an open 
question.—H. Newman. ] 

Possession Island.—As this bleak spot has been spoken of as a station 
for observing the transit of Venus, the annexed description may have some 
interest, if only as a caution. ‘ We found the shores of the mainland com- 
pletely covered with ice projecting into the sea, and heavy surf along its 
edge forbade any attempt to land upon it; a strong tide carried us rapidly 
along between this ice-bound coast and the islands, amongst heavy masses of 
ice, so that our situation was for some time most critical ; for all the exer- 
‘tions our people could use were insufficient to stem the tide. But taking 
advantage of a narrow opening that appeared in the ice, the boats were 
pushed through it, and we got into an eddy under the lee of the largest of 
the islands, and landed on a beach of large loose stones and stranded 
masses of ice. .... The island is composed entirely of igneous rocks, 
and is only accessible on its western side. We saw not the smallest 
appearance of vegetation, but inconceivable myriads of penguins completely 
and densely covered the whole surface of the island, along the ledges of the 
precipices, and even to the summits of the hills, attacking us vigorously as 
we waded through their ranks, which, together with their loud coarse notes, 
and the insupportable stench from the deep bed of guano, which had been 
forming for ages, made us glad to get away again, after loading our boats with 
geological specimens and penguins. Owing to the heavy surf on the beach, 
we could not tell whether the water was ebbing or flowing; but there was 
a strong tide running to the south, between Possession Island and the 
mainland, and the ‘ Terror’ had some difficulty to avoid being carried by 
it against the land-ice. Future navigators should therefore be on their 
guard in approaching the coast at this place.”—J. D. Hooker, as quoted in 
‘ Nature.’ 


3532 THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


Lumpfish or Lumpsucker,—The lumpfish (Cyclopterus lwmpus) has been 
taken here to-day at surface in mackerel-nets in deep water, at least thirty 
fathoms. It was a male fish, in excellent condition, and full of milt, and in 
size nearly as large as the full-sized female; but its colour, instead of 
inclining to red, as is said to be the case in the male of this fish, was the 
usual dull leaden blue of the female over the back, inclining to the usual 
dirty white on the belly. The liver was remarkable for its size.—Thomas 
Cornish ; Penzance, March 28, 1873. 


Proceedings of the Entomological Society, 


March 17, 1873.—Prof. Wrstwoop, M.A., F.L.S., President, in the 
chair. 

Donations to the Library. 

The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors ;—‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ No. 142; presented by the 
Society. ‘ Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society 
of London for the Year 1872,’ and Index 1861—70; by the Society. ‘The 
Canadian Entomologist,’ vol. v. No. 1; by the Editor. ‘ L’Abeille, 1872,’ 
livr. 3 & 4; by the Editor. ‘The Entomologist’s Annual for 1873’; by 
H. T. Stainton, Esq. 


Election of Member. 


M. Ernest Olivier, of Moulins (Allier), France, a grandson of the cele- 
brated French entomologist of that name, was balloted for and elected a 
Foreign Member. 

Exhibitions, &c. 


The President exhibited a specimen of a very rare species of Paussus from 
Abyssinia, in which the hinder part of the thorax was constricted, quite 
unlike any of the other species. 

Mr. F. Smith exhibited a further collection of ants sent by Mr. G. A. James 
Rothney, from Calcutta. They were collected by him in a very restricted 
area, principally in the Eden Gardens, Calcutta, between the months of 
June and October of last year. ‘The specimens which Mr. Smith had been 
able to determine were thirty in number, namely :— 

Formicide (eight species).— Camponotus compressus, Fabr.; C. syl- 
vaticus, Oliv.; C. opaciventris, Mayr, n.sp.; C. Bacchus, Smith; Polyrhachis 
spiniger, Mayr.,n. sp.; P. Shrinax, Roger; P. levissimus, Smith ; Cico- 
phylla smaragdina, Yabr. Poneride (six species).—Bradyponera longitarsis, 
Mayr., u. gen. & sp.; Lobopelta chinensis, Mayr.; L. mutabilis, Smith ; 
L. punctiventris, Mayr., n. sp.; L. diminuta, Smith ; Diacamma vagans, 
Smith. Myrmicide (fifteen species)—Crematogaster Rothneyi, Mayr, n. sp.; 


THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 3533 


Hypoclinea gracilipes, Mayr.; H. excisa, Mayr.; Holecomyrmex indicus, 
Mayr., nu. gen. & sp.; Pheidolacanthinus levifrons, Mayr., n. sp.; | Mono- 
morium latnoda, Mayr.; Solenopsis geminata, Fabr.; Pheidologeton labo- 
riosus, Smith; Pheidole javana, Mayr.; Typhlata tricarinata, Mayr., n.sp.; 
T. brevicornis, Mayr., n. sp.; Sima rufonigrum, Jerdon ; 8. atrata, Smith ; 
S. carbonaria, Smith ; Myrmicaria subcarinata, Smith. Cryptocerid@ (one 
species); Meranoplus bicolor, Guer. 

Thus, there were nine new species, two of which were new genera, and 
the collection contained several others, apparently new, requiring further 
examination. Mr. Smith directed attention to the fact that Mr. Rothney 
had very carefully collected the sexes of the different species, which was of 
the utmost importance to Science. Mr. Rothney had also, in a most liberal 
manner, allowed Mr. Smith to select a complete series of specimens for the 
British Museum. Connected with Mr. Rothney’s collection were also three 
examples of what appeared to be the ant, Sima rufonigrum, placed side by 
side; but on close examination one of them was found to be a spider 
of the genus Salticus, having its anterior legs purposely removed, causing 
it to present a striking resemblance to the ant, which, like it, inhabits 
trees. 


Mr. William Cole exhibited some magnificent species of Bombycide 
collected by Dr. Seaman, near Pine Town, Port Natal. 

Mr. Stevens remarked that a hybernated specimen of Vanessa Antiopa 
had been seen on Sunday last in a church at Redhill. 


Papers read, de. 


Mr. Bates communicated “ Descriptions of New Genera and Species of 
Geodephagous Coleoptera from China, founded principally on Collections 
made by Mr. George Lewis.” 


Mr. Albert Miiller communicated the following notes :— 


1. Araocerus coffee at Basle-— On the 29th of September, 1862, while 
attentively watching the unpacking of some freshly-imported bags of Java 
coffee, in a warehouse at Basle, a very lively specimen of this beetle 
came tumbling out of one of the bags. I secured it and kept it alive 
for some days. In a letter dated the 14th of March, 1873, which 
I have just received from my lynx-eyed friend Herr H. Knecht, of the 
Same city, he tells me that he can now get this species in any 
quantity at Basle. It is well known that this species of Anthribide 
feeds in the larval state on raw coffee-berries; hence its introduction 
and capture in commercial emporia on the coasts of different continents 
heed cause little surprise; but the two facts here recorded illustrate once 
more the indubitable axiom that insects living on merchandise are spread 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 2c 


3534 . THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


chiefly along the main trade-route, and become acclimatised along their 
whole course, Basle being one of the chief markets where Central Europe 
stores and disposes of the purchases derived from Mediterranean and 
Atlantic ports.” 

2. Tribolium ferrugineum in Ground-nuts.—* In the summer of 1863 a 
cargo of ground-nuts (Arachis hypogea) arrived in the port of London direct 
from Sierra Leone. On arrival the usual samples were drawn, when it 
turned out that the husks were riddled by countless holes, while the kernels 
were half eaten up by myriads of larve and imagines of Tribolium ferru- 
gineum. So completely had they done their noisome work that in the 
numerous samples examined scarcely an intact kernel could be found. If 


a@ nut was opeved the whole interior was often found to be converted into a 


living conglomerate of larve, pupx and imagines of Tribolium, accompanied 
by the larve and perfect insects of a Rhizophagus preying on the former, 
the whole mass being wrapped up in a layer of cast-skins and excrement. 
As no purchaser could be found, owing to the deplorable state of the cargo, 
the work of destruction continued through the months of August, September 
and October, the owners being unwilling to take a considerably lower price 
than had been calculated upon. A fresh proof how the marketable value of 
an article can become reduced through delay and ignorance on the part of 
its owner.” 


Mr. Dunning read the following “ Further Note on Atropos pulsatoria, 
with reference to Dr. Hagen and Mr. W. A. Lewis.” 


“There is on the table this evening an abstract of Mr. Lewis's paper, 
“On Dr. Hagen’s treatment of Atropos pulsatoria and Termes fatidicum” 
(Proc. Ent. Soc. 1872, p. xl.), in answer to some remarks I made on the 
4th November, 1872. If the Society is not weary of the subject, I should 
like to say a few words, and will be as brief as possible. 

“Sympathising with Mr. Lewis in what I conceive to be the main pur- 
pose of his ‘ Discussion of the Law of Priority,’ but feeling that a good 
cause ought not to be supported by a misrepresentation of facts, I ventured 
to point out what I considered, and still consider, to be an error on Mr. 
Lewis's part. And I certainly was sanguine enough to expect that when 
the mis-statement was pointed out, it would be at once withdrawn. 

“‘ However, Mr. Lewis does not see the matter in this light, and contends 
that he has made no error of the kind I supposed. He says that I have 
written in the language of apology only the same things which he has 
written in the language of fault-finding; that I have concluded he was 
under some misconception from failing to understand that he considers 
worthy of reprobation what I pass by as nothing; that I have come forward 
to justify Dr. Hagen for having published a Synopsis of the British Psocids 
without an investigation of the species. 


ee a 


THE ZOoLoGIst—May, 1873. 3535 


“Tf this be a fair account of what I said, my meaning must have been 
very ill-expressed. I refer to Proc. Ent. Soc. 1872, p. xxxiv., for what I did 
say, and will only add that I lent Mr. Lewis the MS. of my paper to prepare 
his reply. If the above be his understanding of what I have written, I can 
scarcely feel surprised that he has misrepresented Dr. Hagen. 

“Mr. Lewis would have it appear that we are ‘at difference not upon 
facts, but upon the importance attached to them.’ The statements which 
I challenged were these—that ‘the Atropos of 1861 is the Clothilla of 
1865,’ that ‘the insect which [in 1861] had a bare back, 15-jointed 
antennsz, and thickened thighs, has now [t. e. in 1865] leather-like 
_ winglets, 27-jointed antenne, and legs not thickened,’ and that < the same 
insect is described by Dr. Hagen twice over, on two adjoining pages, with 
opposite structural characters.’ I say that these statements are erroneous; 
and if that is’ not a difference upon facts, I am at a loss to conceive 
what is. 

“ But how does Mr. Lewis meet my challenge? He says, ¢ Mr. Dunning 
proves that the Linnean name pulsatoria was in 1865 transferred to an 
insect of the genus Clothilla, while in 1861 it has represented an insect of 
the genus Atropos. Granted at once ; and therefore the Atropos of 1861 
as the Clothilla of 1865. The very same “ pulsatoria, Linné,” was in 1861 
described as an Atropos, and was in 1865 described as a Clothilla,’ 
Mr. Lewis must entertain a very low estimate of the intelligence of ento- 
mologists if he thinks they will be convinced by such a verbal quibble, 
Entomologists describe insects, and apply names to the insects; they do 
not describe names, and attach insects to the names. On two different 
occasions Dr. Hagen applied the same name to two different insects having 
opposite structural characters, on each occasion describing the two insects, 
and describing them as having opposite structural characters, And Mr. 
Lewis gravely contends that ‘the same insect is described by Dr. Hagen 
twice over, on two adjoining pages, with Opposite structural characters’ ! 
Because insect A with one set of characters was at one time called ‘ pulsa- 
toria, Linné,’ and insect B with another set of characters is at another time 
called ‘ pulsatoria, Linné,’ therefore (says Mr. Lewis) the same insect is 
described twice over with opposite structural characters! It has never 
been my lot to encounter a more charming Non sequitur. And on this, 

_ and on this alone, Mr. Lewis has founded the charge of ‘astonishing 
chicanery’ of which Dr. Hagen is said to have been guilty. 

“ Mr. Lewis says that I have not answered the more important of his two 
cases, that the criticism impugned by me was based on two instances, but 
especially on that of Termes fatidicum, which is the climax to which Atropos 
pulsatoria was only a step. It is true I did not answer what Mr. Lewis 
said about Termes fatidicum; my object was to correct a specific mis- 
statement, which related only to Atropos pulsatoria. On reference to the 


3536 THE ZooLocist—May, 1878. 


‘ Discussion,’ it will be seen that Dr. Hagen’s treatment of T. fatidicum was 
a ‘RIDICULOUS FARCE,’ but his treatment of A. pulsatoria was ‘ astonishing 
chicanery.’ To me the word ‘chicanery’ has an ugly sound; it was that 
word which offended my ear, and it was to the charge of chicanery that 
I addressed myself. And the charge then made as to A. pulsatoria having 
been (as I submit) refuted, Mr. Lewis now brings T. fatidicum to the front, 
and makes a lot of fresh charges based on Dr. Hagen’s treatment of this 
insect, or if Mr. Lewis prefers it ‘this supposed insect.’ It is as if my 
learned friend were prosecuting a man (say) for bigamy, and after the 
defence has been heard, the prosecutor replies by attempting to show that 
the accused has at all events committed forgery! As before, I decline to 
discuss the ‘ Farce,’ preferring to attend to one thing at a time. 

“Mr. Lewis goes on to say, ‘It is the gist of my complaint that 
Dr. Hagen taught me in 1861 the exact opposite of what he taught me in 
1865, though all the same materials were to his hand at the one time as at 
the other. J am in my turn surprised that Mr. Dunning should think this 
amounts to nothing.’ Mr. Lewis’s surprise is uncalled for; Mr. Dunning 
has neither said that this amounts to nothing, nor does he think so. The 
ground now alleged may or may not be a good ground of complaint against 
Dr. Hagen ; but it is quite a different complaint from that which was made 
in the ‘ Discussion,’ p. 54. The original objection was that the change of 
name ought not to have been made at all; the objection now is that 
Dr. Hagen ought to have known in 1861 the facts which induced him to 
make the change in 1865. ‘The simple fact is that in 1861 Dr. Hagen 
published a Synopsis of the British Psocide without an investigation of the 
species. That is the back-bone of Mr. Dunning’s remarks, and is, I pre- 
sume, the thing he has come forward to justify.’ Mr. Lewis presumes too 
much; I have not attempted to justify what Dr. Hagen actually did, much 
less have I come forward to justify what Mr. Lewis, without any personal 
knowledge of the circumstances, asserts to be ‘ the simple fact,’ but which 
of my own knowledge I say is not a fact. If Mr. Lewis's simple fact is the 
back-bone of my remarks, the back-bone was very carefully extracted, and 
my remarks as delivered were invertebrate. Upon what authority, or 
supposed authority, it is stated that Dr. Hagen published his Synopsis of 
1861 without an investigation of the species, I cannot conjecture. But if 
there be any question on this point, it is fortunate that there are still living 
several entomologists who can testify to the fact of the investigation having 
been made. In truth, Dr. Hagen came over to this country for the very 
purpose of studying the British species. 

“That subsequent investigation has proved the existence of errors in the 
Synopsis of 1861 is perfectly true. But faulty as it was, it did good service 
in its day; and no one has more readily admitted its shortcomings and 
corrected its errors than Dr. Hagen himself, To my mind, readiness to 


THE ZOOLOGIsT—May, 1873, 3537 


admit and correct one’s own mistakes is praiseworthy, not blameworthy, 
I have no greater love for error than Mr. Lewis has, but I hope I am a little 
more tolerant of the mistakes of others than he is. All mistakes are to be 
regretted; but when made, and afterwards found out to be mistakes, 
surely the best thing is to correct them. It can scarcely be contended that 
no one should publish anything until there is a certainty of freedom from 
mistake: on this principle, what would the present state of Science have 
been? Certainly if Mr. Lewis had waited until he attained immunity from 
blunder, we should not have had the satisfaction of reading his ‘ Discussion’ 
in the year of grace 1872.” 


Mr. Bates put some questions to the meeting, suggested to him by 
Mr. Darwin, with a view to eliciting information as to sexual differences in 
insects furnished with ocellated spots; and also as to sexual differences 
among the Buprestide. A conversation ensued, in which Mr. Jenner Weir 
stated that in Satyrus Hyperanthus the Spots were more numerous in the 
female than in the male, and Mr. Butler remarked that Drusillus had 
double spots in one sex. It was also stated that Mr. Saunders had detected 
corresponding sexual differences in the Buprestide. 


New Part of ‘ Transactions.’ 


Part V. of the ‘ Transactions’ for 1872, completing the volume, was on 
the table. 


April 7, 1873.—H., T. STAINTON, Esq., V.-P., in the chair. 


Donations to the Library. 


The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the donors : 
—‘ Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou,’ 1872, 
No. 3; presented by the Society. ‘Annales de la Société Entomologique 
de Belgique,’ tome xyv.; by the Society. ‘The Canadian Entomologist,’ 
vol. v., no. 2; by the Editor. ‘The American Naturalist,’ vol. Wey TORE = 
12, and vol. vi., nos. 1—11 ; by the Editor. ‘Memoirs of the Peabody 
Academy of Science,’ vol. i., nos. 2 and 3; and ‘Fourth Annual Report of 
the Trustees of the Peabody Academy of Science for the year 1871;’ by 
the Academy. ‘ Record of American Entomology for the year 1870 ;’ by the 
Editor, A. S. Packard, jun., M.D. ‘L’Abeille,’ x., livr. 5 and 6; by the 
Editor. ‘ Exotic Butterflies,’ part 86; by W. W. Saunders, Ksq. ‘ Lepi- 
doptera Exotica,’ part 16; by EH. W. Janson, Esq. ‘ Traité Elementaire 
d’Entomologie ;’ by the Author, M. Maurice Girard. ‘The Entomologist’ 
and the ‘Zoologist’ for April; by the Editor. ‘The Entomologist’s 


3538 Tue ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


Monthly Magazine’ for April; by the Editors. ‘Instructions for the 
Collection and Preservation of Neuropterous Insects,’ by R. M‘Lachlan, 
Esq., F.L.S.; presented by the Author. ‘ Bulletin de l'Académie Royale 
des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux Arts de Belgique,’ t. xxxi.—xxxiv. ; 
‘ Memoires Couronnés et autres Memoires,’ t. xxii.; by the Academy. 


Election of Member. 


Mr. Edward Cracroft Lefroy was balloted for and elected a Member of 
the Society. 

Exhibitions, dc. 

Mr. Champion exhibited specimens of Tribolium confusum and Ptinus 
testaceus, which he had observed in British collections mistaken for 
Tribolium testaceum and Ptinus fur. 

Mr. Verrall exhibited a specimen of Laphria flava, L., one of the Asilide, 
taken in Scotland, not having been hitherto discovered in this country. 
Also the following Syrphide, viz.:—Syrphus compositarum, Ver., S. flavi- 
frons, Ver., and S. punctulatus, Ver., all new species ; together with S. annu- 
latus, Zett., S. barbifrons, Fall., and 8. nigricornis, Ver. (= obscurus, Zett.), 
the last three having been found in this country for the first time. 

Mr. M‘Lachlan stated that he had been informed by Lord Walsingham 
that when on his recent visit to California and Texas he had frequently 
noticed dragonflies preyed upon by other large insects whilst flying through 
the air. These latter were, no doubt, some species of Asilus; but it was 
the first time he had heard of dragonflies being preyed upon by other 
insects, as they had hitherto been supposed to be free from such attacks. 

Mr. F. Smith remarked that when examining the box of insects sent to 
him from Calcutta, by Mr. Rothney, he had come upon a species of Penta- 
toma of a dull brown colour. Mr. Rothney stated that whilst seeking 
shelter under a tree from the sun, he observed the bark of the tree covered 
with hundreds of this species, which were of exactly the same colour as the 
bark, and on this account were not readily noticed. Mr. Smith was not 
aware why the insect should require this protection. Mr. Bates suggested 
that they might be subject to the attacks of lizards; but Mr. Meldola 
thought that it would be useful to them in attacking other insects, which 
they were occasionally known to do, although usually phytophagous in their 
habits. 

Papers read, dc. 


Major Parry communicated a paper on the “ Characters of Seven Non- 
descript Lucanoid Coleoptera, with Remarks on the Genera Lissotes, 
Nigidius and Figulus.” 

Mr. Frederick Bates communicated “ Descriptions of New Genera and 
Species of Tenebrionide from Australia, New Caledonia and Norfolk 
Island.” 


* at Ses ieee 


TuHE ZooLocist—May, 1878. 8539 


Mr. Albert Miller read the following remarks communicated to him in 
a letter from Mr. W. F. Bassett, of Waterbury, Connecticut, U.S. :— 


“I found, early in the spring, almost as soon as the buds began to swell, 
large numbers of a female Cynips—the species unknown to me—ovi- 
positing in these buds. I had seen the same in the two preceding seasons, 
but in only a few instances. The insect, standing on the summit of the 
bud, thrust the ovipositor down between the bud-scales, but did not in any 
ease, so far as I noticed, penetrate the scales. I inferred that the eggs 


_ were laid in or on the embryo leaf. I marked several trees where I found 


these female flies, and watched with much interest to see what species, if 
any, would be found on them. I found the leaves, when developed, to 
contain galls of C. q.-futilis, Osten-Sacken, and with few if any other species 
intermixed ; and the abundance of this species was in close agreement with 
the number of females ovipositing before the leaves appeared. These galls, 
when found at all, are usually very numerous, and on some of these trees 
there was hardly a leaf that did not contain from one to eight galls, each of 
which would produce from three to five insects. The fly of C. q.-futilis 
(found in both sexes) is much smaller than the species I found ovipositing. 
I think that when we come to find out the true history of these dimorphous 
and, in one generation, unisexual species, we shall find that those com- 
posing the generation of females are generally larger, and perhaps struc- 
turally distinct from the bisexual brood. What form of gall these apparently 
immediate progenitors of C. q.-futilis may come from I cannot say, though 
I still hope to trace them to their gall. 

“T repeated last spring the experiment tried several previous seasons,— 
that of raising a brood of flies from the galls found in the form of irregular 
swellings on the twigs of an oak growing near my residence. I raised an 
immense number, all of which were females; and in June I reared still 
greater numbers, male and female, from enormously swollen petioles of 
leaves of the sume tree. These two broods are remarkably alike, so much 
so that I could not separate them if mixed. There is, in this instance, 
no perceptible difference in the size of the individuals composing the two 
broods. 

“It seems to me to be settled now that most, if not all, our species of 
Cynips are double-brooded, and that one of these generations consists of 
females only. Besides the two cases I have mentioned, where the connexion 
between the two broods is apparently well established, there are so many 
one-gendered species that we may reasonably suppose each to be the pro- 
genitor of some one of the equally numerous doubled-gendered species, but 
whose relationships have not yet been observed. Iam willing to venture the 
remark that probably no one-gendered species exists—that those apparently 
unisexual species, C. q.-punctata, Bassett, C. q.-spongifica, Osten-Sacken, 
and those European species which, though reared in countless numbers, 


3540 THE ZooLocist—May, 1873. 


have as yet been found only in the female sex, will be found to be double- 
brooded species, one of which will be exclusively female and the other male 
and female. 

“IT have two or three years tried to raise a colony of C. q.-punctata, 
Bassett, by placing the large polythalamous galls on uninfected trees just as. 
the insects were ready to escape. So far I have failed to rear any galls of this 
species. Now if these females really reproduce the same kind of gall 
I ought to have succeeded, for I colonized several hundred individuals on a 
single small tree, and many more on other trees in different seasons. Of 
course the inference to be drawn from the failure of my attempt to raise 
these galls has no scientific value, but had I succeeded in raising the galls 
the fact would have been received as satisfactory proof that these female 
flies could produce generation after generation of females without the aid of 
the male element. 

“T take the ground that the reproduction of gall-insects without the inter- 
vention of the male is limited to a very few, if not even to one generation ; 
and that all our unisexual species are dimorphic forms of double-gendered 
species. I wish yourself and all others interested in working out the 
singular history of this family would give attention to these points. 
And may I ask you to inform me if anything has been written within a 
year or two that throws any light upon them, as I am aware that my non- 
intercourse with the entomologic world for a year or two past has left me 
far behind possibly on this very point. 

“T was able last spring to settle, to my own satisfaction at least, a question 
raised by myself in the first article I published on the Cynipidee,—the ques- 
tion whether the woolly galls, C. q.-seminator, Harris, and C. q.-operator, 
Osten-Sacken, were or were not abnormally developed leaves. I took the 
ground that they were, that the eggs were deposited in the oak-bud, that 
the small seed-like gall was only a modified leaf-stem and blade, and that the 
wool was only an enormous development of the pubescence always present on 
the young leaves. Mr. B. D. Walsh opposed this idea, and, either in a pub- 
lished paper or in a letter to me, denied that the gall had any connexion 
whatever with the bud or leaves. Last spring I was so fortunate as to find 
two galls of C. q.seminator in their earliest stage, and was able to watch 
them in their development. They are really developed from buds, and are, 
as I supposed, only modified leaves. The smooth shining cell or gall is the 
petiole of the leaf, and the tuft of long woolly hairs that terminates the cell 
is only the enormous development of the leaf’s pubescence.” 


New Part of ‘ Transactions.’ 
Part I. of the ‘ Transactions’ for 1873 was on the table.—F’. G. 


CD” =" 


THE ZooLocist—JuNE, 1873. 8541 


Hotices of Aew Books. 


Birds of the Humber District. By JoHN CorpDEAux. 232 pp. 
post 8vo, and a frontispiece by Keulemans. London: Van 
Voorst, Paternoster Row. 1878. 


We hear the beat 

Of their pinions fleet, 

As from the land of snow and sleet 
They seek a southern lea; 


We hear the cry 
Of their voices high, 
Falling dreamily through the sky; 
But their forms we cannot see. 


Mr. CorpDeEavux has executed his self-imposed task in a remark- 
ably able and honest manner. I have expressed an opinion on 
several occasions that the local lists of birds frequently possess 
but little value from their containing so small an amount of matter 
connecting the birds with the localities; thus Harting’s ‘ Birds of 


Middlesex,’ an excellent work of its kind, owes its interest entirely 


to the introduction of so many passages on birds in general, but 
which have no especial connection with Birds of Middlesex. The 
same may be said of Mr. Sterland’s ‘ Birds of Sherwood Forest ;’ 
of Mr. Clark Kennedy’s ‘Birds of Berks and Bucks,’ and many 
others ; but in the instance of this ‘ Birds of the Humber District’ 
there seems an intimate connection between the birds and their 
habitats, and the interesting details given respecting them would 
not apply with the same aptness to other districts, and in many 
instances would not apply to all. Thus the remarkable immi- 
gration of goldcrests (p. 37) and hooded crows (p. 62), both familiar 
and infallible pioneers of the woodcock, have a local interest which 
cannot be transferred to Berks, Bucks, Middlesex, or to Sherwood 
Forest. The same is still more applicable to the shore birds; it is 
to the Humber, in an especial manner, that all the observations 
respecting them apply ; they are nearly all indissolubly connected 
with the Humber, and not with the other places where they also 
perhaps make their appearance. 

It is always pleasing to find in works of this kind a full and free 
admission of the sources whence the information has been derived, 

SECOND SERIES—VOL., VIII. 2D 


$542 Tue ZooLtocist—JunNeE, 1873. 


if otherwise than from the author’s own observations. Like 
Mr. Stevenson’s ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ Mr. Cordeaux’s ‘ Birds of the 
Humber’ is perfect in this respect: the doctrine of swum cuique is 
religiously observed throughout, and greatly enhances the merit 
and the value of the publication. In very many books it is im- 
possible to refer to the sources of information, so great have been 
the talent and ingenuity exercised in concealing them. Now to the 
scene of Mr. Cordeaux’s researches. 


“Tn the Humber district I include the Humber from the Spurn to 
its junction with the Trent and Ouse, and the lands adjoining, namely, 
part of North and Mid-Lincolnshire and Holderness, a district enclosed to 
the north, the west, and south by the curved sweep of the Wold hills. To 
the east its sea-board extends from Flamborough Head in the north to 
Skegness on the Lincolnshire coast in the south. This is a well-defined 
and clearly marked province both geologically and zovlogically. It may be 
compared to a half-circle or bent bow, the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wolds 
forming the bow, the coast-line the string ; whilst the great river itself is 
like an arrow placed in the string and across the bow, dividing the district 
into two nearly equal divisions.” —Introduction, p. v. 


The migratory birds visiting this district in the autumn and 
winter almost invariably come from the direction of the sea, arriving 
on the coast in lines of flight varying from full north to east, the 
gray wagtail (Motacilla boarula), which comes from the west or 
north-west, being the only exception. The shore birds generally 
follow the coast-line both in their spring and autumn migrations, 
and the sea-birds follow the same course, but much farther out at 
sea, their occasional presence inland being induced only by severe 
and long-continued storms. - In later summer and autumn, birds 
following the coast-line are pulled up by Flamborough Head, and 
those which pass this projection are next seen or heard of near 
Spurn Point, and thence leaving the county will cross the “ deeps” 
and strike the north and north-east coast of Norfolk. There is no 
doubt the county of Lincoln was for centuries the metropolis of our 
shore-birds and water-birds, but the drainage of fens, the enclosure 
of commons, and the improved agriculture have changed all this, 
for it is now our best farmed county, and has lost its ornithological 
pre-eminence. 

Concerning almost every bird Mr. Cordeaux has some informa- 
tion to give us, whether as regards plumage, nesting habits, food 
or migration; or should neither of these subjects present any 


THE ZooLocist—J UNE, 1873. 3543 


peculiarity or novelty, occurrences of the more uncommon species 
are sure to present something worthy of recording: thus we have 
this very remarkable note touching the last appearance of the kite 
in Lincolnshire :— 


“Mr. Adrian told me (May, 1872) that about twelve years since he has 
sometimes seen four or five pairs of kites together on the river just below 
Lincoln. They used to come up to feed upon any floating garbage carried 
down from the city. About this period requiring a specimen, he one day 
took his gun anda young tame rabbit that had recently died, and went down 
to a hollow pollard willow which grew on the bank of the Witham. The 
rabbit was opened to show the flesh; and then, securing it by a string, he 
let it float out into the middle of the stream. Concealing himself in the 
hollow of the tree, he kept a sharp look-out down the river in the direction 
of the great woodlands where the kites nested, and he had not to wait long, 
for presently, at an immense distance, he descried one of these noble birds 
slowly sailing and gyrating on almost motionless wing up the stream towards 
his hiding-place, all the time, too, intently scanning the waters for any 
floating object. Arriving at last over the rabbit, it remained for one moment 
quite stationary, and then dashed downwards, at the same instant falling 
dead with expanded wings on the water. Thus by gun and trap the last 
of the Lincolnshire kites passed away.”"—P. 215. 


At p. 16 we learn that there have been numerous instances of 
the occurrence in Lincolnshire of the great gray shrike (Lanius 
excubitor), but none (p. 17) of the redbacked sbrike (LZ. Collurio), 
so common a migrant in the south of England; at p- 19 we read 
that the missel thrush has become much more abundant within the 
last ten years, and that it immigrates from the north, arriving in 
flocks at the end of August or beginning of September. 

Mr. Cordeaux thinks (p. 22) that we have two races or varieties 
of the song thrush (Turdus musicus), one our familiar garden friend, 
the other a darker bird, almost as dark as a hen blackbird: on the 
8th of December, 187], he put up a score of these birds from some 
dry grass in a drain-bank close to the coast, and very far from either 
trees or bushes. Mr. Gray, in his ‘ Birds of the West of Scotland,’ 
says he observed numbers of the same variety in North Uist, “taking 
shelter in dry stone dykes, and hopping from one crevice to another 
like disconsolate wrens.” “TI remarked,” continues Mr. Gray, “ par- 
ticularly the unusually dark colour of their plumage, the birds being 
very unlike those brought up in cultivated districts where gardens, 
trees and hedgerows attract the familiar songster and its allies ;” 


3544 Tue ZooLocist—J UNE, 1873. 


and it is remarked in Yarrell’s ‘ History of British Birds,’ that “ the 
examples from the Hebrides, where the species is very numerous, 
are smaller and darker than those from the mainland.” There is a 
note about the fieldfare, which corroborates an observation I have 
often made and often repeated to incredulous ears. I will quote 
Mr. Cordeaux before I give my own experience :— 


« Tn severe winters, when there is a scarcity of food, flocks of fieldfares will 
frequent the fields of Swede turnips, and, like the rook, drill holes into the 
bulbs. Ihave shot them in the very act, and found their stomachs quite 
full of the pulped Swede. This isa bad habit, for it lets the frost into the 
root and subsequently rots it. Wood pigeons have the same trick; but 
I believe these latter never attack a root unless previously injured by 
insects or the bite of hares and rabbits: their beak is not strong enough to 
penetrate the hard rind of a frozen Swede. Fieldfares come from great 
distances on winter evenings to roost in some favourite place; a plantation 
of young larch having much rough grass in it is greatly in demand for this 
purpose: they roost, as a rule, nearer the ground than the redwing: I have 
known them roost on the ground like larks, both amongst grass and in shorn 
stubble."—P. 21. 


It is the latter habit | have observed: Nunhead Cemetery rises 
into a little hill covered with very coarse grass; to this spot the 
fieldfares repair on a winter’s afternoon, often coming for an hour 
or more, and in a straggling flight, from two or three to a dozen at 
a time, from the turnip-fields at a distance, and here they roost 
both on the shrubs and in the grass. 

The immigration of goldcrests (p. 37) from the continent in 
autumn preceding that of the hooded crows, woodcocks, and short- 
eared owls, induces us to wonder how such delicate and fragile- 
looking creatures can cross the North Sea, but it is now a fact as 
well established as that of the woodcocks themselves, and a fact 
so familiar to dwellers on the east coast of Yorkshire and Lincoln- 
shire, that they have acquired the name of “ woodcock’s pilots.” 

The mention of “large flocks of waxwings” appearing in Holder- 
ness (p. 70) appears scarcely less remarkable. 

The wood lark appears to be unknown in the Humber District ; 
Mr. Cordeaux has never met with it in North Lincolnshire. 

The snowflake (Emberiza nivalis) usually arrives in flocks from 
the middle of October to the end of November, and leaves in 
February or early in March: Mr. Cordeaux observes (p. 47) that 
these hardy but beautiful little arctic birds will find food, and will 


THE ZooLocist—Junr, 1873. 3545 


even thrive in the severest winters, after all the rest of the small 
birds have been driven by frost and snow from the cold and exposed 
marshes, where they feed on the seeds of various grasses picked 
from the withered bents rising above the snow. They are always 
excessively fat. 

The sand grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus) has visited the Lincoln- 
shire coast in considerable numbers; early in December, 1863, a 
flock of between forty and fifty was seen in the parish of Salt- 
fleetby: about twenty of them were shot; and several other 
instances of their occurrence in this district have been recorded. 

The golden plover (p. 88) is very numerous in the North Lincoln 
and Holderness marshes during the winter. In mild winters they 
remain in these marshes in enormous flocks: Mr. Cordeaux con- 
siders the local migration of the golden plover very remarkable. 
He says, “I have frequently noticed a day or two previous to hard 
weather immense flocks crossing the Humber, often for hours 
together, all of them going southwards. Besides local migrations 
dependent on the weather, there are similar movements due to 
other causes, the chief of which is probably a permanent change of 
feeding-ground.” A peculiarity of the golden ployer, common also 
to the peewit, is their extreme restlessness before wind and rain: 
they will continue for hours flying to and fro over the marshes on 
these occasions. Mr.Cordeaux remarks (p. 94) that independently 
of their specific distinctness, the gray plovers (p. 93) differ from the 
golden in their habits; they leave the district, on the average, seven 
or eight weeks later in the spring, and return fully ten months 
earlier in the autumn: they are strictly marine birds; their 
favourite haunts are the sea-coast and the muddy shores of large 
tidal rivers, their presence inland being exceptional: it is exactly 
the reverse with the golden plovers; they are rarely seen on the 
flats, and indeed never, except very early in the season, when the 
land is dry and hard: again, the gray plovers, when in small 
parties, fly in a line one behind another: in large flocks they 
fly all in a lump: the golden plovers, as a rule, advance in long 
extended lines, but afterwards adopt the arrow-head form of 
flight. 

The turnstone (p. 97) feeds in the summer-eaten clover on beetles 
obtained by turning over the dried fragments of sheep-dung, thus 
adopting the same course as the most astute and practical 
entomologist; the various species of Coleopterous insects seem 


8546 THE ZooLoGIstT—JUNE, 1873. 


particularly partial to such localities, and of course fall a prey to 
the industrious turnstone. 

In 1628 cranes occurred in large flocks in Lincolnshire and Cam- 
bridgeshire, as we are informed by Ray: the only modern record 
of a crane in Lincolnshire was recorded by Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., 
at p. 1842 of the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1869: it was killed at Hickling 
Moor, near Lincoln, by Mr. Shuttleworth, on the 20th of July. 
I cannot resist the temptation to lament once more the slaughter 
of these noble birds; can any sight be more magnificent than the 
stately cranes in full possession of life and liberty? even to see 
them in their paddocks in the Zoo is a treat rarely to be equalled. 
It is interesting to learn that an attempt was made to avert the total 
extirpation of British cranes in 1780. Among the Fen laws passed 
at the court view of free pledges and court-leet of the East, West 
and North Fens, on the 19th of October of that year, it was decreed 
that no person shall bring up or take any swan’s eggs or érane’s 
eggs or young birds of that kind, on pain of forfeiting for every 
offence three shillings and fourpence. It appears that cranes nested 
in the Lincolnshire fens so lately as the eighteenth century. 

The curlew is common throughout the great part of the year on 
the Humber shores, leaving in the spring and returning early in 
August and occasionally in July; the first returning after the 
breeding-season are usually very large light-coloured birds, which 
resort to the grass-land in the marshes. It is usual for these birds 
to leave the coast at daybreak, and feed inland throughout the day 
in the sheep-walks in company with sea-gulls. In the dry autumn 
of 1870 a flock numbering about two hundred passed every morning 
at sunrise over Great Cotes, retiring by the same line, but in small 
parties and detachments, between four and five o’clock in the 
afternoon, to the mud-flats, or at high-water to land immediately 
contiguous to the coast. * 

With regard to the whimbrel, I must quote the entire passage : 
it is too valuable to omit, and too terse to condense. 


« A common spring and autumn visitant; in the former season visiting 
the neighbourhood of the Humber during the first week in May with great 
regularity, and often in very large flocks, numbering occasionally as high as 
two hundred birds. They leave again for their northern breeding-stations 
in the third or fourth week in that month, a few as late as the first week in 
June; and as I have seen them off the coast again in July, they may be 
said never to be entirely absent in any month. Whimbrels chiefly resort 


THE ZooLocist—J unr, 1873. 3547 


during the time they remain with us to the pasture-lands in the marshes; 
and in this respect their habits differ widely from the curlew, which is almost 
exclusively at this season a shore-bird. Their food consists of worms, 
Coleoptera, and various insects; and on the ‘flats’ they pick up small 
crustaceans from the tidal pools. They are very partial to washing and 
bathing; coming down to the tide edge each day, and wading out breast- 
deep, they scatter the water with their wings in sparkling showers over their 
backs and body. After the bath they stand on the fore-shore gently fanning 
their wings to and fro, or preening and arranging their plumage. 

*Whimbrels are far less circumspect than the curlew, and with a little 
care and caution may easily be approached within gunshot. 

“Tn the autumn, compared with the large spring flocks, few visit us; at 
this season they pass over the district without alighting. This autumn 
migration, which is carried on in the day-time, takes place from the middle 
of July to the end of September. These nfigratory flocks vary in size from 
eight or ten and upwards; I have never observed them to exceed thirty 
birds. They advance at an immense height, generally in line, one leading, 
the rest following, not directly, but en échelon, and are constantly repeating 
their call-note, without which indeed, owing to the great height at which 
they fly, it would be impossible to identify them.”—P. 109. 


I cannot pass over the avocet without lamenting, as in the case 
of the crane, its total extirpation from the district. Pennant says, 
“We have seen them in considerable numbers in the breeding- 
seasons near Fossdyke Wash, in Lincolnshire: like the lapwings, 
when disturbed, they flew over our heads, carrying their necks and 


long legs quite extended, and made a shrill noise (twit) twice 


repeated during the whole time.” In Colonel Montagu’s time it 
bred in the Lincolnshire fens (see ‘ Ornithological Dictionary,’ p. 2), 
but is now entirely unknown: probably the drainage of the fens, 
now so extensively carried on, has had as much to do with this 
change as the mania for killing which afflicts all classes of people 
in this country. 

The woodcock (p. 122) has of course received a good share of 
Mr. Cordeaux’s attention; and I am sure I need offer no apology 
for making the long extract which follows. 


“That those seasons with the prevailing wind from the south or west are 
never good woodcock years, is well known to all our coast sportsmen; the 
probability is that, at these times, as they do not alight, they pass over in 
the night, and are first heard of in the West of England or in Ireland. 
Those who have seen the weary, heavy, and short flight of the poor bird, the 
morning of its landing, can understand the physical exhaustion caused by a 


3548 Tue ZooLocist—June, 1873. 


rough adverse passage. If not disturbed they lie all day like stones, just 
where they happen to have pitched, and will in some cases allow themselves 
to be taken up by the hand. A few hours’ rest quickly recruits their 
exhausted energies, and at night they again resume their flight, which, 
excepting for the circumstances of the difficult passage, would never have 
been broken. The autumn of 1870 was one of the best woodeock seasons 
known for many years on the Lincolnshire coast. On the 18th October a 
terrific north-easter brought a large flight; on the 26th of the same month 
there was another very heavy gale from the north-west, and in that and the 
succeeding mornings great and unusual numbers were shot all along the 
east coast of Lincolnshire and Holderness. Many sportsmen entertain the 
opinion that the ‘cocks’ cross singly and not in flocks, from the fact of their 
always being found the morning after landing, solitary and some distance 
apart, and also that single birds are occasionally seen at daybreak coming in 
from the sea. The probability is that the flights break up immediately on 
making land, each bird dropping alone. The single birds observed to come 
at daybreak are doubtless those which have alighted on some of the 
numerous sand-banks, bare at low water, which fringe our flat Lincolnshire 
coast, the rising tide compelling them to shift their quarters. The light- 
keeper at Flamborough told me that he once saw a flight of ‘ cocks’ arrive 
on the Headland in day-time. They usually reach Flamborough with a 
north or north-east wind, and drop immediately on landing, either just 
topping the cliffs, or, in stormy weather, dropping at their base, sheltering 
in any little cove or hollow worn by the waves at the base of the rocks. 
The dwellers on the Headland or at Spurn are in the autumn led to expect 
their arrival by the appearance of the goldcrested wrens, better known as 
‘woodcock pilots.’ It is a remarkable and well-ascertained fact that these 
little fellows almost invariably precede the woodcocks by a few days; others 
again draw similar conclusions from the shorteared owl and redwing. On 
the Lincolnshire coast the rule is that four days after the hooded crows the 
woodcocks come. As a rule, on their first arrival they are very fat and in 
good condition; we occasionally, although rarely, meet with an exception. 
I have weighed them from 12% to as low as 7 ounces.”—P. 124. 


The dunlin is a favourite with all our ornithologists. Montagu, 
in his invaluable ‘ Dictionary’ (p. 76), has been very diffuse on its 
variations; and although at first he evidently considered the duulin 
and purre distinct species, he eventually became thoroughly con- 
vinced that they were the same species in summer and winter 
plumage: this combination of two well-known birds obtained 
careful investigation and confirmation at the hands of Temminck 
and Selby, and Meyer, fully convinced of the propriety of their 
conclusions, proposed to annul the technical names of “ alpina” 


THE ZooLocist—JuNE, 1873. 3549 


and “cinclus,” and to substitute that of “ variabilis,” a decision 
which recent writers have very generally approved. It seems 
strange, but is nevertheless true, that although so much pains has 
been so efficiently taken to establish the identity of these two 
quasi-species, another question should arise—namely, a doubt 
whether there are not two species of birds undergoing the same 
change of plumage, but possessing slightly different habits, fre- 
quenting different situations, and differing slightly in size; the 
existence of such species or races in birds, as in the dunlin, the 
song thrush, and many others, has frequently been mentioned 
incidentally, but has not hitherto obtained that grave consideration 
which it demands. I proceed to extract Mr. Cordeaux’s remarks 
on this subject :— 


“I have long been of opinion that we have two races or varieties of 
dunlin in this district, the one extremely numerous, coming in immense 
migratory flocks from the north, and feeding on the muds, retiring at high 
water to lands adjoining; the other variety or race is scarce, and frequents 
almost exclusively the muddy border of our large marsh drains. These 
latter differ very considerably in their habits from the coast dunlin, and are 
always remarkable for their great tameness, and in this alone exhibit a 
singular contrast to the wild and shy coast dunlin. For the guidance of 
future observers, I will state what I consider the principal points of dis- 
tinction between the two races. The little ‘drain’ dunlin differs from the 
more common species, in resorting to the borders of the marsh drains or to 
the ‘fittie’ lands adjoining the ‘muds’ in preference to the flats, and is 
remarkable for its extreme tameness, permitting a very close approach. In 
appearance it is a slightly smaller and more delicate-looking bird than the 
larger type, and has a shorter bill. The winter plumage is paler, with a 
whiter and more silvery appearance, reminding one of the winter dress of 
the sanderling. In the summer the plumage of the upper parts, although 
generally resembling the same in the dunlin, is richer and brighter in 
colour; and beneath, the black pectoral patch is smaller, less clearly defined, 
and more broken into with white, with the sides of the body more closely 
streaked with dusky brown. The note, although it has a general resem- 
blance to the call of the ‘coast’ dunlin, yet differs in being weaker and 
more frequently and rapidly repeated. The smaller race is much later in 
assuming the summer dress.”—P. 137. 


I shall feel obliged if my readers will record their experience 
when meeting with these divided or sub-species, or pairs of species ; 
they exist to a very large extent in insects, and I doubt not are 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 25 


8550 Tue Zootocist—JuneE, 1873. 


equally common among birds. Care must be taken to eliminate all 
geographical, seasonal and sexual differences; these are important 
phenomena, but phenomena the treating of which is fully appre- 
ciated, and which have therefore been fully investigated. 

The beautiful wild swan, of course, obtains at Mr. Cordeaux’s 
hands the attention which so noble a bird deserves: its musical 
cry on one occasion attracted his especial attention. 


“ The cry of the wild swan is extremely wild and musical. Some years 
since, during the prevalence of a severe ‘blast,’ I saw forty-two of these 
noble birds pass over our marshes, flying in the same familiar arrow-head 
formation as wild geese use—a sight not to be forgotten, not alone for 
their large size and snowy whiteness, but from their grand trumpet-notes. 
Now single, clear, distinct, clarion-like, as a solitary bugle sounds the 
advance—or the tongue of some old hound uplifted when the pack runs 
mute with a breast-high scent; then, as if in emulation of their leader's 
note, the entire flock would burst into a chorus of cries, which, floating 
downwards on the still frosty air, had every possible resemblance to the 
music of a pack of fox-hounds in full cry—sounds which have doubtless 
given rise to the legend, common in some form or other to all the northern 
races, of the demon huntsman and his infernal pack.”—P. 156. 


Of the blackheaded gull Mr. Cordeaux remarks (p. 201), “1 have 
frequently observed these gulls by hundreds hawking over our 
marshes for insects, such as the cranefly, also amongst the autumnal 
swarms of winged ants. They not unfrequently perch on gates 
and rails. The peewit gull is an unfailing weather prophet. 
When they soar high and fly round in circles it is a certain sign 
of wind and rain within twenty-four hours. I hardly ever knew 
this indication fail.” 

At page 208 there is a most graphic account of the arctic home 
of the glaucous gulls, but as this is copied from Dr. Hayes’ ‘Open 
Polar Sea,’ and moreover as it relates to those inhospitable regions 
rather than to the well-farmed flats of Holderness, I forbear from 
re-quoting it; and here end my extracts from one of the most able 
and most agreeable local records of British Birds that it has ever 
been my lot to read. 


Epwarp NEWMAN. 


Tue ZooLocist—June, 1878. $551 


A Visit to Corsica. By the Rev. F. A. WALKER, M.A., F.LS. 


OcToBeR 24th. Our night voyage from Leghorn to Bastia, 
where we arrived between three and four in the morning, proved 
rather rough, and was performed amid drenching rain and a storm 
of thunder and lightning, to which the unfortunate Lucchesi 
labourers, some two hundred in number, with several women and 
children, and a troupe of actresses en route for the Ajaccio theatre, 
were fully exposed, as they remained on deck until ordered down 
by our fellow-passenger, the British Consul for Bastia, who kindly 
paid the difference in their fare, and as many, accordingly, as the 
second-class cabin would accommodate at once repaired thither. 
The town of our destination consisted chiefly of white houses, erected 
for the most part ona steep rise from the harbour, and its hills 
loomed darkly in the back-ground, owing to the“ macchie,” or scrub 
brushwood, that covered their sides, over which the blue lightning, 
flashing at intervals, produced a-singular effect. A small boat 
conveyed us from the steamer to the quay, and thence we pro- 
ceeded to the Custom-house, where tall and stalwart women, who 
bore traces of having been extremely handsome, with coloured 
handkerchiefs tied round their heads, were in readiness to convey 
our luggage to the hotel. It was then fair, and the day appeared 
likely to clear, but was soon again overcast. A deluge of rain 
ensued, and kept on continuously, with repeated thunder rolling 
among the hills, so that shortly two very respectable brooks on 
either side of the steep Boulevard Paoli, where our hotel was 
situate, appeared to be each using their greatest effort to get to the 
bottom first. Between twelve and one it grew somewhat finer, and 
I went out to survey the immediate neighbourhood of the town, and 
on turning to the right, at the top of our street, found myself already 
outside its precincts, and close to a quarry, where blocks of white 
marble lay strewn about,—not the stone of that particular cliff 
apparently, but no doubt from the neighbourhood. What chiefly 
attracted my attention, however, was the Barbary fig, overhanging 
the bank, that remarkable species of Cactus, so frequent in the 
South of Europe, which I now saw for the first time ; it was common 
enough in this neighbourhood, but abounded like a weed at our 
second place of sojourn, Ajaccio, where its thick and prickly 
foliage served as a drying-ground for clothes. With the exception 


3552 THE ZooLoGisT—J UNE, 1873. 


of the fact that its exterior petals were striped with dark red, the 
blossom was about the size and tint of an evening primrose, and the 
plants, owing to their light green, presented at a distance the appear- 
ance of a cabbage-garden, until I realised, on approach, that many 
were twelve or fourteen feet in height, and with woody stems that 
considerably exceeded a man’s Jeg in thickness and circum- 
ference. Their dark red or purple fruit formed a common article 
of food, but I discovered, to my cost, that one should carefully 
avoid gathering or even touching the leaves, not on account of the 
large prickles, but the multitudinous small ones, which worked into 
the hands almost imperceptibly, and are apt to fester. Any further 
attempts to pursue my walk were destined to disappointment upon 
this occasion, as the narrow stony paths that intersected the 
steep vineyards, were converted into foaming watercourses, owing 
to the roughness of the weather; and I therefore contented myself 
with the sight of Deiopeia pulchella, and the capture of Epilachna 
chrysomelina, which last proved tolerably plentiful on waste 
ground in the outskirts of the town. 

October 25th. One of the principal sights in the neighbourhood 
of Bastia is the stalactitic Cave of Brando, distant about six 
miles north along the coast ; and accordingly we paid two visits to 
the spot, as on this first occasion we had arrived too late in the day 
for admission to the grotto. The picturesque terrace-road leading 
thither gave us a favourable impression of the general scenery of 
the island. To the traveller in Corsica, it may be remarked, one 
of the most noticeable features in the scenery of that country is the 
prevalence of the universal “ macchie.” The vegetation in question 
is composed of various shrubs, myrtle, wild rosemary (Rosmarinus 
officinalis), dwarf white broom (Genista Corsica), abundance of 
arbutus and heath, but consists chiefly of a highly-scented tree 
cistus (Cistws Monspeliensis), which bears a lilac blossom in 
the spring. This macchie covers every hill-side, extending from 
the rugged boulder and craggy scaur of the interior of the isle 
down to the sea-shore, and thus served as a hiding-place for the 
Corsican mobiles, when unwilling to encounter the Prussians. 
It may seem superfluous to describe such a well-known tree as the 
Arbutus, yet those who have not seen its wild profusion growing 
in masses both above and beneath the circuitous sweep of the 
mountain roads, the vivid green of its luxuriant foliage, its many 
blossoms with berries yellow or scarlet, according to the degree of 


THE ZOOLOGIST—JUNE, 1873. 3553 


maturity they have attained, can scarcely form an adequate idea of 
the singular beauty of this truly handsome shrub. And yet the 
landscape, as a whole, presents an arid rather than a verdant 
aspect, since the leaf of the cistus has a sombre hue, that of the 
rosemary is hoary, and between the various patches of underwood 
bare spaces occur, and the green and undulating pastures—so 
familiar to the traveller on the slopes of the Swiss mountains—are 
here nowhere visible. Grass is scanty, and the island meat in 
consequence poor, a large portion of what is consumed, as 
well as milk and butter, being in fact imported from Marseilles. I 
came across some fronds of the rare fern Gymnogramma lepto- 
phylla, growing out of a stone wall, when seeking the British 
Consul’s country residence this afternoon, and also gathered, within 
the shade of the olive groves bordering the road, pink cyclamens 
(Cyclamen Neapolitanum), a finer species than that in the vicinity 
of the Lake of Como, and having a more crown-shaped corolla. 
October 26th. Again to Brando, and this time with better 
success. The scenery was diversified by the alternate recurrence 
of a patch of dark green aloes, contrasting with the lighter hue of 
the Barbary fig and the shady olive grove, succeeded in its turn by 
red boulders cropping through the banks, then terraced vine- 
yards, and clusters of tall reeds with flower only second to Pampas 
grass in dimensions. A tramway skirted the road for a consider- 
able distance, for conveying the slate from a large quarry in the 
neighbourhood. The day was very fine and the sun powerful, and 
insect life proved correspondingly abundant. Edusa was plen- 
tiful, and I also noticed Brassice, Rape, Aigeria, Lathonia, Phlzas, 
Alexis, as well as a species allied to Megera (Satyrus Tigelius). 
Deiopeia pulchella, and both red and blue varieties of Gidipoda 
germanica were met with, and Acridium tataricum taking a short and 
springy flight from off the road into the vineyards. Coleoptera, both 
here and elsewhere throughout the island, proved very numerous; for 
example, during this walk I took Asida Corsica, Meloe autumnalis, 
-Capnodis tenebricosa, Bubas bison, Ateuchus laticollis, and Ti- 
marcha Prunneri. When near our destination we took our lunch 
under an olive-tree, and proceeding a short way further ascended 
the hill up a steep path to the grotto,—when we came across the 
finest growth of Adiantum Capillus-Veneris we had yet seen. The 
fern in question draped an old arch that spanned the ascent to the 
cave, which is situate in the face of a very bold and precipitous 


3554 THE ZooLocistT—JUNE, 1873. 


rock, the property of a private gentleman, and kept perfectly neat, 
clean, and dry. The inside of the cavern, duly lighted up on the 
attendance of visitors with numerous candles, was a sight worth 
coming to see, for stalactites, various in form and dimension, hung 
from the roof, and others had risen up by gradual formation from 
the floor to meet them, and thus one large stem was frequently 
produced, seven or eight feet in length. Several were of the purest 
white, like carved alabaster pendants, and others resembled flitches 
in shape; the light placed behind these last shone through them, 
producing a very pretty effect. Within the dusky recesses of the 
entrance I took the brownish Hypena rostralis, a moth which aptly 
matched its residence in hue. On our descent we walked ona little 
distance to the village of Luisa,—“ Bella Luisa,” as our host at 
Bastia called it,—and repairing to an inn kept by a person who had 
received an emperor’s medal for being instrumental in saving the 
lives of three persons shipwrecked off that coast, there ordered a 
carriage for our return. 

October 27th. In the afternoon of this day we took a walk 
inland, winding round to the left above the town, and then making a 
-considerable détour round a cultivated glen containing clumps of 
orange trees beneath, we enjoyed a fine prospect of the sea, Bastia 
below us to the left, and its citadel at a considerable elevation above 
us on our right. 

October 28th. I visited for the first time what I subsequently 
regarded as a very favourite resort, a hilly slope in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Bastia, where Globularia Alyssum and wild 
rosemary displayed their mauve-coloured blossoms, and where I 
took the very handsome burnished little beetle Chrysomela Ameri- 
cana on the latter of these shrubs, besides meeting with Licimes 
agricola, as well as many specimens of Ateuchus laticollis, until, on 
my last visit there, the day preceding my bidding farewell to 
Corsica, the “ tramontana chiara,” blowing from the hills across the 
sea, effectually prevented any further investigations, making all the 
herbage tremble from its roots. Later in the day we walked out 
to the new harbour works, composed of large blocks of green 
serpentine and concrete, but brought nearly to a standstill for 
want of funds since the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war. Elba 
with her mountains, as well as Caprera and Monte Christo, are 
clearly visible from here in fine weather, but in cloudy seasons the 
last is always, and the second occasionally, concealed. 


Tur ZooLocist—June, 1873. $555 


October 29. The route from Bastia to Ajaccio, traversing the 
island in a S.S.W. direction for ninety-four miles, also deserves 
mention. We started at 11 p.m. on the evening of October 28th 
in a berlin; the night was brilliant starlight, and occasional glow- 
worms shone along the bank during the first part of the way. Our 
progress on this journey was but slow, as the horses were poor, 
and frequently changed. Near Vescovato, the road, which had 
hitherto kept a mile or more distant from the sea, strikes inland. 
and shortly after skirts the Golo for a considerable distance, first 
along the right bank, then on the left of the stream, which was 
heard, and occasionally seen by starlight, foaming in its rocky bed. 
Day broke as we entered Corte, in which town we made a halt of 
several minutes, with the bronze statue of Pascal Paoli shining 
indistinctly in the “Place” by twilight, and on resuming our 
journey we crossed, immediately after, the Tavignano, and then the 
Restonica, a tributary of the former. The confluence of these two 
streams takes place directly below the town: the Tavignano is cele- 
brated because at its embouchure occurred almost the first naval 
engagement on record,—that of Alalea (the modern Aleria), 
between the Phoceans and Carthaginians, 448 B.c.,—and the 
Restonica from the fact that the ascent to Monte Rotondo, the 
second highest mountain in the island, is commenced by follow- 
ing up its gorge, and because on account of its cleansing qualities 
the locks and barrels of the Corsican muskets in old warfare were 
dipped in its stream. Chestnut groves were then passed, bright 
with the rising sun, and strewing the grouud with abundance of 
dropped fruit. We next crossed the torrent of the Vecchio, 
another tributary of the Tavignano, and ascending to another vil- 
lage, S. Pierre Vecchio, entered directly a new valley, where the 
road winding round its sides commanded a fine view of the plain 
beneath, surmounted by steep stony slopes. On reaching our next 
halting-place, Vivario, we found this Splugen of Corsica nestled 
amid the hills, and well-known for the practice of the vendetta, to 
be a dirty town of white houses, but containing a drinking-foun- 
tain in the centre, and really a handsome one, ornamented by a 
figure of Diana armed for the chase, a statue very appropriate to the 
locality. Then leaving this spot, we commenced ascending the 
pass, and wound up, chestnuts and aromatic underwood gradually 
surmounted, till nothing was left but the stiff straight trunks of the 
Corsican pine in the forest of Vizzavona, overhanging alike the 


8556 THE ZooLocist—JuNE, 1873. 


lower zone and the less lofty forms of vegetation, nothing around 
their stems except sere and yellow bracken, and no tree contesting 
their high place, until we came across a wood of beeches, whose 
foliage, red and yellow with autumn, afforded a brilliant and pleasing 
contrast to the sombre green of the above. Before we reached 
this spot, however, in blackened stumps and leafless stems we saw 
only too evident traces of the fire that lasted for many days, 
raging in this forest in the month of September, 1866. A driving 
mountain mist hid the opposite wooded slopes from our view, and 
further on the trunks of the firs for a considerable distance were 
swathed with a spreading olive-green lichen (Sticta pulmonaria). 
The posting-house, close to the summit of the pass termed the 
Foci, is a dreary-looking building, not that it is situate on a de- 
solate waste mountain height, but the lonely forests in which it is 
embosomed render it quite as lonesome. The descent once com- 
menced, with its turns and windings, is very rapid, and then the 
wild valley of the Gravona is entered, and pursued for a consider- 
able distance, forming the concluding portion of the journey to 
Ajaccio. 
F. A. WALKER. 
(To be continued.) 


Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. 
By Joun CorpEAux, Esq. 


(Continued from §. S. 3465.) 


Marcu To May, 1873. 


Marsh Titmouse.-—March 5. This species has been most nume- 
rous during the past winter, and I have observed it much more 
frequently than the usually far more common coal titmouse. 

Scaup.—March 5. A flock of these ducks off the creek, males 
and females in pairs. 

Birds on the Flats.—March 19. This morning there were near 
the mouth of our creek a considerable collection of shore-birds: 
within the space of a few yards I noticed a magnificent old full- 
plumaged great blackbacked gull, four mature common gulls, some 
gray plover, dunlin and ringed plover, many curlew, hooded crows, 
and single female wild duck. 

Starling.—March 18. Large flocks, thousands together, in the 
coast marshes. They have commenced their spring evolutions. 


ee 


THE ZooLocist—JuNE, 1873. 8557 


Fieldfare.—March 18. This afternoon there was a great flock of 
fieldfares in a ploughed field in a neighbouring parish not far from 
the coast. I tried to make a careful estimate of their numbers, 
which could hardly be short of eight hundred. 

Brambling.—March 24, A fine old male with a flock of chaf- 
finches in the hedgerows. 

Chiffchaff.—March 29. First heard. 

Wheatear.—March 81. First observed; a female. Common as 
this species is in our marshes in the spring, I have up to this date 
(May 8rd) not noticed another example. Owing to the excessive 
severity of the spring and the bitter north-east winds, our migrants 
have been very scarce, few and far between, and remarkable by 
their silence. 

White Wagtail.—April 2. I saw a pair of white wagtails in the 
marsh this morning chasing and toying together; in the same place 
(a freshly-sown oat-field) were many pairs of the common pied 
species. Pied wagtails arrived in considerable numbers towards 
the end of March and early in April, but only remained a few days 
in the marshes: although I have been daily on the look-out, these 
are the only examples of the continental M. alba that I have seen. 

Hooded Crow.—April 8. Left from the 8th to the 14th. Wind 
N.E. to E. and 8.E. 

Redstart.—April 12. First observed, a male, near Barnsley, 
Yorkshire. 

Tree Pipit and Willow Wren.—April 14. Heard and seen near 
Barnsley. Tree pipit at Great Cotes, April 24th. 

Chimney Swallow.—April 17, Great Cotes; at Waltham, within 
six miles of this place, April 13th. 

Sand Martin.—April 19. First appearance, Riby Park. 

Fieldfare.—April 20. Large flocks remained with us up to this 
date. They have daily visited the tops of some high trees on the 
“beck” bank, the last group of timber between Great Cotes and 
the coast. I saw a small flock of forty on the 3rd of May. 

Golden Plover—April 21st, three seen; 29th, a pair. All were 
in full summer plumage. 

Bartailed Godwit.—April 24. A pair feeding together on the 
flats. 

Lesser Whitethroat and Ray’s Wagtail.—April 28. First seen, 
Great Cotes marshes; wind W. 27th. Wind N., excessively cold 
and stormy, with showers of sleet, hail and snow. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 2F 


3558 THE ZooLocist—JuNE, 1873. 


Longtailed Titmouse.—May 2. This evening, on the borders of 
one of the plantations, we found the nest of this titmouse con- 
taining two eggs: this was most artistically concealed at the very 
summit of a spruce, about fourteen feet from the ground. The 
entrance was to the south and shaded by the highest spray of the 
fir; there was nothing above excepting the leading shoot of the 
tree. The outer walls of this marvellous and wonderful structure 
were compacted of a felt-like mass of green moss, scraps of white 
lichen, and scales of the spruce-bark, woven together with fine roots 
and vegetable fibre, spiders’ webs and little fragments of wool. The 
lining was a mass of feathers, mainly those of the rook, misseltoe 
thrush and wood pigeon. 

Cuckoo.—May 1. First heard; wind S.W. 

Carrion Crow.—May 1. Although the young rooks are well 
forward in the nest, the carrion crows are only just commencing 
sitting. Four eggs taken from a nest in one of the plantations this 
evening are only slightly incubated. 

Variety of Blackbird’s Egg.—May 1. Four eggs from the same 
nest, taken this morning, are considerably more elongated than the 
ordinary type; their colour altogether is a pale delicate greenish 
blue, with a very few slight pale brownish dots or splashes. 

Common Whitethroat.—May 2. Wind W.; first seen and heard. 

Whinchat.—May 3. Wind W.; one seen. 


JoHN CoRDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 
May 3, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Norfolk. By H. StTEvENsoN, F.LS. 
(Continued from Zool. S. S$, 3403.) 


‘ 


JANUARY. 


Snipe-—Owing to the long-continued rains, and consequent 
floods in the low-lying districts, very large numbers of snipe were 
found this month on the ploughed lands and turnip-fields inland: 
I have heard of fifty or more couples flushed in such localities on 
a single farm. 

Bittern.—One killed at Weyborne on the 4th, an unusually small 
bird, and a fine specimen near Lowestoft on the 7th. Remains of 
shrimps were found in the stomach of the latter. 


THE ZooLocisT—JuNE, 1873. 3559 


Greenjfinch.—During the sharp frost in the middle of this month 
trays full of these birds, nearly all males, with a few cock sparrows, 
appeared as usual in our market. 

Wildfowl.—This winter has been remarkable for the scarcity of 
fow] in our markets, but the frost and snow towards the end of the 
month caused a small show of wild ducks, teal, wigeon and tufted 
ducks, with a few bunches of golden plovers and lapwings. 

Variety of the Snipe-—Mr. Norman, of Yarmouth, records in 
‘Land and Water’ (Feb. Ist, 1873), a beautiful fawn-coloured 
snipe, as killed near Yarmouth on the 18th of January. The 
markings on the head, wings and back were darkest, and the tail 
barred ; beak and legs light flesh-colour when fresh killed. 

Sclavonian Grebe.—One in full winter plumage shot on the 8rd. 

Variety of the Thrush.—A pretty buff-coloured variety of the 
song thrush was shot at Salthouse on the 4th. 

Woodcock.—About eight or ten couples were hanging for sale 
in our market on the 7th. Throughout the winter they have been 
very scarce. 

Sheldrake.—Several fine birds have been killed this month, 
on Breydon and other parts of the coast. A pair brought to 
Norwich on the 7th were shot at Blakeney, where a vessel had 
been wrecked having a cargo of oats on board; and these being 
washed out when the boat went to pieces, attracted much fowl to 
the spot. 

Goosander.—A splendid old male, with rich salmon-coloured 
breast, was killed on the 7th. The first I have heard of this 
month. 

Goldeneyes and Scaups.—Two fine adult male goldeneyes and 
a pair of old scaup ducks were sent up from Yarmouth towards the 
close of the month. 

Bittern.—A large specimen, but in very poor condition, was 
killed near Yarmouth about the 15th. 

Variety of the Chaffinch.—A curious male variety, of a grayish 
buff colour, but showing greenish feathers on the lower part of the 
back, was shot on the 21st. 


FEBRUARY. 
Waxwing.—That the appearance of waxwings on our eastern 
coast during the winter months is not due, as a rule, to the severity 
of the season, is shown by their occurrence in some numbers in the 


3560 THE ZooLocist—JUNE, 1873, 


present winter of 1872—8. Between the 15th of November and 
the 8th of February I have notes of some sixteen examples killed 
in various parts of the county, in date about equally distributed 
over the period before and after Christmas. The majority of those 
I have examined have been in remarkably fine plumage, some 
having from six to seven wax tips on each wing, but none eight, 
as I have seen on former occasions. When the number of tips is 
uneven I have frequently found the deficient quill showing traces 
of friction or other injury. In the most adult birds the yellow 
markings on the outer webs of the primaries are carried round the 
tip of each feather, with a more or less clearly defined white 
edging. One bird killed this season, a female by dissection, differs 
from any I have ever seen (though I have handled more than a 
hundred freshly-killed specimens at different times) in having no 
wax tips at all, even in the most rudimentary state. I believe this 
bird, from its general appearance, to be a young female, but as 
even the nestlings are known to show this peculiar feature, this is 
no question of age, nor can I positively state any reliable 
distinction between the sexes, short of dissection; young males and 
females and adult males and females being, relatively, so much 
alike. Yarrell’s statement that females have never more than five 
wax tips is inaccurate, as I have dissected specimens with six and 
seven in each wing, the yellow and white markings on the 
primaries being, in those birds, as fine as in any adult males. By 
far the larger number of the birds killed this winter have proved 
to be males. Besides a few stragglers we have had no waxwing 
year since the memorable winter of 1866—7, when, between the 
17th of November and the 7th of January, one hundred and forty- 
four specimens were killed to my knowledge in Norfolk only, and 
their abundance was noticed in many other counties. Throughout 
that time the weather was extremely severe. Mr. Thomas South- 
well, when dissecting several of those recently sent to Norwich for 
preservation, found, in the stomachs of all but two, the remains of 
whitethorn haws; the exceptions had been feeding apparently on 
privet berries, the whole intestinal canal being stained a rich purple. 


Marcu. ; 
Great Crested Grebe.—About the middle of the month some 
half-a-dozen of these birds were killed on different broads in this 
county, just returned to their nesting haunts, but too soon, unfor- 


THE ZooLocist—J UNE, 1873. $561 


tunately, for the protection of the Sea Birds’ Act, the close time 
in which begins on the Ist of April. 

Guillemot.—A bird killed off the coast about the 20th of this 
month was in full summer plumage. 

Sedge Warbler.—Heard and seen first time on the 80th. 

Hawfinch.—The mild winter of 1872—3 has been as remarkable 
for a large influx of this species as the severe season of 1859—60, 
and though it is to be feared that many of our home-bred birds 
are amongst the slain, still their simultaneous occurrence in more 
southern counties, as well as in Suffolk, would seem to indicate a 
very considerable migratory movement. The time of their 
appearance also corresponds to that of previous seasons, extending 
from the beginning of December to the first week in March; and 
although the larger number have been killed, as usual, in the 
enclosed districts;—where, for both residents and migrants of this 
species, old yew trees and gardens stocked with bullace trees have 
most attractions, —a few have been procured on the coast at 
Yarmouth, as in 1859, when a large flight alighted in the gardens 
facing the Denes. On this occasion a considerable proportion of 
the specimens brought to our bird-stuffers have been killed in and 
around Diss, and chiefly in one particular garden in the town 
itself. The number destroyed in that locality alone is variously 
estimated at between fifty and sixty, of which at least thirty were 
shot at Diss. Of other examples brought into Norwich to be 
preserved I have seen ten from East Carlton; one, Buxton; two, 
Berghapton; two, Kirby; two, Arminghall; four, Lyng; three, 
Brooke; two, Hethersett; and one, Catton; twenty-seven in all, 
and these probably represent but a portion of the birds sacrificed 
when attacking the bullaces in market-gardens. Mr. Thomas 
Southwell informs me that in all the Diss specimens, the contents 
of whose stomachs were reserved for him to see, the food consisted 
entirely of yew-berries; but those from East Carlton and other 
villages near Norwich, had, in every instance, been feeding on the 
kernels of a small stone fruit, probably the bullace, as they were 
seen to frequent those trees. In dissecting them a very powerful 
smell of prussic acid was evolved from the half-decomposed 
kernels. The Rev. H. T. Frere, of Burston, received a nestling 
hawfinch in the spring of 1872, bred in that neighbourhood, and 
every year adds more instances of this species remaining to breed 
both in this and the adjoining county. 


$562 THE ZooLocist-——JUNE, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Devon and Cornwall. 
By J. GatcomsE, Esq. 


(Continued from Zool. S. 8. 3468). 


MarcH AND APRIL, 1873. 


March 1. Weather mild, after a storm. Northern diver off the 
Devil’s Point, still in winter or immature plumage, most likely a 
young bird of the year. Took a short walk into the country ; 
observed a large number of chaffinches, in pairs, feeding amongst 
the manure scattered over the fields. Sky larks and wood larks 
plentiful, also in pairs, the males constantly rising and singing 
joyfully in the air. Curlews plentiful and rather noisy on the mud- 
banks of Weston Mill Creek. large flocks of knots, a species 
seldom seen in this locality after the autumn, have been observed 
on the mud-flats of our rivers during the past winter. 

March 4. Saw Larus ridibundus with a perfectly dark head; also 
another on the 6th. A few days since an immature black redstart 
was brought to a birdstuffer in Stonehouse: it was killed by an 
officer, who supposed it to be a hedgesparrow with a red tail. 
I recollect a poor man once picking up one which I had shot from 
the rocks, and bringing it to me with the exclamation, “ Master, 
you have killed a fine firey cock linnick !” (meaning linnet). 

March 7. Heard two or three pairs of razorbills croaking loudly 
off the Devil’s Point, as they generally do towards the breeding- 
season, but they were all in winter or immature plumage. Remarked 
also a young glaucous gull and two black redstarts, one at the 
Point and-the other on the rocks near the Plymouth Citadel. Two 
redthroated divers were killed in the Sound during the week, both 
in winter plumage; these birds, notwithstanding the late long- 
continued gales, have been unusually scarce during the winter, 
although the northern divers have been so plentiful. Several knots 
are now exposed for sale in the Plymouth Market. 

March 8. Walked for some miles along the coast, and observed 
a pair of ravens which were breeding near Bovisand, a guillemot in 
perfect summer dress, some great blackbacked and herring gulls, 
and a specimen of the water pipit (Anthus spinoletta), which species 
is rarely seen on the Devonshire coast. 

March 10. There were many razorbills about in pairs, but in 
winter plumage, several lesser blackbacked and herring gulls and 


THE ZooLoGcisT—JUNE, 1878. 3563 


some pied wagtails, all in perfect summer dress; and in a bird- 
stuffer’s I saw a beautiful shag in splendid plumage, with a full crest, 
killed on the 7th; also a cormorant with the white spot over the 
thigh and a crest appearing, from the gullet of which was taken a 
large wrasse, thirteen and a half inches long, four inches and a 
quarter deep, and nine inches and a half in girth, weighing one 
pound eight ounces: so far down and firmly fixed was this fish in 
the bird’s throat, the end of the tail only protruding, that it was 
with great difficulty extracted, the small and slippery portion of the 
tail affording such an insufficient grasp for the finger and thumb, 
that the feat had at length to be accomplished by the aid of the 
boatman’s teeth. I examined the bird myself, and secured the fish, 
which I carefully weighed and measured, therefore there can be no 
mistake as to its size. 

March 11. Saw many starlings entering the holes of the walls in 
which they bred last year. Observed also a beautiful variety of the 
common sparrow with a white head and neck, the ordinary brown 
plumage of the back and wings being also splashed with white. Re- 
marked about a hundred mews (Larus canus) feeding in a grass field 
in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, but some miles from the sea. 

March 14. Another black redstart at the Devil’s Point, Stone- 
house: these birds increase in number on the sea-coast just before 
their departure for the summer. A chiffchaff was seen in a small 
garden at Stonehouse on the 17th, after a very strong and cold wind 
on the previous day. Many razorbills in summer plumage off the 
coast, and titlarks constantly mounting in the air from the summit 
of the cliffs, and descending singing with outspread wings and 
elevated tail, as if already nesting. 

March 18. A great many lesser blackbacked gulls still in the 
harbour, mostly in full summer plumage, but with some brown ones 
among them. Observed several wheatears and two black redstarts 
on the coast. 

March 21. Wind north-east, very cold with sleet: Went to the 
Dewerstone Rock, near Dartmoor, on which I observed a pair of 
ravens; and on my way home, through Bickleigh Vale, met with 
several longtailed tits in pairs, some goldcrests, and a very large 
flock of ring doves feeding in a ploughed field. 

March 22. Examined a very fine old male scoter which had been 
killed in the neighbourhood, and some golden plovers with tolerably 
black breasts, 


3564 THE ZooLocist—JUNE, 1873. 


March 24. Heard some nuthatches uttering their loud twittering 
calls in the woods, and saw some chiffchaffs. Observed also a few 
small flights of goldfinches, which are termed “ blossom birds” by 
the birdcatchers in the spring. 

March 26. Took a ramble on the coast beyond Bovisand. 
Watched an oystercatcher feeding on the rocks, and remarked that 
most of the cormorants had assumed the oval white spot over the 
thigh, very conspicuous when the bird is flying, and sometimes 
termed by the fishermen “the watch under the wing ;” they also 
appeared to have attained the crest, &c. Observed to-day another, 
and | expect the last, black redstart for the season on the coast. 

March 31. Weather mild and misty; wind about south. Visited 
Pew-tor and Vixen-tor on Dartmoor, near which I was much pleased 
to see a fine pair of ring ouzels, which allowed me to approach 
within twenty yards of them: these were the first I had seen for 
the year, but upon asking a man who lived on the moor if he had 
seen any, he told me that he had seen a solitary one on the 27th; 
and on further asking if he was quite sure that it was a ring ouzel, 
his answer was, “ Well, zur, I ought to know, living here for so many 
years, and I zed to my boy, ‘ There! there’s one of them there ring 
aisels, and if I had my gun I'd shut en vor my verret’” (ferret). 
I also met with several flocks of fieldfares on the borders of the 
moor flying towards the sea in a south-westerly direction. Wheat- 
ears on the moor were numerous and large; indeed I have often 
observed that the wheatears on Dartmoor seem to be larger and 
finer in plumage than those which remain to breed nearer the coast ; 
but this may be mere fancy on my part. During the past month 
I have examined, at a birdstuffer’s, a buzzard, raven, hooded crow 
and hawfinch, all killed in the neighbourhood. The hooded crow is 
but seldom seen in this part of the county. I have never known 
blackbirds so plentiful as’ they are this year, which, no doubt, is 
owing to the Gun License—certainly not to the Wild Birds Pro- 
tection Act, which I fear will do but little good, since the thrush 
family, as well as many others, is not included in the Act, and boys 
are still allowed to tear out nests, eggs and young with impunity. 
On the first of May garlands and models of ships decorated with 
flowers, ribbons and strings of birds’ eggs are carried from door to 
door through the streets of Plymouth, the eggs having been eagerly 
collected expressly for the occasion during the preceding month; 
and I well know that it used to be a custom among the London 


THE ZooLoGisT—JUNE, 1873. 3565 


boys to carry naked and half-fledged young birds to the Zoological 
Gardens on Whit-Monday to throw among the eagles and hawks. 
If we really wish to protect our wild birds why not include ald in 
the list, and also prohibit the wanton destruction of their eggs and 
young? The present Act may be a check on some of the bird- 
catchers, but I fear that many will disregard it altogether; for on 
seeing some of these men at their avocation a week or two since, 
I asked if they were aware that it was against the law to catch 
birds after the 15th of March. The answer was, “ Yes, sir, we know, 
but perhaps we are not catching birds that are protected,”’—at the 
same time feeling determined that every bird should be “good” 
and unprotected which came into their nets. Now had the words 
“all wild birds” been mentioned in the Act, there could not possibly 
be any excuse for them. Then, again, how many people will plead 
ignorance of even the names of one half of the species mentioned 
in the list? ; ; 

April 1. Lesser blackbacked gulls very numerous in our harbour. 
Observed a pair of razorbills, still in winter or immature plumage, 
croaking loudly to each other in the Sound. 

April 8. Saw and heard several chiffchaffs at Mount Edge- 
combe. 

April 4. Visited the neighbourhood of St. Clear, in Cornwall. 
When crossing the river Tamar at St. Germans, on my way down, 
noticed a large number of lesser blackbacked and herring gulls on 
the mud-banks and flocks of ring doves on the salt-marshes; many 
green woodpeckers a few miles from Liskeard, which species, I am 
glad to add, has become far more plentiful throughout Cornwall 
during the last few years; I also found kestrels and wood larks 
numerous; remarked several flocks of fieldfares, lapwings and 
curlews on the moors; and by the trout-streams many pairs of 
gray wagtails. Visited the neighbourhood of Launceston, and in 
the Valley of the Tamar observed several swallows on the wing, 
three common sandpipers on a small rock in the river, many 
dippers, and a kingfisher, which latter was constantly flying down 
the stream with a small fish in its beak, no doubt having a nest and 

young not far off; and on the river’s bank I saw the remains of 
a waterhen, which had been killed by some bird of prey. In the 
woods were many green woodpeckers and nuthatches. 

April 15. Heard some willow wrens and saw more swallows. 
Observed with a powerful pocket-telescope some starlings, among 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 26 


3566 THE ZooLoGist—JUNE, 1873. 


which was a fine old bird that appeared to be altogether of a 
beautiful glossy black, without any spots even on the back. Sawa 
female redbreasted merganser, in the flesh, which had been killed 
a few days before in Whitsand Bay, Cornwall: it was in strong 
moult. 

April 17. Heard the cuckoo in Bickleigh Vale, near Plymouth, 
and on the 18th the blackcap and tree pipit; wind north, but 
mild. 

April 19. Wind N.E., mild and fine. More blackcaps and a 
whitethroat. 

April 23. Examined a puffin which had been taken in an ex- 
hausted state on the coast: it was very emaciated and the stomach 
quite empty. 

April 26. Wind N.E., very cold. Saw a flock of whimbrels 
flying up the river, apparently just arrived from sea. Had 
one given to me the ‘same day, in the flesh, which flew on 
board a ship in the channel about a week before, and was kept 
alive for some days. I found this bird in a dreadfully emaciated 
state. 

April 80. There were about three hundred lesser blackbacked 
and herring gulls on the Laira mud-banks, and a great many 
also in the harbour; indeed I never knew the former species 
so plentiful as it is just now, and their constant cry when 
circling high in the air, even over the town, is remarked by 
everyone. 

JoHN GATCOMBE. 

8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth. 

May 7, 1873. 


Large Otter near Plymouth—On the 8th of March I was much inte- 
rested in watching a very large otter fishing in the sea, about a hundred 
and fifty yards from the rocks, diving about just as a cormorant would do, 
and bringing up a fish every minute, although the sea was rather rough. 
By and by a large northern diver ranged up alongside, and for a short time 
otter and diver seemed to be fishing in concert, but I must say that the otter 
appeared to catch four or five fish to the diver’s one. This otter was the 
largest I ever saw, and I think it must have been the same described in my 
note in the ‘ Zoologist’ for January (S. 8. 3865).—John Gatcombe. 


a a ae 


THE ZooLocist—JUNE, 1873. 3567 


Zoology of the Royal Academy. By Epwarp Nrewmay, 


My brief remarks on the zoological pictures exhibited by the 
Royal Academy last year were received with so much kindness 
and consideration, that I have been induced again to try my hand 
at art criticism, eschewing, however, the peculiar phraseology of 
the learned few who may be called “professors of the science,” and 
confining myself to the Johnsonian language I have been writing 
from youth to old age. 

There are certainly this year a much larger proportion of 
zoological pictures of high merit than I recollect in any previous 
exhibition; and, whether it be a good or a bad sign I will not 
presume to pronounce, I think that animal painting has now taken 
the very highest position in English art. Acres of portraits, inte- 
resting’ only to the painters and the painted, are still present, but 
serve merely as a foil to those charming pictures which, with or 
without the animals, must delight every one who has a taste for 
country life. The self-imposed limit to my subject prevents my 
noticing the works of the great masters of landscape, Linnell, 
Vicat Cole and Birkett Foster, and I must confine myself to 
paintings of which animals constitute the chief subject and the 
chief ornament. 

Mr. Carter exhibits a very telling picture under the title of 
Maternal Felicity (No. 26); it represents a fallow. deer and her 
fawn, drawn with unusual skill and exhibiting unusual knowledge: 
the animals are posed with taste and judgment, and painted with 
great care: there is nothing really objectionable in the title, but it 
seems rather too sentimental. 

By a perversity of genius by no means uncommon, Mr. Harpy 
gives us a picture of lions without a name, and Mr. Poo_e gives the 
title, A Lion in the Path (No. 28), to a picture without a lion; it is 
a truly fine landscape, but I can find no excuse for the misnomer: 
if the queer cripple under the shade of the oaks be intended for a 
lion, I am unable to detect the likeness: not so Mr. Hardy’s name- 
less picture; his couflicting brutes are most manifestly intended for 
lions, and monstrous ones too, standing on their hind legs, as one 
often sees dogs, but I think not lions, or auy other members of the 
cat family. Mr. Hardy’s idea seems to be borrowed from Mr. 
Ward’s case at the Crystal Palace, called “The Struggle,” in 
which the veritable skins of a lion and a tiger are represented 


3568 THE ZooLocist—JungE, 1878. 


romping in this canine manner, to the intense delectation of all 
juvenile visitors. I think Mr. Hardy might with advantage have 
borrowed Mr. Ward’s title as well as his idea. Two lions engaged 
in this manner for their own satisfaction would doubtless afford a 
terrible and grand spectacle. The only spectator Mr. Hardy has 
introduced is a lioness, who seems looking on with all the sangfroid 
of a fashionable lady at similar combats in a Roman amphi- 
theatre. 

Mr. FisHer has a large canvas covered with donkeys and geese, 
which he calls The Intrusion (No. 84). The donkeys exhibit the 
very essense of stolid indifference; the geese, on the other hand, 
are in a state of rabid and uncontrollable panic ; what antecedents 
have conspired to induce this state of things does not appear; but 
the violence of the birds is well contrasted with the quietude of the 
beasts, and if that was the painter’s object he has succeeded; but 
as the donkeys evidently stood for their portraits and the geese 
flew for theirs, it follows that the donkeys are the better painted. 
Mr. Fisher in his brief view of flying geese does not seem to have 
acquired a very correct idea of their appearance. 

Mr. Sipnry Cooprrr’s Monarch of the Meadows (No. 68) is an 
improvement of his familiar monotonous style. The monarch is a 
huge bull apparently standing on an invisible footstool behind a 
cow and calf which are lying down. 

In Mr. G. D. Lestin’s painting called The Fountain, I would 
invite attention to the magpie: few people know what a beautiful 
bird the magpie is; they consider it an objectionable, harsh, noisy, 
mischievous, black and white fellow, with a longish tail. Mr. Leslie 
has painted him in his true colours, and those colours are very 
handsome. 

That very clever painter Mr. ORcHARDSON has two zoological 
pictures of considerable merit: one of them, intituled The Pro- 
tector (No. 194), represents a large dog in company with a pleasant- 
looking lady in a garden; the lady seems to have no need of such 
a protector; but the dog is made to indicate the approach of a 
strange, if not unwelcome, footstep: the other picture, Oscar and 
Bain (No. 208), seems to be popular, but I failed to discover its 
attraction. 

Sir Epwin LANDSEER is again in dreamland, but his dreams are 
the dreams of genius: he has two paintings. Tracker (No. 255) and 
Sketch of Her Majesty the Queen (No. 256), proclaim the painter 


THE ZooLoGist—JUNE, 1878. 3569 


in unmistakable accents; but there was no occasion for the ex- 
planations to the latter, ‘ Unfinished,” and “ Her Majesty has not 
sat for the likeness ;” it is no likeness at all: as for Tracker, a very 
crude sketch of a collie, I can only lament it should be left in so 
unfinished a condition. There is something extremely pleasing in 
the white palfrey on which the lady is sitting: grace and gentleness 
are happily combined. 

I doubt whether Mr. Hoox’s Ornithology is so good as his 
painting; the former is borrowed, the latter his own. A boy is 
represented with a knife tied to the end of a stick, and holding up 
this curious instrument for a gull to transfix himself on, while a 
second boy is engaged taking the eggs of the gull from a very 
dangerous situation near the top of a cliff: a girl is holding the 
second boy by the legs to prevent his falling into the deep green 
sea, far, far beneath. The picture (No. 254) is called The Bonaie, 
and when I say it is exquisitely painted I am merely saying it is 
Mr. Hook’s. Mr. Hook has selected from Bewick’s ‘ Birds’ the 
following passage to illustrate the scene :— 


“Tt is, however, well ascertained that they [the skua gulls] are uncom- 
monly courageous in defence of their own young, and that they seize, with 
the utmost vengeance, upon any animal, whether man or beast, that offers 
to disturb their nests; and it is said also that they sometimes attack the 
shepherds even when they are watching their flocks upon the hills, who are 
obliged, in their own defence, to guard their heads, and to ward off the blows 
of the assailants by holding a pointed stick towards them, against which 
they sometimes dash with such force as to be killed on the spot. In like 
manner they who are about to rob their nests, hold a knife, or other sharp 
. instrument, over their heads, upon which the enraged bird precipitates and 
transfixes itself."—Vol. ii. pp. 211 (1816). 


Whether Bewick has sufficient authority for this passage may 
perhaps be doubted, but the plan or tradition, whichever it may be, 
of allowing birds to transfix themselves, is much older than the 
time of our illustrious wood-engraver. In a volume published at 
Rome in 1622, and intituled ‘ Olina (Giov. Pietro) Uccellaria, overo 
discorso della natura e proprieta de diversi Uccelli, is an engraving 
(eight inches by six) of birds impaling themselves in this manner, 
and lettered thus :—“ Del colombaccio e sua coccia.” In the left- 
hand upper corner you see pigeons transfixing themselves until 
the spikes are filled, while others, with closed wings, are dropping 
down headlong, as though disappointed that there were no more 


3570 Tuer ZooLocist—JUNE, 1873. 


unoccupied skewers. In the distance is a thick grove of trees 
similarly provided with skewers, towards which clouds of pigeons 
are tending. In the foreground a lady and gentleman are watching 
this process of self-immolation, whilst a lad, kneeling beside them, 
turns a spit on which sixteen or twenty pigeons are roasting. 

The Ornithologist (No. 380), by Mr. H. S. Marks, is the picture 
of pictures: it exhibits an extraordinary combination of quiet 
humour, artistic skill, and knowledge of Natural History : the bird- 
skins are those of veritable birds; every bird is so correctly repre- 
sented that you recognize it at once, but it has passed through the 
hands of the birdstuffer, and therefore is not a living bird, but a 
compound of feathers, skin and wire, brought into that kind of juxta- 
position which pourtrays the taste of the taxidermist, but has not the 
most remote resemblance to the living animal which once inhabited 
the skin: the legs are ostentatiously wired legs, the eyes osten- 
tatiously glass eyes, excepting in one or two instances where a bit 
of cotton-wool occupies the cavity: the ornithologist is standing 
on a pair of steps before a new cabinet with glass-doors, and with 
his hand and voice is giving instructions to his very neat and 
respectable assistant as to which specimen is to be handed up next: 
these specimens are all standing, higgledy piggledy, on the floor, 
and have been just removed from some less spacious and less con- 
venient cabinet now discarded: under one arm the assistant holds 
a flamingo, and under the other a stork, and these, though for the 
moment in rather uncomfortable attitudes, seem to be taking a 
respectful and subdued interest in the proceedings: on the table to 
the right is a basket containing heads, on another to the left are 
some brilliant exotics under a glass shade, which is painted as well 
as if by some old Dutchman ; and on the wall is a paper illustrating 
our knowledge of the Dodo, three figures of that eminent bird being 
placed in juxtaposition for comparison. 

Mr. Davis gives us, in No. 453, the cattle which he painted last 
year, but under an entirely different aspect; then he called his 
picture 4 Panic; the present painting is intituled Summer After- 
noon; this year’s is the more pleasing picture, last year’s the more 
forcible. I have already dwelt long enough on the extreme diffi- 
culty of representing cattle in violent action, but Mr. Davis, like 
Rosa Bonheur, has attempted and accomplished the feat: he has 
now mesmerised or Rareyfied the same panic-struck animals, and 
has subdued them to all the quietness of lambs. Even Landseer 


THE ZooLocist—J UNE, 1873. 3571 


never exhibited cattle so perfect. Hofner, a Belgian painter, has 
succeeded equally well in the International, but he and Rosa Bon- 
heur are the only exhibitors Mr. Davis has to fear: until this 
“Summer Evening” was exhibited Paul Potter’s Bull was the 
perfection of quiet unobtrusive power, but Mr. Davis need not 
shrink from comparison even with that chef d’euvre. His second 
picture, Twilight (No. 950), will scarcely prove so attractive as 
Summer Afternoon; it has, however, great merit, although not of 
so striking a character. 

Argus (No. 464), by Mr. Riviire, is a touching picture. Like 
everything the artist has exhibited, it shows a vast amount of know- 
ledge and of reflection. I may remark it is impossible not to detect 
a family likeness between the Daniel of last year and the Ulysses 
of this: probably the same model served the painter for both, but 
’ certainly the same feeling prevails in both the beggar king and the 
unjustly condemned prophet; they exhibit a wonderful similarity : 
in the beasts there is nothing of this; the poor staghound, con- 
quered by age and neglect, is the embodiment of an inspiration 
entirely different from that which produced the lions cowering 
under an Almighty influence they neither see nor understand. 
The story of Ulysses and his dog Argus does not seem so familiar 
to the general public as that of Daniel in the lion’s den, or indeed 
as I should have supposed it would be among the educated: I can 
only judge by the comments of the visitors to the exhibition, not 
one of whom during the half-hour I was before the picture seemed 
acquainted with the story. Such observations as these recurred 
perpetually, “Who was Argus?” “What did he do?” “ His dog 
seems half-starved;” “I wonder he does not fly at the beggar man;” 
“What an old worn-out hound it is;” “He looks a hundred ;” 
and so forth. Excepting the general mistake of supposing that 
Argus was the name of the man, I think I heard not a single 
remark but testified to the painter’s skill in conveying what he 
wished to convey. The readers of the ‘ Zoologist’ will not need to . 
be informed that Argus was a dog and not a man, yet I feel sure 
they will pardon me for quoting the following explanatory passage 
from the matchless poet who created both dog and man. 


“Thus near the gates conferring as they drew, 
Argus the dog, his ancient master knew ; 
He not unconscious of the voice and tread, 
Lifts to the sound his ear, and rears his head. 


3572 


THE ZooLoGisT—JUNE, 1878. 


Bred by Ulysses, nourished at his board, 

But, ah! not fated long to please his lord! 

To him his swiftness and his strength were vain ; 

The voice of glory called him o’er the main. 

Till then in every sylvan chase renowned, 

With ‘ Argus,’ ‘ Argus,’ rung the woods around. 

With him the youth pursued the goat or fawn, 

Or traced the mazy leveret o’er the lawn. 

Now left to man’s ingratitude he lay, 

Unhoused, neglected, in the public way ; 

And where on heaps the rich manure was spread, 

Obscene with reptiles, took his sordid bed. 

He knew his lord; he knew, and strove to meet; 

In yain he strove to crawl, and kiss his feet; 

Yet (all he could) his tail, his ears, his eyes, 

Salute his master and confess his joys. 

Soft pity touch’d the mighty master’s soul ; 

Adown his cheek a tear unbidden stole, 

Stole unperceived; he turned his head and dried 

The drop humane; then thus impassion’d cried: 

‘ What noble beast in this abandon’d state 

Lies here all helpless at Ulysses’ gate ? 

His bulk and beauty speak no vulgar praise ; 

If, as he seems, he was in better days, 

Some care his age deserves; or was he prized 

For worthless beauty? therefore now despised ; 

Such dogs and men there are, mere things of state ; 

And always cherished by their friends, the great.’ 
‘Not Argus so,’ (Humeeus thus rejoined), 

‘But served a master of a nobler kind, 

Who never, never shall behold him more! 

Long, long since perished on a distant shore! 

Oh, had you seen him, vigorous, bold and young, 

Swift as a stag, and as a lion strong; 

Him no fell savage on the plain withstood, 

None ‘scaped him bosomed in the gloomy wood ; 

His eye how piercing, and his scent how true, 

To wind the vapour in the tainted dew: 

Such when Ulysses left his natal coast ; 

Now years unnerve him, and his lord is lost! 

The women keep the generous creature bare, 

A sleek and idle race is all their care. 


Tue ZooLocist—JuneE, 1873. 3573 


The master gone, the servants what restrains ? 

Or dwells humanity where riot reigns? 

Jove fixed it certain that whatever day 

Makes man a slave, takes half his worth away.’ 
This said, the honest herdsman strode before: 

The musing monarch pauses at the door: 

The dog, whom Fate had granted to behold 

His lord, when twenty tedious years had roll’d, 

Takes a last look, and having seen him, dies ; 

So closed for ever faithful Argus’ eyes!” 


A second picture by the same accomplished artist is called All 
that was left of the Homeward Bound (No. 986). It has every 
perfection as far as painting is concerned, but is too painful to gaze 
on without shuddering: a floating mast is “all that was left of the 
homeward bound,” but lashed to that mast is a young woman; and 
a white dog is lying across her body: the dog is evidently alive, 
bat in the last stage of suffering and emaciation; the spirit of the 
woman also, apparently, is hovering in the balance between life and 
death; the lamp of life is glimmering in the socket: whether it be 
desirable to introduce such scenes among the portraits of the sleek, 
succulent physiognomies of the well-to-do, is a matter to be debated: 
happily our English painters, well-fed themselves, are unequal to 
the task, and therefore will never make the attempt; so we may 
feel secure from repetitions of the harrowing scene. A sail appearing 
on the horizon is the only hopeful spot in the dismal prospect; 
on this the eye dwells as a possible, but most improbable, chance 
of succour: how can human eye discern an object floating at so 
great a distance on the surface of the illimitable waters ! 

Victor and Vanquished (No. 1057), by Mr. Brapey, has merits 
and demerits of no common kind: the freedom with which the 
Chillingham cattle are drawn, and the judgment with which they 
are grouped, deserves high praise: the attitude of the victor bull, 
caressed by one of the cows, is truthful and picturesque; so are the 
cow and calf on the right, who appear to be contemplating and pity- 
ing the dying bull on the left; but that bull himself is a repulsive 
object; supposing it true, such truth should never be put on canvas, 
even to gratify our insatiate appetite for sensation, and if indicated, 
as murders are often indicated on the stage, the pitiful object should 
not be exposed to our gaze; with this exception, all the other 
figures are pleasing, and the attitudes bold but not exagyerated. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VII. 2H 


8574 THE ZooLocist—JuNE, 1873. 


The colour of these cattle, however, seems too ochreous, and the 
patches of shadow on their beautiful coats are too spotty; not that 
I would wish to see these shadows smoothed down and lost, but 
even the strongest and most effective lights and shades may be so 
managed that the spectator shall not notice them any more than he 
does in nature. No one in looking at a living cow sees these 
shadows at all, but sees a white unspotted cow: no doubt the 
shades exist, but Potter, Hofner, Landseer, and especially Davis, use 
them only asin nature: depicting a shadow correctly is an art of the 
highest quality, but to accomplish this without betraying the pains 
you have taken is a still higher art, the avs celare arlem: the wild 
cattle, as they are called, are not to be studied at leisure, and we _ 
do not envy the artist who sets up his easel at Chillingham and 
waits until they come and stand for their portraits. 
EpwarD NEWMAN. 


The Wild Cat not a Myth.—As you speak of the wild cat, in the ‘ Zoologist’ 
for April (S.S. 3482), as a “reputed Scotch mammal,” a “ mythical creature,” 
&c., and say, apropos of Mr. Knox's book, that “it would have been pleasant 
to have learnt more particulars of” it, I send you a few notes concerning a 
female specimen I have been the happy possessor of since the middle of 
March, 1872. She is the largest of the five that I have seen alive, and was 
trapped in the north-east of Inverness-shire, in which operation one of the 
bones of her near fore paw—I believe the radius—was splintered ; but for- 
tunately not broken quite through; and although she had a very bad leg for 
some time, it is now healed, and appears to be quite healthy. She came in 
season the last week in June, after nearly dying from worms, caused, no 
doubt, by her having been fed largely on liver while I was away from home: 
she became as thin as a knife, and gradually lost her appetite, until for three 
days she ate nothing, and then passed a quantity of worms, which she effected, 
I believe, by eating some hay. I gave her a dose of powdered glass, but 
never saw any more worms; and from that time she rapidly gained flesh, 
and became, to a limited extent, tame: that is, although she had never left 
off her habit of perpetually swearing when receiving a visit, she will come, 
when tolerably hungry, for any one she knows, out of her “ bedroom” to the 
other half of the hutch-cage she inhabits, to receive food. Rabbits appear 
to be her favourite dish, but she will also eat water-voles, rats, weasels, field 
mice and house mice, though I do not think she cares much for the last- 
mentioned animal: pigeons, moorhens, sparrows, and other birds (including 
eggs), she is very fond of, with the exception, as might be supposed, of rooks, 
starlings, &c. She will not touch any kind of fish, though so far from 


THE ZooLoGist—JUNE, 1873. 8575 


objecting to water, she washes most nights in her water-tin; and every 
night regularly for several months she used to extract some stick-brimstone 
from the tin and bury it, together with her dung, in sawdust, which is 
always strewed in the outer half of the cage. She came in season again this 
year the last week in March, unluckily while I was away from home, for 
(as I begin to despair of ever getting a wild Tom), Mr. Bartlett had very 
kindly promised to send me the hybrid Tom from the Zoo. That they are 
not “ mythical,” &., is amply shown by the fact that they have had six in 
the Zoo within the last two years, three of which came from Lord Seafield’s 
forest, Bulmacaan, in Inverness-shire, where he breeds some (in captivity) 
every year, I believe. A gentleman in Sutherlandshire had one alive about 
two years ago, but I do not know whether it is still in existence; and a 
gentleman in Oxfordshire has bred several hybrids from one: the pair now 
in the Zoo were bred and presented by him. And I myself was sent a second 
specimen in September last, but it had been badly trapped, and was delayed 
on the journey, added to which it was a “ bird of the year,” and therefore 
had not come to its full strength ; the consequence of all which was that the 
poor thing died from mortification of the injured paw.—A. H. Cocks; Great 
Marlow, Bucks, April 29, 1873. 


Wild Birds Protection——Mr. A. Herbert moved for a Select Committee, 
with power to take evidence, to inquire into the advisability of extending the 
protection of a close season to certain wild birds not included in the Wild 
Birds Preservation Act of 1872. He said last session a Bill was brought in 
to protect a similar class of birds. It was enlarged so as to include all birds, 
and in the end a compromise took place, to the effect that hon. members 
who opposed legislation would cease to do so provided certain birds were not 
included. He had received a great many letters from different parts of the 
country on the subject. One young ]lady—(laughter)—wrote to inquire why 
the amiable and accomplished chaffinch—(renewed laughter)—had been left 
out of the Act. Another wrote, ‘ What sort of a protection is this when 
you find no room for the thrush?” And a third wrote, “ If the members of © 
your House of Commons are fond of pleasant sights and pleasant sounds, 
I cannot help thinking that the song of the blackbird will always be a 
reproach to them.” (Laughter.) All he asked for was an inquiry, and he 
had the fullest confidence that his clients would make out a case for including 
these and other birds in the Act of last session. 

Sir H. Hoare hoped the House would grant the Committee, not only on 
the score of humanity, but because linnets, chaffinches, and birds of that 
description were interesting in themselves, and afforded pleasure to many 
persons amongst the humbler classes. 

Mr. J. W. Barclay objected to any further legislation in the direction 
contemplated by the hon. member for Nottingham. (‘ Oh, oh,” and “ hear, 


3576 THE ZooLoGist—J UNE, 1878, 


hear.”) The greatest inconvenience was caused to seedsmen and market 
gardeners by the birds which the hon. gentleman wished to take under his 
protection. (“ Oh, oh,”’) 

Mr. C. 8, Read also opposed the motion. 

Mr. Dillwyn thought the granting of this inquiry would be the means of 
obtaining much useful information in regard to the habits of birds. Hedge- 
sparrows had been condemned because they were unfortunate enough to 
bear the name of sparrow, although they were as distinct in their habits 
and nature from sparrows as were owls from pigeons. (Laughter.) Asa 
practical observer of birds all his life, his conviction was that there was no 
bird that did not do more good than mischief. What was wanted was to 
prevent the wholesale capture or destruction of these birds for sale during 
the close season. (‘ Hear, hear.”) 

Mr. Liddell and Mr. Cowper-Temple supported the motion. 

Mr. Bruce thought it was for the interest of all parties that this inquiry 
should take place. (‘‘ Hear, hear.”) 

After a few words from Mr. Assheton and Mr. Parker, the House divided. 


Wor ithe, motion xicaternd’s pe. yc oetiacony aoe 
Against St 2 ah 
DISIOMCy. vs. si. ape eo 


—‘ Daily News,’ April 29, 1873. 

Wild Birds Protection Act.—As there appears to be an endeavour to 
make some alteration or other in this Act during the present Session of 
Parliament, it is, I think, incumbent on all who love common sense and 
justice, as well as sport and Ornithology, to speak out upon the subject. It 
is possible that some of the remarks Iam about to make will be unpalatable 
both to sportsmen and ornithologists, but it must be borne in mind that 
when legislation is proposed there are other considerations to be noted in the 
matter besides sport and Ornithology. Let me say then at once, and plainly, 
that this Act appears to me to be both ill-advised and excessively ill-drawn. 
Attention has been called to its glaring defects by Mr. F. O. Morris and 
others in the public journals » but it seems to me objectionable in principle, 
as well as in its utter failure to answer the end for which it has been 
designed. The Act itself was conceived by short-sighted sportsmen, and 
brought forth by ornithologists many generations behind the times; the 
former wished to extend the doubtful benefit of the Game Laws to a few 
more objects of sport, the latter jumped at the chance offered of fostering 
by Act of Parliament the objects of their studies. I will not waste my time, 
nor your space, by attempting to prove the patent errors of both; the time 
has passed when either sport or ornithological studies can be ensured by the 
legislature. In spite of all the Acts of Parliament that could be devised, 
neither sporting nor Ornithology will ever be allowed to stand long in the way 
of those rapid changes by flood and by field which are inevitable in every 


TuE ZooLocGist—JuUNE, 1878. 3577 


country where the area is limited and the population fast increasing. I write 
this, as I think and feel it, with grief and sorrow, for my love of the beasts and 
birds and creeping things of the earth is second to that of few others, but it 
is my conviction, and therefore I believe that every direct legislative effort 
to turn or to stop the tide of human progress in favour of the lower creation 
is wrong in principle, and will surely fail in practice. But were it right in 
principle, or if in spite of the principle I have mentioned, any attempt 
be made to legislate further on this subject, let the legislation be—as 
. Mr. Morris has very forcibly argued—thorough; protect the beautiful 
magpie, jay, hawk and falcon; let the selfishness of game-preservers give 
way a little, so that these may live; and especially, I would add, let it be 
just also; do not deprive the bird-catcher of his hard earnings while you let 
the cruel and ignorant gamekeeper (as I have proof ready of a game- 
keeper here doing very lately, and as I believe is the common practice of 
gamekeepers) torture a wounded jay for hours together, so that its 
shrieks may bring others within gunshot. Six jays fell here in this 
way in one day about a month since. Surely such a proceeding ought 
to come under the powers of the Humane Society. I fear, however, it 
does not, because cruelty can, as I understand, only be punished when 
wreaked upon some domestic animal; and if so, here is a point upon which 
legislation is certainly required. It may be absolutely necessary that 
magpies and jays should be exterminated in the interests of sport, but at all 
events let us regulate the mode of extermination, and enjoin at least decent 
humanity: this is imperative. Cruelty ought not to escape punishment 
one day longer merely because its object is undomesticated. Does a wild 
jay feel less than a caged chaffinch? Enforce humanity also among the 
bird-catching fraternity ; but if birds are not to be caught, attack the evil in 
its stronghold—make it penal to have birds in cages at all. Do not let us 
be guilty of the worse than inconsistency of punishing the hungry man for 
catching for his livelihood that which you allow the full one to appropriate 
with impunity for his amusement when caught. If there is to be further 
legislation, let it be, I repeat, thorough: let it be penal to destroy any bird 
in its breeding-season: extend this protection to all our birds, but with care 
rigorously to enforce humanity, by the punishment of all cruelty. The 
gamekeeper must then be left to deal, in the proper season, with hawks, 
jays and magpies for sake of sport; the birdcatcher with linnets and gold- 
finches for his livelihood ; and the gardener with bullfinches for the sake of 
his fruit,—for whatever, according to Mr. F. O. Morris, lately, in the 
‘Times,’ may be the nature and habits of the Yorkshire bullfinch, the 
practice of the Dorsetshire bullfinch is utterly incompatible with either 
gooseberries, pears, plums, cherries, and some kinds of apple, and even 
(this year) peaches, nectarines and apricots. I say make a close time for all 
birds, and enforce humanity towards all. It, however, a close time for all 


3578 THE ZooLoGist—JuNE, 1873. 


cannot be practically carried out (which will, I fear, be found to be the 
case), it never will be, I think, for the few ; still less will it be effected by 
such an ignorant, blundering piece of legislation as the present Act proves 
itself to be.—O. P. Cambridge ; Bloxworth Rectory, May 19, 1873. 
Natural-History Notes from Coquimbo.—* The bay is well sheltered and 
almost land-locked. A ridge of sandhills runs along the top of the beach, and 
on this numerous queer Cacti and other plants flourish ; between this ridge 
and the foot of the slope of the Cordilleras, a distance of about a mile and a 
half, runs a low flat piece of very marshy ground. This extends all the way 
from Coquimbo to Serana and probably beyond, and is therefore some twelve 
or fourteen miles long. The slopes beyond are perfectly dry and arid, but 
the water which causes this marsh gushes out in strong springs at their 
base. This is evidently percolation from the Cordilleras. The sandy slopes 
are the homes of innumerable burrowing owls, the quaintest-looking little 
creatures I ever clapped eyes on. Very tame they are, too, as one approaches 
their dwellings. They first of all stare vacantly with one eye; then, as one 
gets nearer, both eyes are opened, the stare waxes into a frown, as much as 
to say, ‘“‘ Where may you be coming to?” This having no effect, a gentle 
hiss is resorted to with a like result; then Mr. Owl becomes very fierce, his 
feathers are puffed out with rage, his eyes gleam maliciously, and he retreats 
slowly and backwardly towards his burrow, keeping up an incessant volley 
of hisses. On arriving at the entrance of his house he remains there, and 
does not retreat any further unless hard pressed. Altogether these are most 
interesting little birds, and I could not have the heart to shoot one. A brown 
description of Chinchilla lives in company with them. These birds feed, 
I fancy, on lizards and different kinds of crickets. I wish you could see a 
colony, you would have a rare laugh at the fussy little inhabitants. I went 
out shooting one day on the marsh. Almost the whole of it looked snipy 
ground, but a fatiguing beat only produced two snipes, both of which 
I luckily bagged. Here and there were large shallow lagoons fringed with 
a thick growth of bulrushes and reeds, and from them I shot two waterhens, 
a coot, and rail, all different from European birds. The coot’s bill and bare 
patch at base were pale yellow, edged with pink, his legs greenish yellow. If 
IT had had a dog I might have got numbers of these. From one of the 
lagoons I flushed a stilt plover, but it was out of shot ; over another a scissors- 
bill was flying to and fro feeding. This last is a strange bird to look at. He 
flies close over the surface of the water, with the lower mandible immersed, 
and incessantly snaps the upper one against it, and was catching small insects 
probably. In body the bird is shaped like a tern, and when fishing flies 
much like one. Among the reeds were many sorts of warblers, buntings, 
red- and yellow-winged starlings, and a variety of other birds. In the bay 
brown pelicans are numerous, also a large and pretty tern, The former are 
the ugliest and most clumsy-looking creatures I ever saw. They sit in flocks 


Tue ZooLocist—Jung, 18738. 3579 


on the water, with their necks thrust back on their backs and bills resting on 
their breasts ; and their feathers, as a rule, are ruffled, jagged and untidy.”— 
G. F. Mathew ; H.M.S. ‘ Repulse,’ Coquimbo, February 28, 1878. 

Cuckoo’s Egg.—Seeing that there is so much controversy respecting the 
colouriug of the egg of the common cuckoo, I wish to state that out of the 
very many that I have seen, I have never met with any specimens which 
materially differ in the colouring; in fact, with the exception of one, which 
has a reddish tinge, the only difference I have observed is that some are 
darker than others. I do not believe that the cuckoo sucks the eggs of other 
birds, but I do believe that it sometimes carries its own egg in its mouth, and 
that, at all events, it in some cases deposits its egg from its mouth in the nest 
of other birds. I have on more than one occasion found the egg of the cuckoo 
in a nest placed in such a situation as the bird could by no possibility have 
reached to lay its egg as other birds do. On two occasions I have shot a 
cuckoo and found a broken egg of its own—broken, no doubt, by the fall—in 
the bird’s mouth ; and, in another case, I picked up a perfect cuckoo’s egg 
lying by the side of a cuckoo I had shot; of course I cannot say that it came 
from its mouth.—W. Borrer ; Cowfuld, Sussex, May 6, 1873. 

The Cuckoo.—I have read with much interest Mr. Newton's article on the 
eggs of the cuckoo, as republished in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S.S.8505): he remarks 
in conclusion, “ Hence I am not afraid of hazarding the supposition that the 
habit of laying a particular style of egg is likely to become hereditary in the 
cuckoo.” Now J do not see why the presumed habit should be more likely 
to be hereditary in the cuckoo than in any other species. Mr. Newton, it is 
true, cites an instance or two of there having been a family likeness found 
between the eggs laid by the same bird, so that they could be readily 
distinguished from others; but these rare—not to say accidental—varieties 
in the colouring of eggs may arise from different causes,—for instance, the 
age of the bird or defective organization. The eggs of many birds are found 
to vary more or less in colour,—those of the common house sparrow, for 
instance,—though I know of no regular or permanent varieties in any species. 
Mr. Doubleday states that the eggs of the cuckoo probably vary less than 
those of any other British bird; and Mr. Hewitson, who should know some- 
thing of British birds’ eggs, says that the eggs of the cuckoo are “ invariably 
gray or grayish brown, irrorated throughout with darker brown, and marked 
by minute black spots.” He found six out of seven cuckoos laying—i. e. 
depositing—their eggs in the nest of the hedgesparrow. This, to my mind, 
is conclusive evidence, and settles the question with regard to selection, for 
unless as “ blind as a buzzard,” she could not, with respect to the colour of 
the eggs, make a worse choice. On seeing Mr. Newton’s request (Zool. 
§. S. 3473) that it should be ascertained whether the hedgesparrow has any 
objection to foster eggs of a colour entirely different to its own, I looked out 
for a nest, and found one in the garden on the 9th of April, apparently 


$580 THE ZooLtocist—JunF, 1873. 


finished, though without eggs: it was placed in a stunted privet-bush, almost 
leafless. On the 11th the first egg was laid; another on the 12th, when one 
was taken and a robin’s egg substituted; on the 13th the hedyesparrow was 
on the nest, but suddenly quitted it on seeing me; the robin’s egg was there 
safe and sound, and another hedgesparrow’s egg beside it. Owing to absence 
from home, the nest was not again inspected until the 23rd, when the old 
bird was found on it, and I had to brush past to get her off; the robin’s egg 
was lying between the two blue ones, with which it contrasted most strongly. 
Did not disturb her on the 24th, the eleventh day (which, according to 
Mr. Morris, is the time of incubation), the weather being unseasonably cold ; 
thermometer 44° at 9 A.m., with a sprinkling of snow. On the 25th, at 
noon, found a newly-hatched bird lying motionless at the bottom of the nest, 
its head hanging down; at 3 p.m. the nestling was sitting with upraised 
head and open mouth: the other egg was perforated, though the aperture 
was but slight; the robin’s egg unchanged. By midday of the 26th the 
second chick had quitted the shell and was endeavouring to stand, but the 
robin’s egg proved a stumbling-block ; and there is now reason to fear that it 
will not be hatched, the old bird having to leave the nest in quest of food.— 
Henry Hadfield ; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, May 7, 1873. 

Note on the Waterhen.—The following circumstance was recently related 
to me by an eye-witness, and though it did not happen this year I think it 
worthy to be recorded. In the moat attached to Ashwellthorpe Hall, in 
Norfolk, there reside certain waterhens, which, not being disturbed and 
being frequently fed with bread thrown into the water, have become very 
tame. A pair of these birds hatched two successive broods of young during 
the same spring, and soon after the second brood was hatched the young 
birds of the previous brood were observed to pick up the crumbs of bread 
which were thrown on the water, and to feed with these crumbs, the younger 
chicks of the second brood.—J. H. Gurney; April 25, 1873. 

White Stork in Suffolk.—For the last day or two we have had a rare 
visitor in our marshes, in the shape of a white stork (Ciconia alba): he is 
a most conspicuous object, and may be seen from a great distance. We 
watched him yesterday (May 21st) for a long time, with a good glass: he 
appears to be in good plumage, and is very wary, not allowing us to get at 
all near him. When flying he was followed and mobbed by some peewits, 
which evidently looked tpon him as a most unwelcome intruder. As there 
happened to be a heron on the wing nearly at the same time, we had a good 
opportunity of comparing the flight of the two birds: the stork looked the 
larger bird of the two, and his wings appeared to be longer and less rounded 
than those of the heron: the different manner of carrying the head was also 
very striking ; it was poked out in front of the bird, but not stretched out so 
straight as that of a swan in flying.—G. T. Rope; Leiston, Suffolk. 


THE ZooLocist—Juty, 1873. 3581 


A Difficulty for Darwinists. By Francis Hancock BALKWILL. 


THE third chapter of Mivart’s ‘Genesis of Species’ states a 
difficulty to the acceptance of Darwin’s theory of the origin of 
species thus :—“On this theory the chances are almost infinitely 
great against the independent accidental occurrence and preserva- 
tion of two similar series of minute variations resulting in the 
independent development of two closely similar forms.” Amongst 
other illustrations of his theory, he mentions that Professor Huxley 
had called his attention to the very striking resemblance between 
certain teeth of the dog and the Thylacine. Having had this 
difficulty very strongly forced upon my own mind in studying 
mammalian teeth, I will try and state it more fully than is done by 
Mivart. 

There are certain highly specialized and complicated organs 
found upon different animals, which are so similar that, upon 
Darwin’s theory, they ought to be hereditarily descended from or 
related to each other; and yet, by the same theory, it seems 
almost possible to prove that such could not be the case. Now if 
this proof does hold good, some very considerable modifications of 
the theory will be necessary. 

It is a fact familiar to every child that there are many kinds of 
animals differing from one another in their general characters, and 
that some of these animals are more alike than others, so that a 
rough common sense classification soon takes place in the mind of 
every individual, by which all the animals they are most familiar 
with are probably arranged according to the peculiar conditions of 
that individual. A settler in a new and wild country might have 
two sub-kingdoms, viz. Wild and Domestic, of which the wild 
might be divided thus :— 


Dangerous to human life ; 
Noxious, but not dangerous ; 
Injurious to crops ; 

Useful for food ; 

Furnishing useful furs or skins ; 


and so forth. It would soon be observed that there were many 

animals so similar in appearance that they might easily be mistaken 

for each other, and that these similar animals had a similarity of 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 21 


3582 Tue ZooLocist—JULy, 1873. 


habits, that their offspring resembled them, and that there was a 
community of blood-relationship between them. Thus a rough 
idea of species is arrived at; but when scientific men have tried to 
define the limits of these different species there has arisen the 
greatest difficulty, each definition generally depending upon what 
the arranger really believed to be the origin of species, and there- 
fore impossible to be used in discussing the origin of species 
without begging the question. 

Now as a merely useful word, and not a dogmatic one, I think 
“species” may be used in two ways; the first, I suppose, would 
be the logical one, that it was the lowest or simplest unit of 
generalization—i. e. that all animals so nearly alike that they 
cannot conveniently be divided into smaller groups should be con- 
sidered as belonging to the same species. The second requires a 
little elucidation: all animals between which there is a community 
of blood amalgamation are not exactly alike, although more or less 
similar, and minor differences amongst animals having such com- 
munity are sometimes capable of generalization; still this blood- 
relationship seems to be the central fact around which all affinities 
of form, habit, or character group themselves; and there is no 
dispute or doubt at all that where a certain amount of divergence 
in these affinities or resemblances is found, there is no longer any 
possibility of amalgamation. 

Now a definition framed on this fact will suit very well for the 
purposes of this discussion, and is included in the first explanation. 
That is, the simplest unit of generalization is that all those animals 
amongst whom there is the possibility of blood amalgamation shall 
be considered to be of the same species, and where there is no such 
possibility then such animals are to be considered as belonging to 
different species. : 

It is to be distinctly understood I do not in any way wish to 
beg the question as to whether this is a correct definition of the 
term species, when used zoologically : that would be settling the 
whole matter at once. But that as every one, orthodox naturalists, 
Darwinists, or common-sense observers, are all agreed in the fact 
that there is such a limit, I take that limit for convenience as the 
definition of the word as I use it here. 

The number of different species of animals in the world is 
immense, infinite, to the ordinary mind, and it might occur on first 
thoughts that however these different forms of life originated they 


THE ZoOLOGIST—JULY, 1873. 3583 


must be capable of some classification by their resemblances; but 
a very slight acquaintance with the science of Zoology forces upon 
us a conviction that a classification is possible which shall express 
more than this. 

Vast numbers of these species consist of animals of infinite com- 
plexity of organization, and the resemblances and affinities of 
construction of many of the organs belonging to animals of different 
species are so interlinked and graduated as to suggest irresistibly 
some mysterious continuity between them. The permanence of 
animal life is provided for amongst each species in its community 
as specified by our definition, by the reproduction of young, which 
generally develope into animals like their parents, although in some 
of the lower forms it takes two or three generations for the return 
to the same form. All animals can be so arranged, according to 
their organic structures and most essential characters, as to form a 
sort of genealogical tree. 

Three theories are tolerably widely accepted to account for the 
classification by scale of development and affinity of construction 
of which animals are capable; one is that they were created in 
general harmony of idea, to educate the soul of man; another, that 
of Darwin, supposes that there were but few of the simplest forms 
which first had life breathed into them by the Creator, that all the 
rest have been developed by a severe competition amongst these 
forms, which in reproduction continually varied slightly, that in 
this severe struggle for existence the best forms survived, and 
gradually the higher types of life were thus developed, without any 
further interference of any other power. The third view is held by 
those who are not satisfied with the first-mentioned opinion, inas- 
much perhaps as the width of creation coming so little within the 
view of the majority of mankind, it seems rather a presumptuous 
and inadequate idea to suppose that this infinity of gradation was 
made for the education of men, so few of whom could ever see its 
meaning. These persons also doubt the power of the second 
principle to be capable of surmounting all the difficulties of 
organic construction, or of producing the originality, beauty, or 
sensibility which is actually found in the organic world: they are 
rather inclined to believe that they behold the real steps of evolu- 
tion, invention, and creation, by which not only is man to be 
educated, but by which he was invented and created (if these two 
words should not indeed stand for the same act), 


3584 TuE ZooLocist—JULy, 1873. 


According to this last theory, whether there has been or has not 
been a material continuity between the lower and higher types, 
might be open to discussion; the main difference between it and 
Darwin’s theory is, that it maintains that a material continuity is 
not necessary, and that the mere laws of necessity (granted a low 
type of life) and the general conditions of the world are not 
sufficient to account for that classification of the organic world, 
which is possible, but that an ideal bond of unity of design is 
plainly indicated. Whereas Darwin maintains that the bond of 
unity has been material continuity, produced entirely by the 
action of the general laws of this planet upon an original simple 
form of life. Here are Mr. Darwin’s views in his own words :— 


« Ag each species tends by its geometrical ratio of reproduction to increase 
inordinately in number, and as the modified descendants of each species 
will be enabled to increase by so much the more as they become diversified 
in habits and structure, so as to be enabled to seize on many and widely 
different places in the economy of Nature, there will be a constant tendency 
in natural selection to preserve the most divergent offspring of any one spe- 
cies. Hence during a long-continued course of modification the slight diffe- 
rences characteristic of varieties of the same species tend to be augmented 
into the greater differences characteristic of species of the same genus. 
New and improved varieties will inevitably supplant and exterminate the 
older, less improved and intermediate varieties, and thus species are rendered 
to a large extent defined and distinct objects. Dominant species belonging 
to the larger groups tend to give birth to new and dominant forms, so that 
each large group tends to become still larger, and at the same time more 
divergent in character. But as all groups cannot thus succeed in increasing 
in size, for the world would not hold them, the more dominant groups beat 
the less dominant. This tendency in the large groups to go on increasing 
in size and diverging in character, together with the almost inevitable con- 
tingency of much extinction, explains the arrangement of all the forms of 
life in groups subordinate to groups, all within a few great classes which we 
now see everywhere around us, and which has prevailed throughout all time. 
This grand fact of the grouping of all organic beings seems to me utterly 
inexplicable on the theory of creation.” 


Now if this grouping has been the result of hereditary connection, 
how does Darwin account for similar or homologous organs having 
an independent source? 

This is the case in point. The marsupial Mammalia form a 
natural order. No naturalists have ever attempted to separate 


THE ZooLocist—J iy, 1873. 3085 


them in classification, and the fact of their being almost exclusively 
found in Australia (only one genus, that of the true Opossums, being 
found elsewhere, in North and South America), gives us all the 
more confidence in regarding them as such. At the same time this 
isolation tells very well in fayour of Mr. Darwin’s theory. The 
marsupial is a very early type of mammal, and was at one time 
much more widely distributed than at present. Prof. Owen figures 
the lower jaw of a small insect-eating marsupial taken from the 
Stonesfield oolite in Oxfordshire, England. Now if the placental 
type, which is a higher and prevailing one, had arisen from one 
species of marsupials, it would, if the advance was of sufficient 
importance, have gradually supplanted the lower type, wherever it 
came into competition with it, and we have only to allow that this 
struggle did not first occur in Australia, and that all communication 
with the rest of the world was cut off before the predominating race 
could reach Australia, and we should expect to find, according to 
Mr. Darwin, exactly what we do find; all the animals there re- 
taining a distinct classification group around the old marsupial 
type. I wish to make this point very clear and strong, for the 
clearer and stronger it is the greater the difficulty will be for 
Mr. Darwin’s theory a little further on. 

The sheet-anchor of Darwinism is, that the adaptations of organs 
to the needs of the animal are not produced by external circum- 
stances, but that out of the infinite slight variations which arise the 
one which gives its possessor the advantage in the “struggle for 
existence” prevails, the less excellent dies out. 

Out of the infinite possibilities for improvement which surround 
any animal, it would be extremely improbable that the same should 
be arrived at by different species, and a fortiori when this improve- 
ment consists of organs exceedingly complicated and apparently 
difficult of development. 

Let any one consider the wing of a bird, a fly, or a bat, and he 
will understand what I mean: if we only knew of one organ of 
flight we might be led to suppose that it was the only mechanical 
contrivance possible to this end, and yet we see in these instances 
how entirely distinct are the means to the same action. How 
rational and in accordance with @ priori reasonings it seems to be, 
that bones should be within the body to support the soft parts and 
give them by leverage the means of determinate motion; and yet 
when we compare invertebrate with vertebrate animals it shows us 


3586 Tue ZooLocist—JuLy, 1873. 


that we may allow infinite scope for variety of plan. Mr. Darwin 
has referred to the growth and affinities of language in illustration 
of the growth and affinities of species: it will bring it home to us, 
and may be not much overstraining the case, if I say that to expect 
to find the same organization developed from similar external 
conditions, on Mr. Darwin’s hypothesis, will be a parallel case to 
expecting to find the same language evolved from two originally 
distinct people who had no communication, because their external 
conditions were similar. Imagine the European discoverers of 
Japan finding the natives speaking a European language, or one 
so near it as readily to be understood by them. Would they not 
find it very difficult to believe in an independent origin for that 
language? Just so, then, we ought to find an absence of placental 
animals in Australia, if it was separated from the rest of the world 
before that type was introduced. So far the illustration is entirely 
against us. 

But let us look at this order of marsupial Mammalia a little more 
closely, and see of what divisions it is composed. We have the 
familiar. kangaroos, which take the place in the Australian fauna 
that the lighter raminants—antelopes, goats, sheep and deer—do in 
the larger continents, browsing on the herbage of the plains or 
amongst the rocks during the dusk, and lying hid in the light day- 
time. Here is the same place in nature filled by how different 
and original a type. Then we have the wombat: this animal is 
to all intents and purposes a rodent; its four front teeth possess a 
persistent pulp continually growing forwards on the arc of a circle 
as they wear away in front, with a strong plate of enamel arming 
their front surfaces, so as to keep this sharp by the greater wear of 
the softer tissues. Behind, the body of the tooth, consisting of 
dentine, is surrounded on its surface by a layer of cementum or bone 
substance. These incisors are separated from the grinders by a 
wide space unoccupied by any teeth. The same arrangement 
may be seen by any one who will take the trouble to examine the 
skull of a rat or guinea pig; a rabbit or hare differs in having four 
instead of two upper front teeth. But it is possible that the 
placental type may, in the first instance, have branched off from 
a marsupial rodent. Mr. Darwin himself draws attention to the 
affinity exhibited by the viscacha, a rodent of South America, some- 
thing like a hare in general appearance, 

I have constructed a genealogical tree of the principal divisions of 


THE ZooLocist—JuLy, 1873. 3587 


Mammalia, hypothetically connecting the marsupial and placental 
divisions by the rodents, through this affinity of the wombat for 
them. According to natural selection, as I understand it, we should 
expect to find such a connecting link, and this evidence at any 
rate is not antagonistic to the theory. 

But what is to be said about the Thylacinus, the hyena or tiger 
of the settlers in Van Dieman’s Land, a predacious marsupial, the 
size of a large dog, whose skull is so very similar to that of a dog 
that a naturalist need be well up in his subject to be able to 
distinguish it from a dog’s if he were to find it lying about on an 
English common ? 

The dog has six insignificant incisors above and below; Thy- 
lacinus eight above and six below. The dog has two large curved 
conical canines above and below; Thylacinus precisely similar 
ones: the lower canines, in both cases, close in front of the upper, 
although the lower incisors close behind the upper. Next behind 
the canines in both animals a row of spear-headed teeth are placed 
to help to hold a struggling prey. The molars of the marsupial, 
six in each jaw, are formed for cutting flesh and breaking small 
bones ; two of the teeth in each jaw of the dog are similarly formed ; 
four posterior ones above and below being tubercular grinders, 
more adapted for crushing than cutting. The homologies of their 
respective dental formula are :— 


THYLACINUS. 
Incisor. Canine. Premolars. Molars. 
Above. . 2s 2 6 8 = 24 uaa Wri 
Below. . 6 2 6 i 
Dog. 
Above. . 6 we: Re Se 42 
Below. . 6 2 8 One ‘i 


Any one who will compare the skulls of the badger or seal with 
that of the dog cannot fail to be struck with the much greater 
dissimilarity they exhibit than do the two skulls we have been 
considering; yet both these animals are indubitably classed with 
the dog in the same order of Carnivora, far removed from the 
marsupials. Some naturalists, led no doubt by this fact, classed 
marsupials as a suborder of Carnivora, but in that case we should 
only reverse the difficulty by having to account for the homologies 
of the wombat with the higher rodents. 


8588 Tue ZooLocist—JuLy, 1873. 


There is a solution which may perhaps be offered, that the 
higher rodents and Carnivora arose on parallel lines from the 
marsupial rodents and Carnivora; but in that case it will give 
the same difficulty in another form, for it will admit that the 
placental type had arisen from at least two separate origins, which, 
according to our previous argument, is infinitely improbable. 

The more I ponder the subject the more I am convinced that 
the difficulty is no mere quibble. To look at the three skulls, of a 
Thylacinus, a dog and a seal, and to consider that by any possible 
genealogy the dog is more nearly related to the seal than to the 
Thylacinus, and in fact that before the relationship between the 
dog and marsupial can be traced every sign of a carnivorous 
animal must have been lost and reproduced, presses it strongly 
upon my mind that there is some force at work unaccounted for 
by the theory of the evolution of species in their struggle for 
existence. 

Let us review the complexity and apparent difficulty of the 
evolution of teeth in such definite form and arrangement as those 
I have been describing. I say apparent difficulty, because in 
making researches the student can hardly fail to be impressed with 
a feeling as if ages upon ages had been spent, and myriads of forms 
evolved for every little step in advance. 

I will try and give a general outline of what seems to have been 
the path of the evolution of teeth, as a great deal of the strength of 
my argument is based upon the very high type of organization 
which they evince. 

We do not find that teeth maintain any important place in the 
animal economy until we arrive at the subkingdom Vertebrata. 
There are a few curious examples among the lower forms, as in 
Echinus, the leech, and amongst mollusks; but it is amongst 
animals possessing a bony skeleton that teeth are met with in 
endless variety of form, structure and arrangement. Amongst the 
lowest vertebrates (fishes), we find, as we should expect, the lowest 
types of teeth, some of which seem to consist of a tissue scarcely 
varying from bone in structure, so that it may be well to say a few 
words about bone itself as illustrative of our subject. 

The essential requisites of bone seem to be, that it shall possess 
a certain amount of mechanical strength and hardness, in order to 
support the soft parts and provide them with rigid bars to be used 
as motile levers; also that it shall be capable of such change of 


THE ZooLocist—JuLy, 1873. 8589 


shape, as the general growth of the animal requires, that this last 
process may take place: bone is occupied throughout its substance 
by small hollow spaces, technically termed lacune, which com- 
municate with each other and with the nearest vascular surface by 
means of very fine tubes termed canaliculi: these lacune and 
their canaliculi are ‘occupied by soft living cells which seem to 
possess the power of building up or taking down whatever is 
required. 

Little animalcules (Foraminiferee by name) have the power of 
secreting small shells around them, leaving fine holes all over the 
shells through which to pass fine processes of their bodies, which 
only consist of a little jelly-like protein. We may look upon each 
of these cells occupying the lacune of bone as so many Foramini- 
fer which have lost their individuality, and have had implanted in 
them a sort of instinct, or habit, of building up around them, or 
pulling down, or merely keeping in repair, just what is required by 
the physiological well-being of the animal. Like a colony of bees, 
always hard at work attending to their duty. In order to provide 
them with requisite food, bone of any thickness is traversed by 
vascular canals, called Haversian canals, which give fresh bone its 
pink colour, and the blood-vessels within which, bring the food and 
take away the débris as required. Around these canals the cells 
group themselves, communicating with them by the canaliculi. 

_ The problem to be solved in the construction of teeth is rather 
different from that of bone. Here part of the organ has to resist 
more or less severe direct mechanical friction, has to be exposed, 
and at the same time maintain a strong connection with the living 
and sensitive body. One of the first distinctions between tooth- 
substance and bone seems to be in the elimination of the requisites 
for pulling down and rebuilding. No normal tooth that I am aware 
of alters its shape after formation. The calcigerous or bone-forming 
cells retire to the circumference of the space around each vascular 
canal, and dwindle in size until they disappear, or they retire into 
the vascular canal and remain there as a persistent calcigerous 
pulp. The fine canaliculi, around which the salts of lime which 
harden the tooth were deposited, remain. Professor Owen men- 
tions having observed the tooth of a fish composed only of this 
structure, which he calls vaso-dentine; an advance upon this vaso- 
dentine is made by the whole exposed part of the tooth being 
protected by a layer of the calcified tissue traversed by canaliculi, 

SECOND SERIES—YOL, VIII. 2K 


3590 THE ZooLocist—J uy, 1873. 


but possessing neither lacune nor vascular canals. This is a very 
common form amongst fishes. 

In the common wrasse or connor of our shores we find this 
harder external layer developed inwards, to the extinction of all 
the vaso-dentine. The tooth is entirely composed of hard, very 
finely tubular dentine, but this construction seems to interfere with 
the vital connection of the tooth with the living jaw, as there is a 
provision for a constant succession of teeth from below. 

Indeed in fishes generally there seem to be few examples of 
teeth being implanted by fangs in a socket, and also there seems 
to be no great permanency of connection between the teeth and 
their possessors: there is generally a provision for a constant suc- 
cession either from behind forwards, as in the sharks and rays, or 
from below upwards, as in the wrasse, already mentioned, or as in 
the angler, where they rise up between the old ones, which fall 
away. ‘The law seems to be that of irrelative repetition. ‘There is 
no instance amongst fishes of such a continuously growing tooth 
as we find in the wombat, which if it were a probable structure to 
occur from separate origins we might expect, since there is much 
greater variety of form and number of species for it to occur in 
among fishes than mammals. The dental apparatus of the parrot- 
fish is one of the nearest examples to the teeth of rodents in 
function that I can find; that of the Lepidosiren looks something 
like in section, but I do not know sufficient of the habits of this 
animal to say anything of the functions of its curious-looking jaw. 
Amongst reptiles the same law of constant succession of teeth holds 
good, which looks as if there was the same difficulty of retaining 
the teeth permanently, but when we arrive at Mammalia we find at 
most only one change of teeth, and this apparently in order to 
accommodate the adult,animal with a larger set than would have 
been convenient for its young state. 

The peculiarities of structure which perform this apparently 
difficult feat are these:—the part of the tooth most exposed to 
wear is protected by enamel, which is extremely hard, and, so far 
as we know, entirely devoid of life; below this, and immediately 
surrounding a single vascular permanent calcigerous pulp, is the 
body of the tooth, formed of dentine, which is traversed by an 
immense number of fine tubes passing from the pulp to the cir- 
cumference. These tubes being occupied by fine processes of the 
calcigerous cells, which, as we have before seen in the development 


Tux ZooLocist—Joty, 1873. 8591 


of teeth amongst fishes, have retreated into the vascular pulp. 
Around the outside of such part of the dentine as is not covered 
by enamel there is a layer of bone-substance containing plenty 
of calcigerous cells: this layer is called the cementum. ‘This 
cementum surrounds the fang in those teeth which are thus 
attached to the jaw, and no doubt, by its highly vital character, 
plays an important part in maintaining the life of the tooth, and 
by its plastic nature perhaps helps to accommodate the fitting of 
fang and socket together. 

We see, then, that teeth such as those found in the dog, 
thylacine, wombats and rodents, are organs of an exceedingly high 
order of organic construction, and that there is an exceedingly 
close resemblance between them respectively, ¢.e. between thyla- 
cines and dogs, between wombats and some rodents. How can 
this be reconciled by Darwinists with their theory ? 


‘ Francis Hancock BALKWILL. 
13, Princess Square, Plymouth. 


Large Squid exhibited in Japan. By H. PryeEr, Esq. 
Communicated by Perey C. Wormald, Esq. 


A FEW days ago, hearing from a friend that the Japanese were 
exhibiting an immense cuttle-fish, I despatched my boy to make 
enquiries. Hearing from him that it was really a wonderful thing, 
and worth going to see, I put a foot-rule in my pocket and started 
off for the place. Ihave been once or twice deceived by accounts 
of extraordinary beasts being exhibited in the native town. Some 
little time ago several Japanese came and told me that there was a 
strange animal on exhibition, so strange that they could not even 
describe it or make a drawing of it. Upon examination it proved 
to be a rather undersized porcupine, which they had imported, 
they said, from France; but I expect it came from America, 
France and America being pretty much the same, from a Japanese 
point of view: they are all “ketoisars,” z.e. hairy fools from far 
countries. So this time I went without any very great expectations, 
though rumour made the cuttle-fish twenty-two feet long, and 
I should not have been surprised to find it only two feet or 
thereabouts. 

The Japanese placard or handbill consisted of a rough sketch of 
the cuttle-fish and the following in Japanese characters :—“ This 


8592 THE ZooLoGist—JULY, 1873. 


large squid was caught off the sea-coast of Kessarradzu, in Kad- 
zuzar. It is fifty feet long, and often harassed the fishermen’s 
boats, drawing them down by its strength. From the olden times 
until now there has never been seen such a curious thing; there- 
fore come and see it during the next twenty-three days: it is in an 
enclosure in Hangoro Morcho Benten. Come and see it.” 

On nearing the place, which was a straw booth erected within a 
temple’s ground, called Bentensama (the usual place for wrestling 
and other exhibitions), the front ornamented with a representation 
of the creature having a grand battle with a number of fishermen 
in boats, and, strange to say, the picture proved to be smaller than 
the reality. Perceiving a very strong smell of bad fish, I lighted a 
cigar, and after paying the sum of two tempoes (three half-pence), 
I entered, and was truly astonished at the sight. The following 
are the dimensions:—eight feet from root of arms to the end of the 
body (body six feet, head two feet); four feet in width at the 
broadest part; six feet the length of the longest pair of arms (of 
which there are five pairs) ; eight inches the diameter of the eyes. 
Of the upper mandible of the beak three inches and of the lower 
some four inches were exposed to view, the remainder being retracted 
within the head. The arms, which were much shrivelled, were 
about as thick as a man’s arm, and had a quantity of suckers 
attached to them. I would have counted the number on one arm, 
but many of them had been detached and taken away by the 
Japanese visitors. I obtained one: the extremity is shaped like a 
cup, and is formed by a ring of shell toothed like a saw, and is 
nearly an inch in diameter. 

I am endeavouring, but I am afraid unsuccessfully, to buy the 
beak, but the owner demands twenty-five dollars for it. I may, 
however, obtain it yet, if no one else offers for it. I inquired if it 
had a back-bone similar to what the small squids have; but they 
informed me that this species never has one, and that there was 
only a thin, brittle, glass-like substance, of the shape of a bamboo- 
leaf, running half the length of the body, so I presume this is one 
of the cuttles that produces the sea-pen. They had destroyed it 
in cleaning out the inside. 

They also told me that they had a great sea fight with the 
creature when they made the capture; but this I do not believe, 
as I have frequently observed the smaller species swimming about 
the bay, and when frightened they can dart away out of sight in 


THe ZooLocist—JULy, 18738. 3593 


an instant, much quicker than a boat could be propelled. I expect 
that it had been picked up dead on the shore. 

I inclose a paper which one of the showmen handed to me, the 
translation of which I have given above. It has an illustration of 
the “kraken,” which gives a very good idea of its shape. They 
said this was a full-sized one, and that they had never seen one 
larger, and also that it was very rare, which was corroborated by 
several of my Japanese friends, who have seen these huge things 
before, but none so large as the present specimen. 


H. PRYeEr. 
Yokohama, March 24, 1873. 


[There is little doubt that the Japanese figure is intended to represent 
a true squid, but of unusual magnitude: those which occur in European 
seas are generally less than a foot in length. We are very much in want of 
exact admeasurements such as Mr. Pryer has so kindly supplied; they 
correct not only the exaggerated accounts of enormous cuttles, but equally 
exhibit the folly of discrediting them altogether—H. Newman.] 


A Visit to Corsica. By the Rev. F. A. WALKER, M.A., F.L.S. 
(Concluded from Zool. S. S. 3556). 


October 29. A large rust-coloured hawk was wheeling in 
circles above the glen that forms the bed of this stream, whose 
waters are now conveyed to the capital by means of an aqueduct 
of many arches, a work involving considerable time and expense. 
For some distance before reaching the town, which is approached 
through an avenue of trees, the bay of Ajaccio is dotted with 
straggling dwellings around its beautiful shores, and Capo Muro 
stretches away in a long projecting point to its south-west ex- 
tremity. An amphitheatre of hills overlooks this extensive bay, 
which appears from some points of view like a land-locked lake. 
The first stroll I took at Ajaccio on my arrival on the afternoon of 
the 29th was to leave the Cours Grandval by what are called the 
“Four Cottages” in the new English quarter, and so past the 
soldiers’ exercising-ground, as far as the Grotto of Napoleon, com- 
posed of four or five gigantic boulders embowered in olives and 
Cacti, and duly scribbled over. It was here that the young cadet | 
is reputed to have spent his leisure time in meditation, and a 
prettier, more retired spot could scarcely be chosen, even on these 


3594 THE ZooLocist—JULy, 1873. 


picturesque hill-sides, overlooking the sparkling waters of the 
bay. I came across Gidipoda cerulans, for the first time, on this 
occasion, a species akin to the blue variety of GX. germanica in 
appearance, but its upper wing is a lighter brown, while its lower, 
in addition to having no black margin, has a paler and more of a 
lavender tint. 

October 30. The weather during our stay here continued 
almost uniformly cloudless and very hot, the thermometer 
averaging from 90° to 100° in the sun, and the granite rock of 
the neighbourhood, in many places in a state of disintegration, 
afforded a warm surface for vegetation, whose growth was corre- 
spondingly luxuriant, as well as for lizards to bask in and course 
over. My list of captures this day included Daplidice, Satyrus 
Tigelius, and G£dipoda cexrulans. Chrysomela Banksii, Edusa, 
and Acridium tataricum were abundant, and both red and blue- 
winged QC&dipoda met with, of which the former were of very 
small size. My walk again led me to Napoleon’s Grotto, and on 
proceeding further into the macchie, amid the olive- and cactus- 
clad heights, I observed a large dark butterfly flying over- 
head, whose species, whether Charaxes Jasius or one of the 
largest Satyrids, I was unable to determine. Received a present 
of a fine spray of the Smilax mauritanica, or sarsaparilla plant, 
which I had previously met with at Bastia, a handsome creeper, 
whose flowers grow in a thick cluster, and are of a brownish 
white. 

October 31. Respecting marine productions I ascertained 
nothing, or at all events very little. My sole success lay in a 
visit that [ paid this morning to the beach below Fort Aspret, 
where, amid numerous fragmentary conchological remains, I picked 
up a few ounces, cowries,\&c., and two or three sponges and coral- 
lines from the rocks. A message to the fishermen failed of effect, 
probably because, as I afterwards learned, the coral fishery lay 
not in that quarter, but at, or at all events near to, Bonifacio. 
Following the road that, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from 
Ajaccio, I turned up the hill between two deep cuttings to the right, 
and visited the Greek chapel, built precisely in the fashion of an 
ancient temple, with approach by flight of steps and peristyle. 
Daisies grew abundantly in its immediate vicinity, but though 
nearly all were “with crimson crest,” they by no means proved 
“a little flower,” as they rivalled ox-eyed daisies in size, and had 


THE ZooLocGist—JuLY, 1873. 3595 


stems a foot in length. I was disappointed of the sight of a 
collection of insects this afternoon that were formerly preserved in 
an educational institution, but removed lately, I was informed, by 
one of the brothers, to France. However, I inspected the birds and 
antiquities presented by Prince Lucien Buonaparte to the “ petit 
seminaire,” and some minerals and shells of Corsica, the donation 
of an “eveque” to the same establishment. 

November 1. I went along the shore by the coast road, 
where, in addition to the enjoyment of beautiful views of the bay, 
I found Statice articulata displaying its small lilac flowers and 
heath-like bracts just above the beach, and, by far the prettiest of 
all, the tiny Leucojum roseum, a species of snowdrop peculiar to 
Corsica, whose pinkish white blossoms exhale a delicate perfume. 
I never saw this exquisitely lovely little flower except on the short 
sea-turf at intervals along this road, where it blossomed in great 
profusion. Respecting the butterfly par excellence of Corsica, 
Papilio Hospiton, once, and once only, did I see it on a bank of 
crumbling granite close to the shore this morning, where it settled, 
with its wings flapping, not sufficiently near for me to make a cast 
with the net before it rose again and was seen no more, but still 
I could discern that its markings were darker, and slightly differing 
from the ordinary type of Machaon. The afternoon was occupied 
in visiting the chief sight of Ajaccio, the birthplace of the first 
Napoleon, as well as the villa of the Comte Bacciocchi, cham- 
berlain to the third of the name, where the garden contained a 
variety of flowers, Daturas nine inches in length, and large bushes 
of Heliotrope. We then proceeded further in a southerly direction, 
and Campo d’Oro and the old harbour were the last places we 
surveyed. 

November 2. Along the coast road again, where I gathered 
Scilla autumnalis and a blue Echium, besides capturing Conops 
aculeata, Ammophila holosericea, and two undescribed species 
of Pompilus. Edusa and its pale variety Helice), Qi. cerulans, 
Tryxalis nasuta, Daplidice and 8. Tigelius were seen. Atalanta 
and Cardui also occurred, the former fresh, the latter worn. 

November 8. We walked along the shore in the afternoon, 
where we saw the Corsican snowdrop in all its beauty once more, 
a high wind meantime blowing with clouds of dust. 

November 4. To-day we drove out to “‘ Les Iles Sanguinaires,” 
distant about ten miles from Ajaccio, at the north-west extremity 


3596 TuE ZooLocist—JuLy, 1873. 


of the bay, which terminates in a fine headland crowned by a 
ruined watch-tower, probably erected by the Genoese of old time, 
with two rusty cannons lying on the side towards the sea; and 
returning on foot from this promontory found numerous Coleoptera 
either crawling on our path or humming past us as the sun set upon 
our evening walk and the beacon began to twinkle seaward from 
the lighthouse of the isle. Geotrupes hypocrita and levigatus were 
among my captures that afternoon, before it grew completely dusk, 
causing the numerous sepulchral edifices along the shore to look 
white and ghostly in the moonlight. These private family vaults, 
ordinarily surmounted by domes, are the property of well-to-do 
Corsicans, and stand in their own little enclosures, with two or three 
olives or cypresses planted around. This custom arises from a 
feeling of respectability and decency, owing to the disgraceful 
manuer in which the funerals of the lower class are ordinarily con- 
ducted at the neglected public cemetery. 

November 5. I took Polistes gallicus and a second speci- 
men of the Mantis religiosa on the wall of a house, having 
captured the first on a warm bank on the morning of the Ist of 
November. It is said to abound in gardens here in the summer 
time, and is essentially a flabby, debilitated and sluggish insect, 
exhibiting none of the muscular power and swiftness of movement 
which locusts and the larger grasshoppers possess. 

November 6. This day, as well as the preceding, I visited 
M. Koziorowicz’s fine collection of European Coleoptera, in- 
cluding many rarities either peculiar to Corsica, or to that island 
and Sardinia. Several of the insects in question were taken by 
himself and named by M. Saulcy, of Metz. Corte, Vivario, Porto 
Vecchio, Bonifacio, Campo d'Oro, but especially the Forest of 
Vizzavona, were among the localities where he had been most 
successful: it was there that he had captured most rarities, more 
particularly the minute kinds that have their habitations in moss, 
“les petits aveugles,” as he termed them, and with which he 
appeared to be greatly amused. IL went with him into a small 
garden behind his office, where we took several specimens of 
Chrysomela Americana on lavender, and was also kindly presented 
by him with upwards of thirty species mostly peculiar to the 
island, as, for example :— 


Acrisius Koziorowiczi Drypta distincta Percus Reichei 
Cicindela connata Bembidium Kiisteri Pselaphus Reyelieri 


THE ZooLocist—J ULY, 1873, 3597 


Setaria sericea Triodonta cribellata Agapanthia insularis 
Nebria Lareyniei Attelabus atricornis Lixus submaculatus 
Brachycerus barbarus Drypta emarginata Dichillus Corsicus 
Xanthochroa Raymondi Reicheia palustris Strophosomus Fagi 
Agabus cephalotes Bythinus Myrmido Tachypus cornutus 
Anthaxia Corsica Tentyria ligurica Lionychus Sturmi 
Pterostichus ambiguus Helops superbus Phytonomus punctatus 
Cionus distinctus Asida carinata Parmena Solieri 
Trichius zonatus Otiorhynchus Corsicus Pachychila Servillei 
Amaurops Corsicus Hoplia pubicollis Pimelia Fayrandi 
Harpalus Bellieri Percus Corsicus Agabus binotatus 


November 7. We took the coupée of the diligence on 
our return journey to Corte, but were delayed about an hour in 
starting in consequence of the non-atrival of the packet. Boco- 
guano, where the real ascent to the Foci commences, is a large 
old-fashioned village in two or three Separate divisions: our 
appearance excited a good deal of curiosity as we walked on 
pending the change of horses. The church and the square cam- 
panile, so characteristic of this country, were slightly elevated on 
a rise above the road, and their bells were both ringing for vespers 
as we passed, occasionally looking back at the clear sky then bathed 
in the truly magnificent tints of a Corsican sunset. Evening was 
very cold in this elevated region, and the Forest of Vizzavona pre- 
sented a weird-like appearance beneath the moon as we descended 
on the other side. Dining at Vivario we arrived late in the evening 
at Corte, seen along the numerous windings of the road long before 
reached, then up its steep suburb, the lights shining above on the 
Scarped precipitous rock on which the citadel and part of the town, 
Acropolis-fashion, are erected. 

November 8. Though celebrated in the political history of 
_ the island, and in spite of the delicious trout that are taken in its 
mountain streams, Corte has little to recommend it in itself. It is 
a dirty, ill-smelling place, several of its houses are six storeys in 
height, and its streets uneven, and the children wear a pallid and 
unhealthy appearance; but the adjacent scenery is fine, and the 
gorge of the Restonica, though less wild, is not at all unlike the 
opening of the Via Mala at Thusis. The day was intensely 
hot, and the atmosphere of the mountain valley confined, as 
we walked up the right bank of the Stream, until descending 
to its bed, after a short distance, we arrived at two or three 

SECOND SERIES—VOL., VIII. 2L 


3598 THE ZooLocist—JuLy, 1873. 


apparently deserted mills, their marble steps broken and grass- 
grown, and a few Spanish chestnuts close by: specimens of gray 
and white-veined marble may be gathered here; and from the 
number of small green and copper-coloured Carabide (Harpalus 
eeneus) I was enabled to collect under stones within the space of 
forty minutes in this spot, as well as other species,—including 
Xantholinus glabratus, Calathus melanocephalus, Brachinus sclo- 
peta, Sphzridium scarabeoides, Adimonia Tanaceti, a species of 
Cionus, and Oryctes Grypus (in a torpid condition),—I should 
imagine this to be an excellent habitat for Coleoptera, and all that 
I heard of the locality, hill as well as dale, tends to lead me to the 
same conclusion. I also took Gryllus ater on this occasion, as 
well as the following Hemiptera:—Pyrrhocoris apterus, Grapho- 
soma lineata. Later on we ascended the left bank, where, in a 
ditch overhung by a quantity of ferns, we noticed Osmunda regalis, 
and Asplenium Virgilii (a variety of A. Adiantum-nigrum). 

November 9. Patches of snow were visible on the summit 
of Monte Rotondo as we left Corte this hot and cloudless 
morning. Then passing Ponte alla Leccia, we arrived at a gorge 
of chlorite slate, through which the Golo forces its way,—rocks, 
sands and boulders of a greenish white,—and finally entered on 
the flat tract of land that extends for several miles along the coast 
south of Bastia, the last and by far the most uninteresting part of 
our journey that now lay by a straight and level road fringed with 
numerous aloes (Agave americana), and running parallel to the 
Stagno di Biguglio, a large and brackish pool where numerous 
waterfowl frequently congregate, extending for a considerable dis- 
tance on our right, and only separated from the sea by a bar of 
sand. I captured a small specimen of Ocypus cyaneus on the 
afternoon of our return. 

November 10. Walked out a mile or two on the Brando 
road, where I had previously taken Decticus albifrons and inter- 
medius. The day again intensely hot; I gathered Adiantum 
Capillus-Veneris and Lycopodium selaginella, which covered a damp 
wall on the left. Lagurus ovatus grew plentifully here, and the 
cyclamens were still in bloom. Many holiday people were out in 
this direction, and soldiers were fishing from the rocks. 

November 11. Called on Mrs. Short, the Consul’s wife, who 
presented me on leaving with a nosegay from her garden, of orange- 
blossom, lilac, fuchsias, heliotrope and scented geranium. 


THE ZooLocist—JuLy, 1873. 3599 


November 12. A drinking fountain of white marble close 
to the quay—apt type of the geological riches of the island 
we were quitting: the matin hymn rose in air from some unseen 


fraternity: e¢ sol jam surgit. Eundum est. 
F. A. WALKER, 


Notes at Sea. By Joun Cordeaux, Esq. 


May, 1873. 


Common Scoter.—May, second week. In small flocks from the 
Humber to Southampton Water. One pair of velvet scoters seen 
in Dungeness Roads. 

Guillemot.—Sparingly distributed (compared with the numbers 
we find, at this season, north of the Humber) from Humber to 
South Foreland, and more common from thence to the Isle of 
Wight. Usually seen in pairs, and never exceeding six or eight 
together. On the 8th, near the Inner Dowsing Light-vessel, I ob- 
served a guillemot having a most remarkable turned-up bill. It was 
close to the schooner, and we watched it both with and without the 
glass. The beak was gradually curved upwards from its base to 
the tip, and as greatly and perceptibly as in the godwits. 

' Razorbilled Auk.—The same remarks apply as to the last, 
but I never saw more than a pair together. Of a pair off Rye, 
one was in summer plumage; the other in a most curious state of 
moult, having the back of the head, neck, part of back, and wing- 
coverts very light brown, giving the bird a pied and most unusual 
appearance. 

Puffin.—None seen. 

Redthroated Diver.—About five seen. One on Norfolk coast, 
off Hasborough, was in the speckled plumage, and had no trace 
whatever of the cochineal gular patch, the throat being pure 
white. Another off Fairhill, Hastings, had acquired his red gular 
patch. 

Blackthroated Diver.—A fine example in summer plumage, 
with the black gular patch, seen off the east point of the Isle of 
Wight. 

Gray Geese (species not identified).—Four seen flying north- 
ward when off Rye. 

House Martin.—May 10. Straits of Dover, about midway of 
channel, but nearest the French coast, a flight of martins passed, 


3600 THE ZooLoGistT—JULY, 1873. 


flying close to the water and towards the South Foreland; wind 
strong in puffs, and W. by 8.38. Monday, May 13th, early 
morning.—Wind S.W., calm and fine, Off Dungeness, another 
flock of martins came in. 

Sand Martin.—Only two seen crossing. 

Chimney Swallow.—Sunday, May 11. At anchor just within 
Dungeness, the lighthouse bearing N.N.W. half-a-mile; wind 
W.S.W., very strong, and in the afternoon backing to S.W. and 
blowing a gale; there was a thick sea mist or roke driving in over 
the point. From daylight to dark swallows, in pairs, were con- 
stantly coming in from the channel. The day was bitterly cold, 
and the poor little birds flew listlessly, as if much exhausted, or in 
a half-torpid state. Again, on Monday morning, May 12th, calm 
and still, wind S.W., many swallows, likewise in pairs; and the 
same during the day between this and Beachy Head. They all flew 
just above the water. 

Swift.—Monday evening, May 12. Swifts in small parties, and 
numerously, have been coming in since daylight; they flew in- 
variably about forty or fifty yards high. Likewise from Dungeness 
to Beachy Head and thence on to Selsea Bill (May 13th), many 
observed passing over to English coast. 

Terns.—May 12, early morning. Terns coming in from sea 
towards Dungeness. Two Sandwich terns observed, many common 
and a small flock of the lesser tern. 

Pomatorhine Skua.—One, a very fine example, and apparently 
nearly mature, off Dungeness, was first observed on the water close 
to the schooner, afterwards harrying and chasing the gulls. 

Common Whitethroat.—One came on board on Sunday morning 
early (May llth); strong W.S.W. breeze: it remained a short 
time, and then flew to a “Chasse Marée” riding nearer the coast. 
Several other small birds like willow wrens seen but not 
identified. 

Lesser Whitethroat.—May 13, Off Sussex coast, and about ten 
miles at sea, a lesser whitethroat flew against the main sail and 
came fluttering down on deck. The little fellow seemed much 
exhausted, sitting for some time on the companion-hatch, with his 
feathers puffed out and eyes shut; from this he took refuge in the 
gig, and began dodging about amidst the oars and spare halyards 
stowed there, with all the assurance of threading a bramble-bush. 
He finally left us when nearing the Isle of Wight. 


THE ZooLocist—Juzy, 1873. 3601 


Crested Cormorant or Shag.—Two seen fishing in Southampton 
Water. 

Carrion Crow.—I was much amused in watching the proceedings 
of a crow on Southampton Water, beating for food with some gulls: 
he flew backwards and forwards, hovering at times like a tern, and 
thrusting his feet on the water picked up at the same time with his 
bill some small fragments of floating matter. 

Gulls.—All gulls seen along the east and south coast were either 
in the second or third summers plumage or in transition. On 
Southampton Water I first saw some mature herring gulls. 


JOHN CoRDEAUxX, 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 


May 20, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes. By H. Dornrorp, Esq. 


An Oological Expedition to Holyhead Island.—On the 16th of 
May last, with my brother, I paid a visit to Holyhead, to see what 
we could get in the way of eggs. Starting early on Friday morning, 
having arrived at Holyhead the night before, we walked to the 
South Stack, a small round rocky island, about an hour’s walk from 
Holyhead, observing on our Way many flycatchers, wheatears, 
stonechats and a few cuckoos. Herring gulls were numerous, 
feeding in the fields amongst the rooks and following the plough— 
a habit which was new to me. - 

Guillemot and Razorbill.—On gaining the edge of the main- 
land opposite the island we found a long narrow suspension bridge 
across the strip of water, closed by a gate at the Holyhead end: 
here we had to ring a bell to inform the keeper of our approach, 
Whilst waiting we had time to contemplate the hundreds of guille- 
mots which sat in long rows, like sentinels, on the narrow ledges 
of the rocks behind us, frequently darting like arrows into the sea 
beneath; a few razorbills were amongst them. Neither of these 
birds had commenced to lay, which they do regularly about the 
24th of May, arriving at their breeding-stations some ten days 
previous: however, we obtained about a dozen eggs, taken last 
spring. 

Herring Gull.—On being admitted to the lighthouse we were 
disappointed to find that the herring gulls, about thirty pairs of 
which nested on the grassy slopes near its base, were closely 


3602 THE ZooLoGist—JuLy, 1873. 


protected, and on no account were any eggs allowed to be taken, 
especially as the birds had been incubating a fortnight: we 
procured as many as we wanted, however, from the lighthouse- 
keepers, who fad taken them this season when freshly laid, at 
which time they are much valued as food. ‘The nests were 
placed about a foot from each other, close to the base of the 
lighthouse, and were formed of sea-weed and dried grass. These 
birds arrive and depart regularly at the same time in the spring 
and autumn, and are very jealous of their tenements, not allowing 
even their own young to nest amongst them. The lighthouse- 
keeper informed us that a party of lesser blackbacked gulls once 
tried to establish a colony on this rock, but were speedily ousted 
by the herring gulls. They also nest on grassy ledges here and 
there along the west coast of the island wherever the rocks are not 
too steep. 

Cormorant.—There is a small colony of cormorants which breed 
on very steep rocks between the North and South Stack Light- 
houses; but as they nest on the most precipitous ledges their eggs 
are rarely obtained, nor could we hear of any one who had any, 
though we made numerous inquiries. 

Oystercatcher.—On leaving the South Stack we continued 
our walk along the south-west coast, but the only birds we 
met with nesting were oystercatchers, of which we found four 
or five nests, each containing three eggs. The nests were 
placed in small hollows amongst the stunted grass on the rocky 
promontories, generally about thirty feet above the sea, each pair 
of birds occupying a rock to itself. In all cases we disturbed the 
old bird from its nest, which was composed of small pieces of 
broken rock, shells and drift-wood; and in one instance, where 
rabbits were particularly numerous, on a small rocky island in the 
channel between Holyhead Island and Anglesea, the nest was 
partly made of their dung: we also met with a nest, in a sandy bay 
at the foot of some sand-hills, composed entirely of small pebbles 
and broken shells. In every instance the old birds flew anxiously 
around us, uttering loud and oft-repeated whistles as long as we 
stayed in the neighbourhood of their nests, 

Sanderling, &c.—We observed a small flock of sanderlings on a 
long piece of shingle, where the ringed plover was nesting, and a 
few common sandpipers and turnstones here and there along the 
coast. 


THE: ZooLocist—JULY, 1873. 3603 


Curlew.—We were informed that curlews nested on some high 
land in the south-west of the island, but we walked over it without 
seeing any birds, though we observed a small party of seven or 
eight in a very restless state on the west coast. 


A few Notes on the Birds that breed on Walney Island.—On 
the 3lst of May I paid a visit to Walney Island, and the following 
notes from my diary will, I hope, be acceptable to the readers of 
the ‘ Zoologist.’ I put up ata small inn close to the ferry at the 
village or hamlet of North Scale, which is a very convenient 
position for egging, being about three miles from the north and six 
from the south end of the island. 

Blackheaded Guill.—On arriving at North Scale from Barrow 
I walked to the north end, and after some little difficulty persuaded 
the proprietor of the land on which these gulls nest to allow me, in 
company with one of his watchers, to visit them. A description of 
this gullery is unnecessary, as there is an excellent account of it by 
Mr. Harting in the ‘ Zoologist’ for August, 1864; suffice it to say 
it was a sight to gladden the eyes of any ornithologist, and one 
worth going any distance to see. The gulls were a full fortnight 
earlier this year than usual, and they all, with the exception of two 
pairs, had young ones; anda very pretty sight it was,—nestlings of 
various ages, from two or three hours to a fortnight old, dotted the 
ground in all directions; some squatted in their nests, those a little 
older tried to hide themselves by squatting as closely as possible 
to the ground, and those still older again trusted to their legs, and 
after running a short distance buried their heads in the grass, 
thinking, I suppose, that if they could not see us we could not see 
them; meanwhile the old birds were screaming and dashing wildly 
about our heads. As there were none but addled eggs to be taken 
now, I procured several from the watcher, who had taken them 
some little time before whilst fresh: these eggs vary excessively 
both in size and ground colour. This gullery is now most jealously 
guarded by the proprietor, who resolutely turns back everyone 
applying to see it: he has found this course necessary in conse- 
quence of the wholesale robbing of nests which went on year after 
year, when any one was allowed to visit it; for six weeks this 
spring, whilst the birds were laying, he had two men sleeping in a 
shepherd’s hut not three hundred yards from the nests, who took 


3604 THE ZooLtocist—JULY, 1873. 


turns to watch them all night, and now he employs a man specially 
to look after them. These gulls are very valuable to him, not for 
the sake of their eggs, but on account of their dung; they manure 
his land, and keep it entirely free from worms, slugs, and noxious 
insects, closely following the plough amongst the rooks. Itis a 
curious fact that though so closely protected they do not seem 
to increase at all in numbers, but about the same quantity return 
year after year: presumably the young ones find other breeding 
quarters. 

Oystercalcher.— Pretty numerous, nesting freely amongst the 
large stones and drift sea-weed above high-water mark at both 
ends and along the west coast of the island: one nest I found in 
the latter situation was made entirely of broken pieces of drift-wood, 
sticks, straw and sea-weed, so wonderfully do these birds adapt 
their nests to the nature of the ground on which they fix their 
temporary homes. I have recorded an instance of this in my notes 
on Holyhead Island, where a pair of oystercatchers had partly 
made their nest of rabbits’ dung, in order, no doubt, that it might 
look as much like the adjacent land as possible. In one nest 
I found a young bird about two days old and two addled eggs; the 
nestling greatly resembled a young lapwing of the same age; its 
chest, throat and stomach were of a spotless white, and its upper 
parts delicately barred with dark gray and brown: I was struck 
with the large and apparently disproportionate size of its legs and 
feet: one of the old birds, probably the female, feigned lameness 
on my approaching the nest: I have never seen an oystercatcher 
do this before, though they always fly anxiously around the intruder, 
uttering piercing screams, rather than whistles. 

Ringed Plover.—Numerous along the north, west and south 
coasts. I disturbed one bird in a little hollow in the sand-hills by 
coming suddenly up from behind a hillock ; she was so astonished 
at my appearance that she stood still by her nest for some seconds 
before taking flight: there were three eggs in the nest, and one 
about a foot outside, quite cold but fresh. Did the latter egg 
belong to another bird? 

Shieldrake.—About three pairs nesting at the north and four 
at the south end, but their nests are very hard to discover. 
Mr. Geldert, the lighthouse-keeper, told me a curious fact con- 
nected with the nesting habits of this species. During the time 
the female is incubating, after feeding, she, in company with the 


THE ZooLocist—Juty, 1873. 3605 


male, flies to the neighbourhood of her nest, and after circling once 
or twice in the air over the spot, to see whether the coast is clear, 
flies straight into the hole without alighting on or touching the 
ground; and the mallard, after performing one or two more circles, 
flies off to his breeding quarters on the extensive sandy flats of 
Walney. 

Dunlin, Sanderling and Turnstone.—On the west coast I ob- 
served an enormous flock of dunlins. I suspect birds of the previous 
year do not breed, as there are dunlins on the Crosby shore, more 
or less, every month in the year. Sanderlings were frequently seen 
in small parties; and I noticed one small flock of turnstones, 
numbering about eight birds, and one pair which were so tame 
that I thought they must have a nest in the neighbourhood, though 
there was no likely place for it. 

Sandwich Tern.—These birds, like the preceding, nested much 
earlier than usual this year: on my visit in May I found the young 
had flown and left the neighbourhood with their parents, whilst in 
1864 they were still incubating at that time. There were only four 
pairs this year, whilst Mr. Harting found seventeen pairs nine years 
ago; and this is the more unaccountable as they are preserved, if 
possible, more closely than the gulls. The son of the proprietor 
was kind enough to give me two eggs, taken this season: they are 
of a beautiful light gray ground colour, speckled with dark gray, 
brown and black, a good deal larger than the eggs of the common 
~ and arctic terns, nearly approaching in size some small eggs of the 
blackheaded gull; the markings and measurements are also smaller 
than those of the other terns’ eggs. 

Common Tern.—The most numerous species of tern on the 
island. I saw about fifty pairs at the north and south ends; they 
were, however, only just commencing to lay, which they do on the 
sand-hills. I was told they used to lay on the shore, but since 
their nests have been so much robbed they have taken to lay inside 
the-sand-hills. I took six eggs of this bird: they made no nest, 
but deposited their eggs in a slight cavity in the bare sand. 

Arctic Tern.—These birds, like S. Hirundo, had only just com- 
menced to lay, and I did not find a single nest, though I received 
two eggs, taken two days before, which I believe belong to this 
species. I observed about ten pairs at the north and south ends 
of the island, but unless you are pretty close to them it is impossible 
to distinguish them from the common tern. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 2M 


3606 THE ZooLocist—JuLy, 1873. 


Lesser Tern.—This species, like the two former, had just com- 
menced to lay, but I did not see more than three or four pairs on 
Walney Island. On Foulney Island there were about four pairs 
nesting, and I succeeded in finding two nests amongst small pieces 
of broken shells, gravel, sand and small pebbles. This was the only 
species, with the exception of one or two pairs of ringed plovers, 
nesting in this island; and a flock of curlews feeding on the 
pasture-lands, and some immature lesser blackbacked and herring 
gulls, were the only other birds on the island. 

From the above I should say the terns are much less numerous 
in Walney and Foulney Islands than they were nine years ago, and 
the large shooting or slaughtering parties which used continually to 
visit the latter have effectually banished the birds from it. Mr. 
Geldert, the lighthouse-keeper, informed me that he once shot 
sixteen “ sparlings” (common terns) at one shot on Foulney. 

I regret to say there is a good prospect of coal being found 
under the whole of Walney Island, and they are going to begin 
boring at the south end at once: if they should be successful I fear 
the island will no longer be a breeding-place’ of the most beautiful 
of our sea-birds. 


H. DuRNFORD. 
1, Stanley Road, Waterloo, Liverpool, 
May, 1873. 


Notes from Leiston, Suffolk. By G. T. Rops, Esq. 


CoNSIDERING the unusually mild character of the winter we have 
had a fair quantity of ducks over, but very few wigeon came to feed 
on the marshes before January. From the absence of severe frosts 
ducks have been in capital condition; I weighed several at the 
latter part of November, shot at the evening flight: the heaviest 
mallard reached three pounds two ounces, the heaviest duck two 
pounds twelve ounces, another duck two pounds ten ounces. 

Nov. 12. Wind N.E. Very stormy. Several lots of fowl flying 
round about over the marshes, it being too rough for them out at 
sea. A great many large gulls about, principally the young of the 
lesser blackbacked and herring gulls. Saw a single snow ‘bunting 
on the beach; it remained near the same spot several days. There 
have been a good many jackdaws here of late,in company with the 
rooks: they are far from common birds here generally, though 


THE ZooLocist—JULy, 1873. 3607 


plentiful enough a few miles inland. Is it not likely these birds 
(like some of the rooks) were migrants. 

Nov. 14. Wind east, a very stormy day. A good many snipe 
in the marshes, and several lots of fowl. I saw a longtailed field 
mouse this morning among the tufts of long grass on the highest 
part of the beach. 

Nov. 15. Observed a kingfisher on the sea-wall. For the last 
few days a seal has been seen in the Orford river, near the quay. 

Noy. 18. A great many ducks in the flooded marshes to-day. 

Nov. 23. Shot a female goldeneye; it wasin good condition, 
but I fancy an unusually small specimen, the whole length being 
only fifteen inches; from the carpal joint to the end of the wing 
seven inches and three quarters: weight one pound six ounces 
and a half. 

Noy. 28. Lark singing. Both song thrushes and missel thrushes 
have been singing here at intervals throughout the last week in 
November and the first in December. 

Dec. 5. Saw a green sandpiper at Blaxhall. 

Dec. 12. Saw a few snow buntings on the beach, between 
Aldeburgh and Sizewell, in company with some larks. 

Dec. 16. This morning I shot a landrail in a wet marsh, not far 
from the sea; I had observed one about a week before near the 
same place. Saw a small flock of golden plovers. 

Dec. 19. Saw six scaup ducks on a large piece of water standing 
on the marshes. Immense quantities of peewits and gulls (L. canus 
and ridibundus) about the marshes. Saw a few golden plovers 
and a kingfisher near the sea. Watched some bearded tits this 
morning on the reed-land. I have since fallen in with them 
several times. Every winter there are numbers of blue tits on our 
reed-land; what food they find there to attract them in such 
numbers I am at a loss to know. 

January, 1873. For nearly the. whole of this month we have had 
a flock of goldeneyes on the water in the marshes. On the 8rd, 
with the help of a glass, I counted twelve, of which three only 
appeared to be adult males. I saw only eight on the 8th. 

Jan, 16. Immense flocks of peewits about. The water having 
partially subsided, there is now abundance of excellent feeding- 
ground for ducks, those spots where there are here and there a few 
splashes left upon the marsh, and long rough grass and sedge left 
nearly dry, being preferred. 


3608 Tue ZooLocist—JULyY, 1873. 


Jan. 17. Two swans in the marshes. 

Jan. 18. Heard some redshanks this morning with the peewits, 
Although a good many of these birds breed here, we seldom see 
them in the winter in our marshes. Redshanks are among the 
commonest waders in East Suffolk, breeding in considerable 
numbers in the marshes, in company with peewits, and a large 
proportion of the “ plover’s eggs” collected about here are laid by 
redshanks. 

Jan. 20. Watched a long time with a glass several goldeneyes, 
coots, and a few pochards, two of them adult males; there were 
also two males among the goldeneyes. As they continually kept 
diving it was impossible to make out their exact number, but I 
counted ten coots above water at the same time. Coots have been 
rather numerous here this winter; for the last two years we have 
had scarcely any. 

Jan. 21. Wind N. and N.W, Got a couple of jack snipe this 
morning from a swampy place at the back of the beach; saw two 
more. 

Jan. 28. A great many ringed dotterel feeding with the peewits 
on the marshes. 

Jan. 29. Several lots of wigeon about: saw a flock of golden 
plover. 

Jan. 80. For the last few days we have had four geese every day 
in the marshes; I believe them to have been bean geese, but 
cannot be certain of the species. 

February 2. Wind E., very stormy, with a good deal of 
snow. Several large lots of fowl flying round about over the 
marshes. 

Feb. 3. My brother shot an adult blackbacked gull; he was 
flying straight inland, from the sea at dusk, as if to pass the night 
upon the marshes. The man who skinned this bird found inside 
him a large rat, whether a water rat or a common brown rat 1 
cannot say. 

Feb. 4. Heard some geese to-night at flighting time, also the 
crow of a cock pheasant. 

Feb. 6. Some shieldrakes on a marsh close to the sea: tried to 
stalk them, but unsuccessfully. 

Feb. 7. Shot aknot; it was alone, and was feeding at the edge of 
a piece of fresh water; this was a remarkably tame bird. Several 
blackheaded buntings now frequent the lines of faggots which are 


THE ZooLoGist—JuLy, 1873. 3609 


placed along the beach here to prevent the encroachment of the 
sea. 

Feb. 11. A hawfinch killed about this date in a garden at Blax- 
hall. My brother shot a fine old male scaup this morning, it was 
a single bird, and had been seen near the same place two or three 
days. 

Feb. 17. Great quantities of peewits in the marshes; also a flock 
of some small Tringa, probably dunlins, and among them a single 
golden plover; when on the wing this bird, though nearly double 
the size of the others, acted exactly as if it were one of them, 
turning at the same moment as they did, and keeping nearly in the 
centre of the flock. 

Feb. 19. Saw a single pair of siskins about some alders: I 
believe these birds are far less frequent here than in West Suffolk. 

Feb. 24. Put up a snipe this morning, which immediately began 
bleating, as they do in the breeding-season. 

Feb. 25. Saw five or six pintails alight in some water standing 
in the marshes, but could not get near them. There have lately 
been flocks of greenfinches and a few sparrows feeding on the 
beach, close down to the sea,—I suppose upon oats, a quantity of 
which have been washed ashore from a vessel wrecked close by; 
the rooks seem also to have found them out. 

Feb. 28. Shot a chiffchaff at Blaxhall; heard the call of the 
great tit. 

March 3. A good many ducks come now to the marshes at night. 
Redshanks are getting back to their breeding haunts, their numbers 
keep gradually increasing. 

March 4. Very warm. A good many snipe bleating and uttering 
their breeding note, day and night. Waterhens are also very noisy 
now at night; besides their usual note I heard them utter a short 
sharp whistle, exceedingly loud considering the size of the bird. 

_ March 6. Both marsh and cole tits appear to be rather numerous 
here just now; I saw some of the former to-day on some furze 
bushes. We have had four geese here for the last two or three 
days; 1 believe them to be whitefronted by their note. 

March 8. Ringed dotterel have arrived at their breeding-station 
here, between Sizewell and the Dunwich Cliffs. 

March 11. Saw a weasel this morning on the beach and found 
his nest, which was under a pile of wood ; it was made of moss and 
dry grass, and contained a short-tailed field vole, a lark (freshly 


3610 THE ZooLoGcist—J Ly, 1873, 


killed), and a great quantity of feathers; both the lark and the 


mouse had had a bite at the back of the skull. 


G. T. Rope, 
Leiston, Suffolk, March, 1873. 


Nice in East Suffolk.—The beautiful little harvest mouse (Mus messorius, 
Shaw), though I believe nowhere very numerous, is not uncommon in this 
part of Suffolk. I have met with it in several different localities,—at Ged- 
grave near Orford, at Blaxhall, and at Leiston,—and I once found a nest at 
Washbrook, near Ipswich. Mr. Southwell (Zool. S. S. 2756) mentions the 
nest of this species having been taken from among the tall sedges by the 
side of the Waveney, and also at Kessingland, among the marram-grass on 
the beach. This and the common house mouse (M. musculus)—only the 
latter, of course, in sufficient numbers to be of any consequence—are the 
only species which are here found in stacks of corn, when threshed out, 
excepting perhaps a stray longtailed field mouse (M. sylvaticus) or two. I do 
not recollect ever seeing an example of the short-tailed field vole in a stack 
of corn of any kind, for although a few may occasionally be carried in at 
harvest time, I do not think it likely they would remain there; nor have 
I ever met with them in barns, granaries or buildings of any kind, although 
most writers on the subject have accused them of doing much damage in 
such situations; their habits and the nature of their food seem to me to 
make it very unlikely that they should take up their abode there. I fancy 
this little animal has had more than its due share of abuse, for though 
exceedingly numerous as a species, it is certainly far less injurious to the 
farmer (at all events in this neighbourhood) than either M. musculus or 
M. sylvaticus, however destructive it may be to young trees and shrubs. 
The longtailed field mouse is well known to be a great consumer of seed- 
corn when first put in the ground, and also of the ripe wheat at harvest time, 
remaining in the field till the stubble is ploughed, when numbers are turned 
out of their burrows by the plough. When the corn is all housed the “ long- 
tail” resigns his claim to it, and his congeners, M. rattus and M. musculus, 
carry on the work of destruction. I have at different times kept many 
meadow mice (A. agrestis) in‘confinement, and can speak from experience 
as to grass and the leaves of various plants forming a large proportion, if 
not the bulk, of their food, though I have occasionally found ears of corn in 
their runs: they are very numerous in some places, where it is quite im- 
possible for them to have access to corn of any kind; for instance, small 
islands consisting entirely of pasture-land; and I might mention, by way of 
example, that long strip of beach extending from Aldeburgh to the mouth 
of the river, having water on both sides of it, where they abound and attain 
a very large size. I have on more than one occasion taken the bank vole 


EE SS EE eT A et a ee a ae eae 


THE ZooLocist—JvULy, 1878. 3611 


(A. pratensis, Baillon) in the neighbourhood of Saxmundham, in this county, 
and once caught two, a male and female, in one trap and in one night, upon 
a piece of artificial rockwork, which indeed they seem to be very partial to ; 
the female, which I kept for several months, fed principally upon grass, 
bread, nuts, and fruit of various kinds, and became very tame: they make 
prettier pets than the common meadow mouse, both in colour and form. 
Two or three instances have come to my knowledge of the longtailed field 
mouse having been taken in dwelling-houses. I remember several being 
caught some years ago in a dairy, attracted there perhaps by the milk. One 
I had in a cage killed and partially devoured a smaller one of its own species, 
though well supplied with food at the time. There is something very 
kangaroo-like in the actions of this graceful little animal, not only in the 
long bounding leaps which it takes (in which the comparatively small fore 
limbs take but little part), but more especially when it is moving slowly 
about while feeding. I have seen one of these mice raise itself to nearly its 
full height when sitting upon the edge of a vessel no thicker than a common 
tea-cup, the large and powerful hinder feet only grasping the edge. I fancy 
this species is more strictly nocturnal in its habits than any of the three 
British voles.—G. 7’. Rope; Leiston, Suffolk. 


Wild Birds Protection Act.—I am sorry to read the remarks (Zool. 
S. 8S. 8576) of my friend Mr. Pickard-Cambridge on this Act. I am 
certainly not an admirer of it, but his strictures are founded on an entire 
misapprehension as to facts. With his opinions I have nothing to do, 
though I would observe that if the Act is “ objectionable in principle,” 
equally objectionable in principle must be a certain admonition (Deuteronomy 
xxii. 6, 7), to which he doubtless accords respect. But Mr. Pickard-Cam- 
bridge asserts that the Act “was conceived by short-sighted sportsmen, 
and brought forth by ornithologists many generations behind the times.” 
A very short statement of the case will show that neither of these assertions 
is correct. The Act is due to the Wild Fowl Protection Bill, printed in 
the ‘ Zoologist’ last year (S.S. 3139), and prepared by the Close-Time Com- 
mittee of the British Association, appointed at Edinburgh in 1871, and 
consisting of Mr. Barnes, Mr. Dresser, Mr. Harting, Canon Tristram, and 
myself. I am conscious of possessing many old-fashioned ideas, and there- 
fore Iam not at all disconcerted at being considered an ornithologist behind 
the age, but such a description will hardly apply to many of my colleagues. 
I will also plead guilty to being “short-sighted” (in a physical sense), but 
Tam sure that of our Committee the term “sportsman” can only apply to 
Mr. Harting, while without divulging our secrets I may add that the idea of 
the Wild Fowl Bill did not originate with the author of ‘ Hints on Shore- 
Shooting.’ It may be, however, that the members of our Committee 


3612 Tue ZooLocist—JvuLyY, 1873. 


generally, though not sportsmen, were “short-sighted” in another sense. 
I must confess that they did not foresee by some four or five months, that 
a Peeress of the realm would indite a sensational letter to ‘The Times’ 
complaining that nightingales would rather obey their migratory impulse 
than stop in her garden, or that a sentimental Member of the Commons 
would be so moved thereby as to persuade an almost deserted House to 
change a well-considered, reasonable and definite proposal—a proposal 
which so far as it went was “ thorough”—into one far wilder than the wild 
birds he wished to protect. The members of the Close-Time Committee 
are not accountable for this folly, but I am sure its authors would repudiate 
the notion of being called “sportsmen,” and no one who has read the Act 
could accuse them of being “ ornithologists” of any time.—Alfred Newton ; 
Magdalene College, Cambridge, June 2, 1873. 

Ornithological Notes from Lancashire.—To avoid confusion I have placed 
a “D.” at the end of all my notes: the others are by the Baron A. von 
Hiigel —H. Durnford. 


ApRIL, 1878. 


Lapwing.—Observed a large flock flying north on the 18th of March; 
several had nested about Crosby by the 1st of April—D. Returned to 
their breeding-quarters near Stonyhurst on the 9th of March, and a nest 
with two eggs was found on the 17th. 

Dunlin Sandpiper.— Some seen on the 8th were still in full winter 
plumage; but out of a flock of about a hundred birds observed on the 26th 
most had acquired their black breasts.—D. 

Common Sandpiper.—Arrived at their breeding-quarters along the Ribble 
and Hodder on the 16th. 

Sand Martin and Swallow.—Sand martins returned on the 17th, and 
swallows on the following day. 

Golden Plover.—A small flock of seven flying northward, on the 19th, 
made a stay of a day or two on some low meadows near Formby ; they were 
in nearly full summer dress.—D. 

Stock Dove, Wheatear, Sky Lark, de—April 20. These birds are all 
now engaged with their nests among the sand-hills between Liverpool and 
Southport. On the 26th I found two young stock doves, about a week old, 
in an old rabbit-burrow; also a nest of the sky lark and titlark, and two of 
the pied wagtail; the latter invariably nest here on the ground, generally 
close to one of the numerous pools under the shelter of some over- 
hanging tuft of grass. I was unsuccessful in my search for the wheat- 
ear’s nest, though they had undoubtedly laid, as the males were alone 
visible.—D. s 

Fieldfave.—Last seen on the 20th of April near Stonyhurst; and on the 
Qnd near Crosby.—D. ; 


THE ZooLoGist—JuLy, 1873. 3613 


Shieldrake.—I observed a pair on the sand-hills on the 20th. These birds, 
I believe, used to breed here, and would no doubt do so again if only left in 
peace.—D. : 

Ringed Plover.—A nest with eggs was found about the 15th amongst the 
sand-hills in the neighbourhood of Formby. 20th.—I observed one standing 
up to its stomach in a pool, and scattering the water over its back by 
dipping its head and flapping its wings; it then came out of the water 
and shook itself vigorously until dry. 26th.—Several pairs now have eggs 
in the sand-hills, and use various devices to draw the intruder from the 
neighbourhood of their nests. The keepers, rustics, &c., about here always 
call these birds “ Pew Williams,” which evidently has a connection with 
* Dulwilly.”—D. 

Cuckoo.—First seen and heard on the 26th near Formby.—D. 

Corn Crake.—First heard on the 27th near Waterloo. 

Yellow Wagtail.—Observed one on the 30th near Liverpool—D. A pair 
observed on the 25th March along the river Hodder. 

Common Tern.—A local name by which this bird is known about here is 
“ scrag.” 

May, 1873. 

Guillemot.—I1st. A fine adult bird, in breeding-plumage, was washed 
up on the shore near Waterloo to-day; it had been dead only a few 
hours.—D. 

Cuckoo.—First heard on the 38rd. 

Dunlin.—8th. Observed seven flying due north, very high; fresh north- 
west wind at the time.—D. 

Corn Crake.—9th. First heard at 11 p.m. 

Lesser Tern.—10th. Paid a visit to the Point of Air, Flintshire, a 
breeding-place of this species; they had not, however, yet arrived at their 
nesting-quarters, though I found them there on the 7th of June.—D. 

Swift. Observed a great quantity near Flint, hawking over a large sheet 
of water, on the 15th D. First seen on the 12th, and appeared in large 
numbers the same day. 

Gray Plover.—My brother observed a small party of seven on the mud- 
flats near Crosby on the 21st; they were feeding and very tame.—D. 

Blackheaded Gull (locally called “ turnock”).—Two pairs have laid in wet 
places in the sand-hills near Formby this spring, to my knowledge. Two 
eggs were found on the 21st, which I subsequently secured, and I have seen 
two more taken about the same time. The inhabitants of the neighbourhood 
never remember this bird nesting here before.—D. 

Birds attracted by Lighthouses.—25th. The lighthouse-keeper at Leasowe, 
near Hoylake, told me to-day that starlings, blackbirds, thrushes, a few 
cuckoos, woodcocks and curlews occasionally kill or stun themselves against 
the light during fogey weather.—D. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 2N 


3614 Tue ZooLocist—JULy, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Longparish, Hants, during April and May, 
1873.— 

Nightingale-—Two heard, for the first time, on the 15th April. 

Cuckoo.—Heard and seen, for the first time, on the 17th April. » 

Corn Crake.—First heard on the 22nd April. 

Common Sandpiper.—One seen at Clatford on the 10th April, and again 
on the 17th. Two seen near Tufton on the 25th, and one at Longparish 
on the 26th. 

Green Sandpiper —One seen on the 5th April, on Bransbury Common, 
as wild as usual; and on the 23rd one observed near Tufton. 

Whimbrel.—A pair seen on the 27th, and again on the 29th, on Brans- 
bury Common. It is unusual for so many of our waders to visit this 
neighbourhood, even during the spring and autumn migrations. 

Swift.—One observed on the 5th May near Longparish. 

Variety of Starling —May 5. An almost pure white bird was observed 
at Clatford to-day. 

Young Snipe.—A single young bird, just hatched, was found this morning 
on Bransbury Common, which is, I think, the most beautiful little thing 
T have ever seen: its head is of a delicate russet, barred and speckled with 
grayish white; neck and throat underneath chestnut-red, above darker, 
spotted with white; chest and stomach above light russet, below black, 
speckled with white. Its back is the handsomest part of all, spangled with 
black, chestnut and white in about equal proportions. Thighs darker; legs 


and toes light slate-colour; the joints of these and the claws darker; beak 


dark slate-colour.—[Communicated by H. Durnford, Esq.] 

Arrival of Spring Birds in Nottinghamshire.—Wheatear, March 26th; 
willow wren and chiffchaff, 31st; swallow, April 15th, at Rainworth: sand 
martin, 16th, at Ollerton; wood wren, 21st, at Rainworth; whitethroat, 
22nd, at Ramsdale; corn crake, 26th, at Calverton; yellow wagtail, 27th, 
at Rainworth; common sandpiper, 27th, at Rainworth Water; cuckoo, 28th, 
and redstart, May 1st, at Ramsdale: whinchat, 6th: house martin, 7th; 
turtle dove, 9th; swift, 16th; flycatcher, 20th, at ayers —J. Whitaker, 
jun.; Rainworth Lodge, Notts. 

Arrival of Spring Migrants, &.—There has of late years been so much 
building here, and in the neighbourhood, that many of our birds have been 
driven away or become scarce; for instance, the goldfinch, now a somewhat 
rare species in the Undereliff, was so common fifty years ago as to be found 
nesting in most of our orchards where there were lichen-covered apple and 
other fruit trees, and considerable flocks were to be seen in the autumn 
feeding on the thistle about and on the downs. The thrush, too, is com- 
paratively scarce, hundreds having’ perished or been shot during a severe 
winter or two, when scores of young men and boys were popping at them 
from morning till night ; however, thanks to the gun license, they have had 


THE ZooLtocist—J uLy, 1873. 3615. 


some respite of late, and we may hope to be again cheered with their well- 
nigh unrivalled song. The bullfinch was fast disappearing, and might have 
become extinct but for the new law and gun license. Of the blackbird, 
being a wary species, we have still a goodly number, and one has been 
singing all the spring from the topmost branches of a tall poplar in the 
High Street of the town, to the great delight of passers by, both pedestrian 
and equestrian: its song has been heard as late as 8.20 p.m. Though there 
is a young but well-fledged blackbird lying dead on the lawn, the old bird 
(the parent, I know) is singing merrily perched on a tree overhead. The 
only two species that have increased and multiplied, and that tenfold, are 
the house sparrow and the starling; in fact, the latter was hardly known in 
the Undercliff in my younger days, nor do I think they were to be met with 
in any number till the building of Steephill Castle. In a walk of some two 
or three miles about Wroxall and over the downs, on May-day, not a dozen 
species were observed, and I neither saw nor heard the cuckoo; but then 
the whole of the copses, their favourite haunt, on the northern face of the 
hills, have been cut down and grubbed up. Some noble and lofty pines, 
too, in whose closely-matted branches and dense foliage a colony of sparrows 
had their nests, have shared the same fate. The cuckoo was first heard in 
the third week in April. I saw no swallows till the 30th of April, the latest 
period I have known them arrive (the earliest being the 2nd); I hear, how- 
ever, that swallows were seen about the middle of the month at Godshill, 
The first chiffchaff observed on the 30th of March; but it was not until the 
80th of April, when there was a sudden rise of temperature of some ten 

degrees, that many were seen; on that day both the chiffchaff and willow 
wren were swarming in the garden, but their stay was short, as none breed 
here that I am aware of, never having seen or found their nests. On the 
8rd of May I saw five or six swifts hawking about the cliffs near Dunnose. 
A pied flycatcher, a rare bird in the island, was seen at Blackgang during 
the first week in April.—Henry Hadjield ; Ventnor, Isle of Wight, May 16, 
1873. 

Orangelegged Hobby in Essex.—Colonel Hawkins records, in a letter to 
Dr. Bree, published in the ‘ Field’ of June 7, the occurrence of a specimen 
of this rare bird at Alresford on the 31st of May, and adds, “ My impression 
is that the bird was blown over during the continuance of the N.N.E. gales 
which had prevailed previous to that date. 

Strange Nest for the Hedgesparrow.—On Monday, May 12th, I was 
looking for birds’ nests, but with poor success, owing to the birds having 
only just began to lay in this part of the country, though in the nests in 
Hampshire many of the young birds hatched out a fortnight ago. Just as 
I was giving up the search in despair, I dropped upon two eggs of the 
hedgesparrow laid in a shallow depression on the ground at the corner of a 
country lane. I mentioned this fact to a gentleman of experience in this 


8616 THE ZOOLOGIsT—JULY, 1873. 


neighbourhood, and he tells me he has not unfrequently met with similar 


instances; the nests being often torn out by village boys as soon as com- 
pleted, the birds are compelled at length to lay their eggs anywhere.— 
A. G. Butler; Bankside House, Sittingbourne, Kent. 

Peculiarity of Roosting observed in a Woodpecker.—Some years ago 
I took a young woodpecker from the nest in an old rotten oak tree, and 
reared it. At night it roosted by hanging from the top of the cage back 
downwards, and the head behind the wing. I have never met with any 
person who could tell me whether they roost in the same position in 
a wild state. It seemed to me quite natural to the bird—From the 
* € Field,’ June 21. 

[The fact of the woodpecker roosting suspended with its back downwards 
is very interesting, but the additional statement, “ and the head behind the 
wing,” I consider questionable. Is it a fact that birds put their head 
behind the wing in roost? I have many wild birds in confinement, and 
have never observed this attitude: the beak is often thrust among the 
scapularies, but the head always appears to me outside the wing and not 
beneath it.—H. Newman.] 

Anecdote of a Kingfisher.—A lady resident a few miles from Norwich 
has in her dining-room four pairs of canaries with several young ones in 
some large breeding-cages. On the 11th of June, about eight o'clock in 
the morning, the attention of her servant was attracted by an unusual 
fluttering of the canaries, which was found to be caused by the strange 
circumstance of a kingfisher clinging to the wires of one of the cages, 
where it was caught by the hand and kept in confinement for a few hours, 
when it was allowed to fly away. It was a young bird of this year, but 
fully fledged, and had probably been hatched in the neighbourhood, as a 
brook runs through some meadows adjoining the house which the kingfisher 
thus entered.—J. H. Gurney. 

Night Heron in Jersey.—A beautiful male specimen of this bird was 
shot last week in St. Ouen’s parish, by Mr. J. Vibert, and is now being 
stuffed by M. Charlotte, naturalist, of Bath-street.—Lrom the ‘ Field,’ 
June 21. 

Nesting of the Woodcock in Suffolk. — In the ‘Ipswich Journal’ for 
May 2nd, 1873, two instances are recorded of woodcocks having nested this 
season in this county. In the first case a nest containing four eggs was 
found at Ufford, all of which hatched off; one young bird was left dead in 
the nest, and has since been preserved in spirits; the other three have been 
seen with the old birds in the wood. The other instance was that of a 
deserted nest with four eggs having been found by Mr. Greene’s keepers, at 
Ixworth—G. T. Rope; Leiston, Suffolk. 


THE ZooLtocist—JULyY, 18738. 8617 


Beaumaris Shark and Boar-fish at Hastings.—A specimen of the Beau- 
maris shark (Lamna monensis) was taken in the mackerel-nets by our 
fishermen this morning: it measured from the tip of the nose to the end 
of the tail four feet one inch, and round the thickest part of the body two 
feet. A nice specimen of the boar-fish (Capros aper) was brought to me a 
few days since: it measured five inches from the tip of the nose to the tip 
of the tail. I have preserved it in saturated salt and water for the present. 
—J. S. Bowerbank; 2, Hast Ascent, St. Leonards-on-Sea, June 18, 1873. 

Voracity of Pike.—On account of the very high water during the past 
winter, and consequent overflowing of the river, there have been an unusual 
number of pike in the ditches and small water-courses near the meadows. 
Two instances of the voracity and cannibalism of this ponderous-jawed 
monster have come under my observation, which perhaps are worth 
recording. One morning at the end of February I was walking leisurely 
by a broad ditch where the weeds are very dense, waiting for a friend who 
was stalking a flock of fieldfares. At one place the water was clearer and 
comparatively free of weeds, and there I saw a fish, but I could make out 
no head to the creature. I judged it to be a pike from its striped and 
mottled back, but of what form the fish could be I was at a loss to con- 
jecture, as it was stationed some twelve or fourteen feet from where I was 
standing, and the water seemed partly opaque. Having secured the services 
of my old friend the fisherman, he was not long in landing the cannibal and 
his victim, as it proved to be a pike which had partly swallowed one of his 
brethren, the head of the smaller fish going down the larger one’s throat. 
_ When thrown out upon the grass the largest immediately disgorged the 
smaller, which was as lively as its captor. Neither of the fish were of 
large size, measuring respectively twenty-two and sixteen inches in length. 
The other instance is of two larger fish than the above. Walking by the 
river I observed a considerable splashing and commotion at some distance 
off, and the fins and tail of a fish frequently appeared above the surface of 
the water, but as there had been a number of salmon near the same spot a 
short time before, I supposed it must be some of them, so I gave them no 
very decided attention. On my return, several hours afterwards, I was sur- 
prised to see the same disturbance, but a man in a boat had now joined the 
affray, and was endeavouring to settle the matter to his own personal benefit 
by capturing the fish: it turned out to be two pike. The cannibal in this 
case had not been so fortunate as the one before described, having caught 
his victim in the middle of its back, consequently it was across his mouth 
rather than entering it. ‘Thus one was locked in the other’s jaws so firmly 
that neither had power to free itself from the uncomfortable situation. Both 
were living and very active when I saw them hauled into the boat, and 
neither fish, I should say, weighed less than twelve or thirteen pounds,— 
G, B. Corbin. 


3618 THE ZooLocist—JULY, 1873. 


Large Salmon.— A monster salmon was lately netted in the Severn, 
between the New Passage and Littleton: its length was four feet nine 
inches, its girth two feet eight inches, and its weight over seventy-eight 
pounds. The largest salmon ever known to have been caught weighed 
somewhere about ninety pounds, so that the fish landed on Tuesday was 
within a dozen pounds of being the heaviest recorded example of his species. 
It remained on view for two days in the shop of a fish salesman in North- 
street, Bristol—_W. Peard, M.D., in the ‘ Field’ of June 21. 

Large Salmon.—There used to be in the town of Usk a portrait of a 
salmon weighing sixty-five pounds, which was taken in the river Usk; and 
I saw, two or three years ago, one of fifty pounds in Bristol, taken in 
the Severn; but the salmon I saw in the shop of Mr. Day, fishmonger, last 
week, eclipsed all I have ever seen or heard of, as the following particulars 
will show :—The length was four feet nine inches, the depth one foot, and 
the thickness six inches; weight eighty pounds. Of the dimensions I can 
speak with certainty, as I saw the fish measured; the weight I got from the 
fishmonger. That the fish was an old one the extraordinary size would 
indicate, as would also the conformation of the jaws, which were elongated 
into a cylindrical, or rather conical form, the under one especially, which 
was greatly curved inwards.—W. Jones ; Somerset-street, Kingsdown, Bristol. 
—From the ‘ Field,’ June 21. 


A Huge Lobster.—An enormous lobster was caught in Plymouth Sound 
in the trawl-net of our cutter-yacht “ Hilda” on Friday, the 13th instant. 
It is quite perfect in every respect. Length from tip of the claw to end of 
tail three feet two inches; weight fifteen pounds two ounces and a quarter. 
Several small oysters, mussels and barnacles are adhering to the shell. The 
oldest fishermen here say they have never seen or heard of such a lobster 
before. It is now being preserved by Mr. Peacock, of Plymouth, who 
supposes it to be one hundred years old.— J. Barrington Deacon ; 6, Osborn- 
place, Plymouth, June 17.—F rom the ‘ Field,’ June 21. 


= Se 


Proceedings of the Entomological Society. 


May 5, 1873.—H. T. Srarnton, F.R.S., &c., Vice-President, in the chair. 


Additions to the Library. 


The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors :—‘ Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ No. 148; presented by the 


THE ZooLocist—Juty, 1873. 3619 


Society. ‘ Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Koniglichen zoologisch-botanischen 
Gesellschaft in Wien,’ vol. xxii.; by the Society. ‘Tijdschrift voor Ento- 
mologie, nitgegeven door de Nederlandsche Entomologische Vereeniging,’ 
Qnd series, vol. vii.; by the Society. ‘Memoires de la Société Linnéenne 
de Normandie,’ vols. xv. & xvi., and ‘ Bulletin de la Société Linnéenne de 
Normandie,’ ser. 2, vol. v.; by the Society. ‘Report of the Entomological 
Society of Ontario,’ 1872; by the Society. ‘ Local Biology; followed by 
Remarks on the Faunas of Bath and Somerset,’ by the Rev. Leonard Blome- 
field, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.8., &c.; by the Author. ‘The Canadian Ento- 
mologist,’ vol. v. no. 3; by the Editor. ‘The Zoologist’ and ‘ Newman’s 
Entomologist’ for May; by the Editor. ‘The Entomologist’s Monthly 
Magazine’ for May; by the Editors. ‘Cistula Entomologica,’ pars vi.; by 
EK. W. Janson. ‘Notice Biographique sur M. Guillaume-Antoine Olivier, 
Membre de I'Institut de la Societé d’Agriculture de Paris, par A. F. Silvestre, 
Membre de 1|'Tnstitut et Secrétaire perpétuel de la Société d’Agriculture ; 
lue a la Séance publique de la Société d’Agriculture, le 9 Avril, 1815 ;’ by 
M. Ernest Olivier. ‘Stettiner Entomologische Zeitung,’ xxxiy., nos. 4—6 ; 
by the Entomological Society of Stettin. 
By purchase :—‘ Catalogus Coleopterorum,’ tom. ix., pars ii. 


Election of Member. 


The Marquis Giacomo Doria, of Genoa, was balloted for and elected a 
Foreign Member of the Society. 


Exhibitions, &c. 


Mr. Higgins exhibited a specimen of a remarkable insect recently described 
by Mr. F. Moore under the name of Langia zeuzeroides (said to pertain to 
the Sphingide). It was from the Himalayas, and had been bred by Major 
Buckley from a larva feeding on wild apricot. He also exhibited a female 
specimen of Goliathus albosignatus (Kirkii, Westw.), from the Limpopo, 
being, as he considered, the only known example of that sex. 

Mr. M‘Lachlan exhibited a coloured plate of butterflies from Turkestan. 
This he had been requested to show to English entomologists, as a sample 
of the manner in which the forthcoming work on the Natural History of 
Turkestan is to be illustrated. The entomological collections had been 
chiefly made by M. Alexis Fedtschenko during the years 1869—71. The 
work is to be published in the Russian language, with Latin diagnoses of 
the new species. 

Mr. Bates alluded to an insect figured in the plate as Colias Nastes, var. 
Cocandica. C. Nastes had, hitherto, only been found in Lapland (var. Wer- 
dandi) and in Labrador and Arctic America, and it was a striking instance 
of the manner in which some species inhabiting the Arctic regions are found 


3620 THE ZooLtocist—JuLy, 1873. 


southwards in mountainous districts, though not in the intervening plains. 
He mentioned also that Colias Paleeno was found near the snow-line in the 
Alps, and in Lapland. 

Mr. Miiller said that he felt much interested in the remarks offered by 
Mr. Bates, as they confirmed his own conclusions, concerning the very close 
connection, or perhaps even identity, between the Arctic and the Alpine 
insect-faunas. He referred to one remarkable instance, namely, to the 
Genus Parnassius, and in particular to P. Apollo, which occurred in most 
parts of Northern Europe and Asia; but which in Central Europe—i. e. in 
Switzerland—was confined to the Alps and the opposite Jurassian range, 
carefully avoiding the intervening alluvial plains, which in the glacial period 
had been covered by the glaciers of the Rhone, the Reuss, the Rhine, and 
minor tributaries. He added that if the actual stations of the species were 
mapped they would all be found to exist outside, but along the moraines 
left by the ancient glaciers; and that the same was the case with Delius 
and Mnemosyne. 

Mr. Albert Miiller was desirous of making some inquiry concerning the 
literary remains of an entomologist. It was mentioned by Markus Lutz, of 
Basle, in his ‘ Moderne Biographien’ (Lichtenstieg, 1826, pp. 39—40), that 
Johann Samuel Clemens, a native of Chambery, in Savoy, was a clergyman 
in the Val d’Illies (Lower Valais), and that he was a learned naturalist. He 
is said to have formed a library of 8000 volumes, an herbarium, a collection 
of minerals and insects of the country; and is reported to have committed 
to paper many good observations concerning the Natural History of the 
Valais, none of which seem to have been published. He is said to have 
died in 1812. Mr. Miiller said that he would be thankful to any {talian, 
French or Swiss entomologist who might be able to give information con- 
cerning the manuscripts of this divine, either by letter to himself or through 
any entomological publication. 

Mr. Stainton exhibited a cocoon found by Mr. A. H. Swinton in the 
crevice of a wall at Kilburn. Its surface was smooth and extremely hard, 
and it had an oval opening at one end. Mr. M‘Lachlan considered that it 
was an ancient cocoon of Cerura vinula, altered in texture and surface in 
consequence of the larva having had to construct it on a wall instead of on 
a tree-trunk. 


Papers read, dc. 


Dr. Sharp communicated a paper on “ The Staphylinide of Japan,” princi- 
pally from the collection of Mr. George Lewis. 

A paper was read entitled “ Notes on the Ephemeride,” by Dr. H. A. 
Hagen, compiled by the Rev. A. E. Eaton, M.A.—F’. G. 


THE ZooLoGist—AvuaGustT, 1878. 3621 


Observations on the Natural History of the Night Parrot of New 
Zealand ( Kakapo of the Maories). By T. H. Ports, Esq. 


THE following observations on the natural history of the night- 
parrot (Sivingops habroptilus) may possess some interest to 
ornithologists. With the exception of the pigeon (Carpophaga 
Nova-Zealandie), the kakapo is perhaps the only true vegetarian 
to be found amongst the birds of New Zealand; bark, leaves, fruits, 
form some portion of its food; the tender fronds of ferns (piki-piki) 
are also eaten. In traversing the deep ferny gullies and mossy 
terraces of the Westland bush, its haunts may not unfrequently be 
noted from the traces it has left on the bark of certain trees; the 
prime favourite of the forest, for its bark, tender shoots and leaves, 
is one of the Araliacee (Schefflera digitata). This shrub, some- 
times called kohi, is known to the West Coast graziers as the heener- 
heener,—not to be confused with hine-hine (Melicytus ramiflorus), 
—and greatly esteemed by them, for its extraordinary fattening 
qualities ; in many places on the West Coast branches of it are cut 
for cattle-fodder: up the river Waio in S. Westland we noticed 
the marks of the kakapo on a great number of these trees, whilst 
many other species growing close by them were left unscathed. 
The favourite piki-piki is supplied by the young growth of Asple- 
nium bulbiferum ; the more open grounds of river-beds, some parts 
of the shores of inlets and sounds, exhibit here and there food- 
tracks so peculiar as at once to attract notice: these food-tracks 
appear as masses of chewed fibre from which nourishment has been 
extracted with the leaf left attached to the plants: last month, on 
the flat between the rivers Arthur and Cleddan, Milford Sound, we 
observed specimens of these hanging pellets on the broom (Car- 
michellia), tohe, tohe (Arundo conspicua), as well as on the phor- 
mium: on plants of the last-named, leaves had been chewed quite 
two feet from the point; this peculiar process caused the used 
portion of the leaf to look as though it had been roughly scutched 
and plaited. On dissecting a pigeon (Carpophaga) leaves are found 
in the crop entire, whereas the food gathered by the kakapo is so 
finely comminuted as to be found in a kind of felted mass; this, 
when formed of piki-piki, gives out no unpleasant odour. The 
kakapo has lately been called the owl-parrot, not an inappropriate 
name if we consider its nocturnal habits, facial disk, &c.; its 

SECOND SERIES—YOL. VII. 20 


3622 Tue Zoo_ocist—Auvcust, 1873. 


habit of regurgitating certain portions of its food may be added as 
another reason for its new title. 

It is a late breeder apparently, probably deferring family cares 
till the ripening of certain fruits supplies ample nourishment for 
the young. The natives of Bruce Bay say that the kakapo descends 
the ranges when the tuhe (Coriaria) is ripe: this is towards the 
very end of the year. 

The nesting-place is usually a hole ready made, or one which 
requires but little labour to fit it for use,—such a place is often 
selected amongst roots or dead logs; sometimes its home is tun- 
nelled in the ground; wherever it may be, its condition will scarcely 
fail to recall the homely proverb about the bird that fouls its own 
nest. About a year ago the writer inspected a well-excavated home 
not far from Okarito; it was near the top of a low dry terrace beneath 
huge katas and kimus, whose stately trunks were clothed with 
semi-pellucid kidney-ferns and Hymenophyllum: there the formal 
Gleichenia grew sparingly, just above pendulous Aspleniums, and 
the heavy fronds of Todea superba, that filled the bottom of the 
gully in one mass of deepest green. The tunnel, six inches in 
diameter at its mouth, was scratched out of the side of the terrace; 
the circumference widened very gradually as the excavation ex- 
tended, the work ending in a chamber, two feet in height by 
eighteen inches in width; the total length of the hole, from the 
entrance to the back of the nesting-place, was found to measure 
nine feet. The floor was thickly covered with excremental balls, 
to the extent of between two and three bucketsful, from which we 
could not detect any unpleasant odour: the fermentation of this 
mass of vegetable matter would materially assist in keeping the 
hole warm during the absence of the old bird. This unclean 
custom of devoting home to cloaca as a peculiar habit of the 
kakapo, is well known to the Maories, as a certain contemptuous 
saying proves. It may be noted that these excremental droppings 
often measure quite, and sometimes exceed, an inch in diameter; 
the biped unplumed, when on fern diet, extrudes foeces of vast 
size,—a fact painfully experienced by those who have roughed it 
out on baked fern. 

Three eggs seem to be the usual number to a brood ; these laid 
with a considerable interval, probably, between each deposit: the 
breeding-season extends probably through the first three months 
of the year. We have been supplied with a note of a nest having 


THE ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 3623 


been found in the month of March on the banks of the Okarito 
river; it contained one egg and two young birds: another nest, 
within the distance of a mile from the first, contained two eggs and 
one young one: this affords some evidence of the deliberate manner 
in which the eggs are Jaid. Current with the natives of the West 
Coast is a piece of folk-lore that the number of eggs laid by the 
kakapo is indicated by the fruit of the kie-kie (Freycinelia Banksit); 
it is averred the number of eggs to a nest will be found to corre- 
spond with the number of cobs that may be found in a spike of the 
trailing kie-kie. 

It is customary with the female to remain with the young whilst 
the male finds shelter in some convenient nook close by. The 
sexes show great attachment to each other. A friend informed the 
writer that in a place where the kakapo was not likely to be found 
he had killed a female bird: the specimen was carried to his camp, 
about two miles distant; at night he heard a kakapo, which his dog 
secured; it proved to bea fine male. This bird he had no doubt 
was the mate of the female killed in the daytime: he arrived at 
this conclusion as, from his intimate knowledge of the district, he 
was perfectly aware it was not kakapo country; the specimens 
procured were strangers. 

All those who have kept a bird of this species as a pet agree in 
testifying to its intelligence and companionableness. 

Much of the interest that attaches to the study of the Natural 
History of New Zealand is bred perhaps from the contemplation 
of forms that are now strange to the world of science, and men wax 
eloquent on such apparent anomalies as wingless or brachypterous 
birds, whose structure leads the reflective naturalist far into the 
remoteness of the past. Inhabiting fragments of an ancient con- 
tinent whose history is so entirely lost as to present a void, without 
the vestige of a tradition for the investigation of the student of our 
modern cultivation, these curious forms, their conservation through 
the grand physical changes in their habitat, are in themselves a 
most entertaining theme for the pondering naturalist. 

It is greatly to be regretted that the peculiar forms that illustrate 
the fauna of these islands are daily becoming scarcer: the demands 
of collectors seem to be insatiable. The writer is aware of a whole 
district from which the Apteryx australis, the rowi of the Maories, has 
been exterminated. In the north of this island a vast white heronry 
has been destroyed, or forsaken by the kotuku in consequence 


3624 Tue ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 


of ceaseless persecution. The night parrot is never spared; the 
skin or skeleton finds a ready market in the Natural History 


exchange. 
T.. Hi Raves; 
Ohinitahi, New Zealand, March 10, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Somersetshire. 
By Ceci Smita, Esq. 


For the first two months of the year I have nothing to say, 
except that being at the Taunton railway-station one day (I think 
the 25th of January), I saw that most omnivorous bird, the house 
sparrow, devouring with the greatest gusto the grease in the pots 
kept for greasing the wheels. I was rather struck by this, as so 
many birds have an objection to grease of any sort. 


Marcu, 1873. 


Razorbill.—On the 11th I had a razorbill sent me from Weston- 
super-Mare, which had been picked up nearly dead on the rocks, 
probably starved and driven ashore in one of the gales that were 
prevalent about that time: it was a small bird, apparently a young 
bird of last year, still in winter plumage; it had nothing what- 
ever in its stomach. I have noticed this capture, as the razorbill 
and the guillemot are not very common so high up the Bristol 
Channel, the water being probably too muddy for them. 

Haujinch.—On the 25th I saw two hawfinches about my own 
place, and Mr. Mathew shot one of a pair that made their appearance 
in the Vicarage garden. 1 cannot, however, quite agree with my 
friend’s remark (Zool. S. S. 3490), that this bird “is nearly as great 
a stranger in this part of the country as a waxwing,” for it is an 
almost constant winter visitant, though never very numerous, and 
rather varying in numbers; it also occasionally breeds in different 
parts of the county. A young bird, only just out of the nest, was 
picked up dead in the stable-yard of a friend’s house, about three 
miles off, and brought to me on the 26th of June, last year. 

Redstart. — On the 25th I saw a male redstart; this is the 
earliest I have ever seen: last year one was brought to me which 
had been killed in a garden near here on the 8rd of April, which 
I then thought unusually early. 


Tue ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 3625 


Chiffchaff—The chiffchaff did not make its appearance this 
year ull the 26th, much later than last year, when I saw one on 
the 9th. 


APRIL, 1873. 


Sand Martins and Swallows.—Sand martins and swallows 
made their appearance late this year, as I did not see any till 
the 14th, when there were several sand martins about and one 
swallow. On the 15th many of the sand martins, quite fifty 
pairs, returned to their old holes in my quarry, but were doomed 
to some disappointment, as I had to remove the part which they 
had taken possession of last year, in order to get at a new 
cut of stone. In removing this head I found that a pair of 
robins had taken advantage of the absence of the sand martins 
to build in one of their holes, and had already laid two eggs. 
Some of the sand martins afterwards returned to the quarry and 
made fresh holes, which they inhabited, and brought up their 
young, in spite of four men being constantly at work in the quarry 
and occasionally blasting the rock below with powder. 

Cuckoo.—16th. First heard the cuckoo, the same day that it was 
first heard near here last year. 

Blackcap.—19th. First saw the blackeap—a little later than 
last year, when I first saw one on the 16th. 

Summer Snipe.— 27th. First saw the summer snipe by my 
pond, much later than last year, when one was killed near 
Taunton on the 19th. 

_Pinkfooted Goose.—On the 27th the pinkfooted goose laid its 
first egg, in the same place as last year. 


May, 1873. 


Ring Ouzel.—On the 1st I saw a ring ouzel at the Museum at 
Taunton, which had been killed at Trull, near that place, a few 
days before. 

Transposition of Eggs in Birds Nests.—During this month 
I tried several experiments, as suggested by Professor Newton 
(Zool. 8. S. 3473), with a view of ascertaining how far birds in 
general, and especially some of the foster-parents of the cuckoo, 
have any objection to eggs of a different colour being placed 
in their nest. I changed places with blackbirds’ and thrushes’ 
eggs; I also placed a robin’s egg in the nest of a hedge- 


3626 THE Zootocist—Aveust, 1878. 


sparrow, and a greenfinch’s in that of another hedgesparrow ; 
a greenfinch’s egg in the nest of a chaffinch; and a hedgesparrow’s 
egg in the nest of a chaffinch, and also one in the nest of a green- 
finch. In all these cases, except the last, the exchange was 
perfectly successful; in the last case the nest had been found and 
taken by some one the morning after I had placed the strange egg 
in it. By successful I do not mean that the strange egg was 
always hatched, but that the parent bird continued sitting on her 
own eggs and the strange one quite as well as if nothing had 
happened; though this is exactly what I should have expected 
in every case, for I do not think birds are particularly careful 
about the colour of the egg on which they sit. I think it right to 
mention that in many cases I placed the strange egg in the nest 
soon after the bird had begun to sit, but in some cases before, one 
or two eggs being laid after I had inserted the stranger. 

Swift.—On the 6th I first saw the swift. 

Landrail.—On the 8th, at the Museum at Taunton, I saw a 
landrail, which had been killed by flying against the telegraph- 
wires. On the 13th another landrail was brought to me by the 
porter at our Bishop’s Lydeard station, who said he had picked it 
up dead under the telegraph-wires. This bird seems to be rather 
stupid, as I have several times heard of its being picked up in a 
similar manner in other years. 

Birds near Weston-super-Mare.—On the 14th I was on a visit 
to Weston-super-Mare, and took a long walk along the coast and 
out to the end of a steep grassy promontory, Bream Down, where 
I thought it possible I might find some herring or common gulls 
breeding, but with the exception of four or five herring gulls, which 
I saw on the mud, and none of which had acquired adult plumage, 
I did not see a single gull of any sort. Indeed I do not think that 
either the common or herring gull now breed on any part of our 
Somerset coast, for last year I'was at Weston about the same time 
and explored the coast for some way on both sides of that place, 
but though I saw several burrow ducks evidently paired, I saw no 
gulls; and the year before I had occasion to go from Ilfracombe 
- to Bristol and back during the middle of the breeding season: 
this took me, of course, along the whole of our coast, and had the 
gulls any breeding-station there I must have seen it. The same 
year I rode close along the coast from Danster to Culbone and 
back, with the same result as to seeing gulls breeding; indeed this 


i i 


THE ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 3627 


western part of our coast is by no means suited for a breeding- 
station, the cliffs along the greater part of it being thickly wooded 
down to the water’s edge. On the 5th of June also J walked along 
a good bit of the coast about Quantock’s Head and only saw one 
herring gull, and that an immature bird; indeed this part of the 
coast, owing to the crumbling nature of the cliff, would be a very 
unsafe place for a nest. I cannot help thinking, therefore, after all 
these expeditions, that Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser, in the ‘ Birds 
of Europe,’ must have been led into a mistake when they said, fide 
More fide Crotch, that the common gull breeds on the coast of 
Somerset. On the same visit to Bream Down, on the 14th, I saw 
a flock of about fifteen curlews on the mud, and my wife saw one 
curlew and a flock of purres near Weston pier. I did not myself 
see a single small wader of any kind on the muds, though last year 
about the same time I saw a few purres and a small flock of 
sanderlings : this was one of the few times I have found sanderlings 
on our coast, where they do not appear to be common. 


Jung, 1873. 


Blackcap, Willow Wren and Redstart.—I made a few notes 
this month as to the colour of the fauces of nestling warblers, in 
accordance with a request of Prof. Newton in a late number of the 
‘ Zoologist’ (S. 8. 3527). I had not much time, however, for nest- 
hunting, and was not fortunate in finding the nests of warblers. 
The only three which I was able to find were the blackcap, the © 
fauces of the young of which were a pale pink, and the willow wren 
and the redstart, the fauces of both of which were yellow. While 
I was watching for the blackcaps to hatch I frequently found the 
male bird taking the place of the female and sitting on the eggs 
whilst she was away, especially if the weather was cold or wet: 
Thad before noticed this, but did not think it was such a regular 
habit as it appears to be. In the nest of the willow wren I 
frequently found both the old birds squeezed in lovingly but un- 
comfortably together, for as the nest was scarcely large enough 
for both of them the tail of one was generally left sticking out of 
the entrance-hole. 

Pinkfooted Goose.—The pinkfooted goose hatched on the 3rd, 
but her young ones were almost immediately eaten by rooks, who 
have been very destructive both to eggs and young birds this year, 
I was much disappointed at losing the young geese, as I was 


3628 THE ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 


anxious to see if the pinkfooted parents would again have produced 
an orange-legged young one. The orange-legged one mentioned 
by me in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 3412) still retains his orange legs, 
so I suppose he may be considered a real permanent variety, or a 
reversion to the orange-legged bean goose as the parent species. 

Rook.—In the stomach of a young rook which I shot about this 
time, by way of a terrible example, I found many of the galls from 
the under parts of the oak-leaves: there were several of them, some 
quite whole and others partially digested. This was to me quite a 
new article of rook’s diet. 

Herring Guil.—On the 13th the tame herring gulls hatched one 
young bird, and on the next day another. This difference in 
hatching may perhaps be accounted for by the fact that the old 
bird began to sit almost immediately after the first egg was laid, 
probably from fear of her nest being harried by rooks and jackdaws, 
from whose attacks she had suffered in the two previous years, 
before she had completed her complement of eggs. The young 
gulls when first hatched are funny looking balls of brindled down, 
very soft; the bill and legs are dark, nearly black. The old birds 
are both most attached to their young and most energetic in their 
defence, on the slightest show of danger attacking even a stray pig 
or a cow that comes too near. The mother is also most attentive 
in feeding her young, reproducing from her throat the last meal she 
has swallowed, and holding it down in her bill for the young ones 
to pick at. The young ones are now (June 29th) just beginning to 
grow their quill-feathers. 

Ceci. SMITH. 


Ornithological Notes from Devonshire. 
By JoHn GATCOMBE, Esq. 


. May, 1878. 

Ist. Heard the nightjar in Bickleigh Vale. 

3rd. Wind north, and cold. Walked through Bickleigh Vale ; 
found blackcaps numerous and singing. Observed martin, swallow, 
wood wren, willow wren, chiffchaff, tree lark, gray wagtail, marsh 
and longtailed tits, dipper, kingfisher, jay and green woodpecker. 

4th. Met with several ring ouzels in Tavy Cleve, on Dartmoor. 
Saw at the shop of a dealer in live birds a nest of young ravens, 
and was told that the young in two other nests were destroyed by 


THE ZooLocist—AUG ust, 1873. 3629 


boys with stones, because they could not get at them. This, it 
appears, they almost invariably do, and I also heard of a man 
having shot into a nest at Wembury, near Plymouth, from the 
same cause. 

7th. Wind W.N.W., blowing a gale, and very cold. Saw a swift, 
and the sedge warbler was heard by a friend. 

8th. A flock of whimbrels came in from the sea and flew up the 
river Tamar. I also saw a specimen which had been taken in a 
very exhausted state on board ship a week previously. 

10th. Went to the cliffs at Wembury, at the entrance of the river 
Yealm, where I was pleased to find the herring gull breeding, and 
saw several] sitting on their nests, besides a flock of full two hundred, 
which kept flying round within fifteen yards of my head, uttering 
their incessant laughing kind of cry until I took my departure. 
Some would alight singly or form groups on the projecting crags 
and grassy slopes on the top of the cliff close by, and the effect 
produced by the snowy plumage of those sitting on their nests or 
standing among the beautiful tufts of sea pinks was indeed lovely. 
On my way to Wembury I remarked the following species :—swift, 
swallow, cuckoo, sedge warbler, willow wren, chiffchaff, wood wren, 
whitethroat, blackcap and tree pipit. 

15th. There was a great show of young rooks at the stalls in the 
market to-day. 

16th. Saw a fine peregrine falcon which had been killed a week 
before, likewise four oystercatchers shot from a flock of nine in the 
neighbourhood of Plymouth. 

19th. Visited Croyde, North Devon, interesting to me as one of 
the places frequented by the flock of great bustards in the winter 
of 1871. All the villagers and country people to whom I spoke on 
the subject of their appearance persisted in calling them “ turkey 
buzzards,” and some whom I suppose had not really seen the 
birds seemed quite astonished to hear their proper name, and that 
they were not birds of prey. Possibly some of the sailors of the 
neighbourhood having talked of the turkey buzzards met with abroad 
might have caused the name to be thus confounded, or, more likely 
still, the fancied resemblance of the bird to the turkey and the 
name to the buzzard caused the mistake. Observed a great many 
herons and whimbrels on the mud-banks of the river Exe, numbers 
of sand martins near Exeter, and heard the corn crake close to 
Barnstaple. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 2P 


8630 Tue ZooLtocist—Aueust, 1873. 


20th. Remarked a knot on the Plymouth Breakwater, which was 
still in the ash-coloured plumage of winter, or probably a young 
bird of last year. 

22nd. Visited the river Avon, some miles from Plymouth, and 
watched young gray wagtails flitting about from rock to rock in 
the river, catching flies almost as well as the old ones, which were 
in attendance. At an inn near the river I was shown a stuffed 
phalarope, which had been killed a year or two since when settled 
on a rather wet spot in the turnpike-road just before the house. 

26th. A fine male little bittern was obtained near the river 
Erme, which I examined just after it had been stuffed. This bird 
was observed to frequent the river for a fortnight before it was 
killed. 

28th. Examined a beautiful variety of the common blackbird, 
the colour of which was a delicate grayish buff: no doubt, a young 
bird of the year. 

81st. I again visited the breeding-place of the herring gulls at 
Wembury, and was pleased to see some downy young ones cuddled 
together on the ledges of the cliff, outside of but close by the nest, 
and it was most interesting to observe the instinct shown by these 
little creatures in keeping so quiet and motionless while danger 
threatened, hiding their heads in a crevice on the face of the rock, 
and presenting their backs only, which so assimilated in colour to 
the yellowish gray or brown of the surrounding objects that they 
were with great difficulty seen at all. However, by the aid ofa 
good pocket-telescope, I managed to make some sketches of these 
interesting little families, which consisted generally of three. As 
there was not the slightest attempt at feeding the young in my 
presence, I made my visit as short as possible. When taking my 
departure, about seven o’clock in the evening, I observed a large 
flock of immature or non-breeding birds coming overland from the 
rivers and estuaries in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, which they 
frequent by day, but they repair to the high cliffs and rocks on the 
coast towards night. 


JUNE, 1873. 


2nd. A night heron, in the plumage of the second year, was 
obtained on the river Erme, near Ivybridge, Devon, which I 
examined in the flesh. This makes the ninth specimen secured. 
from the same locality since the spring of 1849, every bird of which 


THE ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873, 3631 


I examined, and all were adult, with the exception of the last 
named. The females closely resemble the males in plumage, but 
have the occipital plumes shorter, those of the males being six 
inches and those of the females about three inches in length. 
When at rest these birds generally concealed themselves among 
the foliage of alder and sycamore trees, but the last one was on 
several occasions flushed from an orchard in the vicinity of the 
river. They also sometimes perched on dead branches in a con- 
spicuous situation. The stomachs of some contained the remains 
of small fish and eels, the slime of the latter remaining about their 
beaks. 

3rd. Observed several young gray wagtails and young water 
ouzels on the stones and rocks in the river Tamar. 

10th. Visited the collection of stuffed birds at Port Eliot, the 
seat of the Earl of St. Germans, and among the specimens was 
pleased to see the original cravat or Canada goose, figured and 
described by Bewick; and at the rectory close by, the incumbent 
of which is the Rev. — Furneaux, I had the opportunity of seeing 
a fine immature specimen of Sabine’s gull, which was accidentally 
killed at night by a wild-fowl shooter among a flock of curlews 
resting on the mud-banks of the St. Germans river. 

14th. Observed many wood larks on my way to Weston Mills, 
near Plymouth, and was much struck with a habit they had of 
selecting a bare patch of earth to alight on, if ever so small, which 
assimilated with the colour of their plumage, so that at times they 
were hardly visible at a very short distance. 

20th. Again visited Bickleigh Vale, and heard garden warblers, 
blackcaps and willow wrens singing constantly. Swifts were 
plentiful, flying high over the woods at Cann Quarry. Both swifts 
and house martins have been numerous in the neighbourhood of 
Plymouth during the present season, but I cannot say the same of 
the swallows and sand martins. 

23rd. Went with the Rev. Courtenay Bulteel to see the stuffed 
birds at Blatchford, near Ivybridge, the seat of Lord Blatchford, 
and examined a beautiful nearly adult specimen of the squacco 
heron (Ardea ralloides), which was killed by the side of a large 
pond close to the house, in June, 1840. The date of its capture 
and the name of its preserver, Mr. Drew, then living at Stonehouse, 
were written on the back of its case. 

26th. Observed a pair of rock larks carrying to their young a 


3632 Tue ZooLtocist—Aveust, 1873. 


small species of chaffer, this insect being just now very numerous 
about the cliffs on the sea coast. 

28th. Remarked a fine male common redstart perched for some 
time on the telegraph-wire, and uttering a constant plaintive note, 
which was answered by the female in some bushes by the river side. 
I think the young must have been near also, but I did not see 
them. I merely mention this as the common redstart is so un- 
common in our neighbourhood. 

30th. Saw, at a birdstuffer’s, an old female and two young king- 
fishers which had been killed on one of our rivers a few days 
before, notwithstanding the Wild Birds Protection Act. The 
young birds varied very little from the old one, except in being 
smaller, and having a much shorter bill. The lesser blackbacked 
gulls left our harbours very late, but I cannot find them breeding 
on any part of the coast in our neighbourhood. 


JOHN GATCOMBE. 


8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth. 
July 3, 1873. 


Wild Birds Protection Act. 
By the Rev. O. Pickarp-CAamBRIDGE, M.A. 


Ir Professor Newton read my remarks on this Act (Zool. S. S. 
3576) with sorrow, I must say I have read his reply to them with 
surprise. Immediately after the appearance of my remarks in the 
‘Zoologist’ I received a note from Mr. Newton, substantially (in 
fact, almost verbally) similar to the reply communicated to the 
‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 3611). Perceiving from his note that Professor 
Newton had misunderstood me to attribute the Wild Birds Pro- 
tection Act as it was brought forth (i.e. passed in Parliament) to 
the authors of the Wild Fowl Protection Bill, I immediately wrote 
to him in explanation of my remarks on that head, as well as on 
other points: my surprise is therefore naturally great to find that he 
still credits me with what I fancied I had plainly disclaimed. I feel 
therefore obliged to trouble you with a few words by way of 
rejoinder on this subject. 

Few readers of my remarks (Zool. S. S. 8576) would, I should 
have thought, have missed the distinction intended, and clearly 
implied, between the conceivers of the Act—i. e. the authors of the 


a 


THE ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 3633 


Wild Fowl Protection Bill—and the bringers forth —i. e. the 
parties who brought it into the form under which it was passed as 
the Wild Birds Protection Act. 

Professor Newton tells us that the “conceivers” were not 
“sportsmen,” nor the “ bringers forth” “ ornithologists many 
generations behind the time”; but it is not clear from his letter 
in the ‘Zoologist’ (S. S. 8611) whom he intends as the bringers 
Jorth, though he appears to include himself among them; J, how- 
ever, certainly did not either so intend nor include him, nor any 
of those gentlemen whom he names as the authors of the Wild 
Fowl Protection Bill. I need hardly say that I was, until the 
receipt of Professor Newton’s communication, utterly ignorant of 
the names of any one concerned with either the conceptio, or the 
res nala, except that of Mr. Auberon Herbert. 

With regard to the term “ sportsmen,” it appears to be con- 
sidered objectionable, and of course, on Prof. Newton’s statement, 
T retract it at once. Not having the advantage, at the time, of 
knowing the names of the conceivers, the term sportsmen was 
used on the internal evidence afforded by the conception itself— 
arguing, in fact, from the nature and scope of the Bill to its 
authors. Some other evidence of a collateral nature also sup- 
ported the argument. I freely admit that it would have more 
accurately expressed what I intended had my words been, “It 
appears to me from internal and other evidence that the Act 
itself,” &c., &c. I do not see, however, that my misapprehension 
of the interesting fact of the conceivers not being “ sportsmen” 
affects the merits of the case. Whether they intended it to do so 
or not, their conception undeniably bore so strongly the impress 
of a Game Act that they must, I still think, have been exceedingly 
“short-sighted” not to have foreseen the impossibility of passing 
it in that form. As to those who got hold of the conception and 
“brought it forth” in the shape of the Wild Birds Protection Act, 
whether they are or not “ornithologists in any sense,” I still 
believe them to have been certainly “behind the times”; but as 
Professor Newton does not defend them there is no need to say 
much on this part of the subject; indeed, from his communica- 
tions to me, he seems to have a far lower opinion of them than 
I either have, or have expressed. 

Before concluding, however, I must make one further remark. 
Prof. Newton says he has “ nothing to do with my opinions,” but 


8634 THE ZooLoG ee aes 


what he adds immediately after, as it misrepresents them, seems 
scarcely consistent; especially after I had explained the grounds 
on which I thought the Act to be “ objectionable in principle.” 
Whether conceived by sportsmen or not, the Wild Fowl Protection 
Bill was, as it appeared to me, virtually a Game Act, and un- 
doubtedly I hold all Game Acts to be objectionable in principle, 
though under certain circumstances tolerable in practice; objec- 
tionable, too, the Wild Birds Protection Act seemed to me, 
because, among other reasons, its aim was to prohibit unduly the 
liberty of the subject in the destroying even of noxious birds. 
Now I cannot see that the regulation in Deut. xxii. 6, 7, has the 
remotest suspicion of being either a Game Act or an undue inter- 
ference with the liberty of the subject. I do not therefore fora 
moment admit my argument against the Wild Fowl] Protection 
Bill and the Wild Birds Protection Act to be equally an argument 
against the Mosaic prohibition: this prohibition was against ruthless 
extermination and cruelty; but it is yet quite consistent in its 
principle, with the fullest necessary liberty to keep noxious birds 
within bounds, provided cruelty and ruthless extermination are 
avoided. These are, it seems to me, the sole points to which 
legislation ought to be, or can be, directed in these days: on 
these points a full and free discussion cannot be otherwise than 
beneficial; and it will, I think, greatly conduce towards the 
object we all have in view—.e. the reasonable, just, and humane 


treatment of birds. 
O. P.-CAMBRIDGE, 
Bloxworth Rectory, July 3, 1873. 


Notes from the Brighton Aquarium. 
By W. SavtLLe Kent, Esq. 


1. The Intellect of Porpoises.—A single visit to the Brighton 
Aquarium would suffice to convince a recent correspondent, 
Mr. Mattieu Williams, that the intellect of the porpoise, as fore- 
shadowed by its convoluted brain, exceeds, beyond comparison, 
that of the cod-fish or any other representatives of the piscine 
race. Of the two specimens now inhabiting the largest tank in 
the building, over one hundred feet long, the first-comer so readily 
accommodated itself to its altered conditions, that on the second 
day it took its food, smelts and sprats, from its keeper’s hand, and 


THE ZooLtocist—Aveust, 1873. 8635 


has continued to do so ever since. The later arrival was, at first, 
less sociably inclined; but both have latterly become equally tame, 
and frequently, while receiving fish from my hand with the gentle- 
ness of pet dogs, have permitted me to pat and stroke their slippery 
india-rubber-like backs. During feeding-time it is amusing to watch 
the avidity with which these porpoises take their food; one, the 
more active of the two, usually securing the lion’s share, and dis- 
playing marked sagacity by frequently snatching a second or third 
morsel before disposing of the first. The keeper in charge of these 
interesting animals is now in the habit of summoning them to their 
meals by the call of a whistle; his approaching footsteps, even, 
cause great excitement in their movements, and recent experiments 
have proved them to be acutely sensitive to the vibrations of sound. 
By the physiologist a more pleasing spectacle can scarcely be 
witnessed than the graceful actions of these Cetacea, as they 
swifily pursue their course up and down their spacious tank, 
ascending to the surface of the water at intervals of fifteen or 
twenty seconds, to breathe, each inspiration being accompanied 
by a spasmodic sob-like sound, produced by the rush of air as a 
breath is rapidly liberated and inspired through the single central 
blow-hole. Onward progress is effected in these animals, as in all 
other Cetacea, exclusively by the action of the horizontal caudal 
fin; the development of muscle at the “ wrist” of the tail on which 
this action depends being enormous and plainly visible externally ; 
the pectorals are devoted principally to the purpose of steering the 
creature to the right or left, aiding it also in rising to the surface 
of the water. The fact alone of the porpoise suckling and evincing 
much maternal solicitude for the welfare of its young indicates the 
superiority of its position in the zoological scale above that of the 
other representatives of the fiuny tribe; and to this, in addition to 
the remarks just made upon their sagacity when feeding, many 
other facts may be cited, pointing in the same direction. The 
curiosity attributed to these creatures, as illustrated by the expe- 
riences of Mr. Mattieu Williams, receives ample confirmation from 
their habits in confinement. A new arrival is at once subjected to 
the most importunate attention, and, advancing from familiarity to 
contempt, if disapproved of, soon becomes the object of attack and 
persecution. A few dog-fish (Acanthias and Mustelus), three or 
four feet long, placed in the same tank, soon fell victims to their 
tyranny, the porpoises seizing them by their tails, and swimming 


3636 Tue ZooLtocist—Aveust, 1875. 


off with and shaking them in a manner scarcely conducive to their 
comfort or dignified appearance, reminding the spectator of a large 
dog worrying a rat. The fine sturgeon, six feet long, now sharing 
an adjoining tank with the cod, was first placed with these animals, 
but in a short time was so persecuted that for safety it had to be 
removed; while to this day the lacerated condition of its tail bears 
witness to the pertinacious attention of its former comrades. Some 
large skate (Raja clavata and maculata), while they maintained 
their usual habit of lying sluggishly on the floor of the tank, escaped 
molestation; but no sooner did these fish display any unwonted 
activity than the porpoises were upon them, and, making a con- 
venient handle of their characteristic attenuated tails, worried them 
incessantly. On one occasion I witnessed the two Cetacea acting 
evidently in concert against one of these unwieldy fish, the latter 
swimming close to the top of the water, and seeking momentary 
respite from its relentless enemies, by lifting its unfortunate caudal 
appendage high above its surface. It need scarcely be remarked 
that the skate were removed before further mischief could be done, 
leaving the porpoises, with the exception of a few conger, which 
during the day-time mostly lie hidden in the crevices of the rock- 
work, turtles, and a huge monk-fish (Rhina squatina) sole occu- 
pants of this colossal tank. While far behind the porpoises in 
display of intellect, it may be hereafter shown that the repre- 
sentatives of the Gadidz, or cod family, are by no means the least 
intelligent of fish.— Reprinted from ‘ Nature’ of July 17, 1873. 

2. Difficulty with Mackerel.—Up to witbin the last few weeks, 
a single mackerel has been the only representative of the Scom- 
bride in the Brighton tanks. This specimen was added to the 
collection, in company with several others, towards the close of the 
last season, and proved to be the only survivor through the winter. 
The difficulties attending the preservation of these delicate pelagic 
fish, on account of their extreme susceptibility on exposure to 
atmospheric air, and the reckless impatience of confinement they 
usually display when first imprisoned within the limits of a tank, 
occasioned a high value to be set on this solitary captive, and one 
only rivalled perhaps by that attached to the small shoal of herrings 
occupying an adjoining tank in the same corridor. During the 
early spring and summer months the mackerel taken on this coast 
are caught many miles out at sea by means of “drift nets” fastened 
across the course of the current, and having the meshes of sufficient 


a 


Tue ZooLtocist—Auvecust, 1878. 3637 


size to admit the fish’s head up to the neck. These nets are laid 
down overnight, and when drawn up towards the morning are found, 
if circumstances have been favourable, to have intercepted vast 
shoals, each individual fish being retained by its gills. Life neces- 
sarily becoming extinct, from the position in which the fish are held 
before they are drawn out of the water, this mode of their capture 
becomes useless for aquarium purposes. As the summer and calmer 
weather advances, the mackerel come into shallower water, per- 
mitting the use of the finer-meshed seine-net from the shore ; and 
it is only when taken by these means, or on hooks, that there is 
any chance of conveying them in a living condition to the tanks. 
Even then only half the difficulty is overcome, the fish being so 
impatient of confinement that they usually endeavour to effect their 
escape by dashing heedlessly against the rockwork or front glass of 
their tank. The majority speedily kill themselves in these attempts, 
and the remainder usually injure themselves to such an extent as to 
outlive their comrades but a few days. One specimen captured 
last autumn survived the most remarkable injuries far into the 
present year, taking its food and exhibiting an amount of activity 
equal to that of its uninjured companion. In this instance the fish 
had dashed its head with such violence against the rockwork that 
the anterior facial bones were forced in upon one another, rendering 
the usual pointed contour of the snout perfectly obtuse, and bending 
it at the same time in a strong curve towards the left shoulder. 
During the past fortnight the mackerel have again approached the 
coast, and several dozen living examples have been conveyed to 
the Brighton tanks. From the causes already given, but few of 
these are now on view, though some six or seven are doing well, 
and seem disposed to take kindly to the altered conditions in which 
they are placed. The survivor from last autumn now proves of 
remarkable service, acting like the tame elephants or “ komkies” 
in repressing the wild fury of the new captives. The mackerel 
recently caught have been allotted to several tanks, but in none 
have they done so well as in that containing the acclimatised 
individual. However wild they may be when first introduced, 
amicable relations seem to be at once established between this 
specimen and the new comers; the latter now quietly settling 
down, and tamely following it in its graceful evolutions round the 
confined boundaries of their new abode.— Reprinted from the 
‘ Field’ of July 19, 1873. 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 2Q 


3638 Tuer ZooLoctst—Aveust, 1873. 


3. Successful Breeding of the Spiny Lobster or Sea Crayfish.— 
Among six fine specimens of the “ spiny lobster” or “ sea crayfish” 
(Palinurus vulgaris), added to the collection about a month since, 
was one female individual in the “ berried” condition, the lower 
surface of her abdomen being completely hidden beneath the 
masses of bright orange-coloured ova. During the last few days 
these have arrived at maturity, and, bursting, liberated the tiny 
embryos in countless swarms. So transparent are the individual 
members of this infant progeny, that it is only on a close approach 
to their tank (No. 26) that they can be detected; while the friendly 
aid of a passing sunbeam is requisite for the full appreciation of 
their accumulated numbers. In the early stage of their existence 
the young crayfish are so unlike the parents from which they spring 
that they were long regarded as the representatives of an entirely 
different order of Crustacea, named Phyllosoma, on account of their 
flattened, leaf-like bodies, and classified with Squilla, Mysis, and 
their allied species under the order of Stomapoda. The Belgian 
naturalist Ed. van Beneden was one of the first to elucidate the 
true position of this anomalous form, and the valuable results of 
his investigations are now most amply and satisfactorily confirmed. 
The little fellows swarming in the Brighton tanks are at present of 
very minute size compared to the Phyllosome brought from tropical 
seas, the whole area occupied by their outstretched legs, which 
form by no means the least conspicuous portion of their organiza- 
tion, scarcely exceeding half an inch. Their flattened, transparent 
bodies seem ill capable of permitting much liberty of action, the 
whole swarm being carried about almost at the entire mercy of the 
current produced by the stream of air constantly supplied to the 
tank. When individuals closely approach the front glass it can be 
seen that they possess a little freedom, restricted principally to 
elevating or lowering themselves in the water, and that the weak 
progress they make is ‘effected by the constant vibration of the 
exopodites or filamentous processes of the three median pairs of 
limbs, and which, with the aid of a pocket lens, may be discerned, 
through the thick plate-glass separating them from the observer in 
the corridor, to be densely clothed with fine hair-like seta. In 
aspect the little fellows, as they are borne along with the ex- 
tremities of their attenuated limbs tucked beneath them, much 
resemble certain representatives of the spider tribe, and more 
especially the slender aquatic forms familiar to naturalists as 


THE ZooLoGist—AuveéustT, 1873. 3639 


Pycnogon and Nymphon. Although colour is very inconspicuous 
at present in this Phyllosoma stage of the crayfish’s existence, it is 
not altogether absent, two dark pigment spots marking the position 
of the eyes on their long footstalks, while in many individuals the 
more prominent joints of their slender legs may be seen in 
favourable lights to be delicately banded with bright orange or 
vermilion. The habit of lying with its legs extended at the surface 
of the water, which is attributed to Phyllosoma as encountered in 
the Atlantic and other seas, seems to be acquired only at a later 
period of its existence. The singular form and structure of its body 
aud radiating limbs fit it remarkably for this mode of life, and a 
somewhat similar adaptation of means to the same end is met with 
in Gerris and Hydrometra among the heteropterous Hemiptera. 
In the typical invertebrate series of the Museum of the Royal 
College of Surgeons are some remarkably fine tropical Phyllosome, 
several inches in length, which, while they yielded the highest 
amount of interest and gratification during examination, puzzled 
me to no small a degree as to the manner in which they should be 
mounted to illustrate their singular forms to best advantage. The 
difficulty was met by sewing their bodies with fine silk to a thin 
plate of talc, each attenuated appendage being fixed in place by 
the same means. On the whole being immersed in spirit in the 
glass selected for their reception, the fluid rendered the talc per- 
fectly invisible, while the shape and structure of the Phyllosome 
were most satisfactorily exhibited.—Reprinted from the ‘ Field’ 
Of July 19, 1873. 


{It is with extreme pleasure that I have read these additions to our 
_ knowledge of living marine animals, a subject on which we have been so 
long and so lamentably ignorant. Mr. Kent is in an excellent position for 
acquiring knowledge of this kind, and these contributions exhibit him not 
only as a careful observer but an able recorder of observations, two of the 
most essential qualifications of a naturalist—Hdward Newman.| 


Supposed Identity of Lakes Tanganyika and Albert Nyanza.—*T have 
further a most important geographical discovery to communicate, one which 
cannot fail, I think, to astound many scientific men in England. It is 
declared as an ascertained fact by the returning party that lakes Tanganyika 
and Albert Nyanza are proved to be one and the same water: the length of 
this magnificent inland sea, thus for the first time made known to mankind, 


3640 THE ZooLocist—AvcusT, 1873. 


is not less than seven hundred miles, and it is announced as a positive fact 
that a vessel can be launched above Murchison Falls, at the head of Lake 
Nyanza and sail away to Ujiji, or lower, through ten degrees of latitude. * * * 
I send you this intelligence direct from the lips of the Emancipator of Central 
Africa.” —Extract from the ‘ Daily Telegraph’ of July 8, 1873, received from 
“ Our Own Correspondent.” 

[The “details” of the journey southward and of the return journey 
northward are too meagre to deserve that name. ager as all are to 
receiye news of Africa and African explorers, we must exercise caution both 
in accepting or rejecting such information as this; its bearing on the coloni- 
zation, the investigation, the mercantile and Natural History future of 
Central Africa, are incaleulable-—Edward Newman. 

The Anatomy of the Negro.—* I have pointed out over a hundred specific 
differences between the bonal and nervous system of the white man and the 
negro. Indeed, their frames are alike in no particular. There is no bone 
in the negro’s body which is relatively the same shape, size, articulation, or 
chemically of the same composition, as that of the white man. The negro’s 
bones contain a far greater proportion of calcareous salts than those of the 
white man. Even the negro’s blood is chemically a very different fluid 
from that which courses in the veins of the white man. The whole 
physical organization of the negro differs quite as much from the white 
man’s as it does-from that of the chimpanzee—that is, in his bones, 
muscles, nerves and fibres, the chimpanzee has not much farther to 
progress to become a white man. This fact Science inexorably demon- 
strates. Climate has no more to do with the difference between the 
white man and the negro than it has with that between the negro and 
the chimpanzee, or between the horse and the ass, or the eagle and the 
owl. Each is a distinct and separate creation. The negro and the 
white man were created as specifically different as the owl and the eagle. 
They are designed to fill different places in the system of Nature. The 
negro is no more a negro by accident or misfortune than the owl is the kind 
of bird he is by accident or misfortune. The negro is no more the white 
man’s brother than the owl is the sister of the eagle, or the ass the brother 
of the horse. How stupendous and yet how simple is the doctrine that the 
Almighty Maker of the universe has created different species of men, just as 
He has different species of the lower animals, to fill different places and 
offices in the grand machinery of Nature.”—Professor Agassiz, as quoted in 
the ‘ Popular Science Review,’ 


A Dog eating Stoats—During a walk on the 20th of May in some 
marshes near the sea, our two dogs found and scratched out a nest of 
young stoats by the side of a ditch next to a large piece of reeds; there 


Tue ZooLocist—Aveust, 18738, 3641 


were four or five of them, and about half-grown. One of the dogs, a 
smooth terrier, immediately began eating them with the greatest relish, 
and I only just managed to get to the place in time to snatch up the 
last of them: after examining it I threw it to him and it went down 
almost whole. On our way home he picked up and swallowed a mole. 
I have often seen this dog eat half-grown and three-quarter grown rats 
(M. decumanus), and water rats.he will sometimes eat when quite full- 
grown, but I never saw him appear to enjoy anything more than he did 
the above-mentioned high-flavoured animals. A good many snipe, ducks, 
peewits, redshanks, waterhens, &c., are now breeding in the immediate 
vicinity of the stoat’s nest, and most of them already have young ones 
(some of the young ducks have begun to get their feathers); the havoc 
these destructive animals make among them must be very great.—@. T. 
Rope ; Leiston, Suffolk. 


Criticisms on Mr. Durnford’s “ Ornithological Notes.”— In the July 
number of the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 3601—3606) are some ornithological notes 
by Mr. H. Durnford. In more than one instance in which this gentleman 
appears to have gained his information second-hand, I am inclined to hazard 
the opinion that he has been misinformed; if not, he gives me, and I dare 
say some other readers of the ‘ Zoologist,’ very startling information in 
regard to the breeding of the Sandwich tern on the coast of Lancashire. 
Quoting from the article referred to, I find the following :—‘ On my visit in 
May I found the young had flown and left the neighbourhood with their 
parents.” Mr. Durnford informs us that he visited Walney Island on the 
31st of May last; he does not give the date of the young Sandwich terns 
leaving the Lancashire coast, but mentions it as an accomplished fact. 
Ido not think I.should be drawing an incorrect conclusion if Ij surmised 
that these birds must have been hatched by the 1st of May, supposing that 
they left with their parents towards the end of the same month; a period of 
three weeks for laying and hatching the eggs, brings the date of deposition 
of the first egg to the beginning of April; the preliminaries of courtship, 
selection of nesting-place and preparing nest occupies several days with the 
terns, which lands us in March—a remarkable time for the appearance of 
Sandwich terns on our coasts. A correspondent informed me this season 
that a flock of over forty of these birds appeared towards the end of May at 
the embouchure of a river on the east coast of Scotland, and he was in hopes 
that they had come to breed in the neighbourhood, but by the second week 
in June they had all betaken themselves off, apparently dissatisfied with the 
locality, to the great disappointment of my informant. I consider it highly 
probable that the same occurrence took place on Walney Island, which 
gaye rise to the supposition that these terns had bred, reared their young, 


3642 THE ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 


and departed, unless we suppose wilful misrepresentation on the part of 
Mr. Durnford’s informant. In Mr. Durnford’s note on the herring gull 
I must also take exception to the following passage, referring to their nesting 
on the South Stack, Holyhead :—‘‘ These birds arrive and depart regularly 
at the same time in the spring and autumn, and are very jealous of their 
tenements, not allowing even their own young to nest amongst them.” 
What does this mean? How can any person be sure that adult birds now 
nesting on the South Stack were not originally reared on the same spot? 
Mr. Durnford’s note in reference to the breeding of Tadorna vulpanser, Flem., 
received by him at second-hand, is not quite intelligible to me :—‘ During 
the time the female is incubating, after feeding, she, in company with the 
male, flies to the neighbourhood of her nest, and after circling once or twice 
in the air over the spot, to see whether the coast is clear, flies straight into 
the hole without alighting on or touching the ground; and the mallard, after 
performing one or two more circles, flies off to his breeding-quarters on the 
extensive sandy flats of Walney.” I presume that by “ mallard” Mr. Durn- 
ford means the shieldrake, but this name is usually applied to the male of 
Anas boschas, Linn.; “breeding-quarters” is doubtless a misprint for 
“ feeding-quarters”; but I think, without laying myself open to the charge 
of captiousness, the readers of such an extensively circulated periodical as 
the ‘ Zoologist’ are entitled to a little more care in the preparation of the 
articles than has been shown in the one I refer to—H. W. Feilden; 
Woolwich. 

Birdsnesting and the Wild Birds Protection Act.—It will be remembered 
that in the number of the ‘ Zoologist’ for July (S. 8. 8615) I had a short 
note concerning hedgesparrow’s eggs laid upon the ground: to this I now 
have to add one or two additional facts. On May 13th, a relation of my wife’s 
found the egg of a whitethroat, quite freshly laid, in the middle of a flower- 
bed at Sittingbourne (this was surely an “ early bird,” for I have never found 
the nest of a whitethroat before the last week of May); two days later I found 
the egg of a song thrush in the middle of a strawberry-bed in a clergyman’s 
garden; and as the owners of both gardens jealously protect all the nests 
built on their premises, it is evident that the eggs in both cases were laid 
by birds whose nests had been built elsewhere, and which, being disturbed, 
had been driven to the commission of this unnatural act. The fact of 
finding eggs thus on three occasions within four days, as also the fact that 
in one morning subsequently I found seventeen nests, in the whole of 
which number I only found two eggs, caused me to make inquiries amongst 
my friends in the neighbourhood, and I then learned from several sources 
that the farmers, being disgusted at the passing of the Wild Birds Protection 
Act, which deprived them of the satisfaction of destroying the birds (which 
they firmly believe do more harm than good to their crops), had employed 
their boys to collect and smash up all the eggs in their grounds; the small 


' 


Tuer Zootocist—Aveust, 1873. 3643 


woods in the vicinity of farms and the hedges skirting the fields had conse- 
quently been thoroughly ransacked, and nests lay about everywhere, besides 
the many empty ones which still remained in sitwu.—A. G. Butler; British 
Museum, June 30, 1873. 

Dead Birds at Sea—But what most interested us was the number of 
dead birds we passed, amongst which we recognized the hoopoe, quails, 
wheatears and kestrels. Now the strange thing was that many of these 
were found within four or five miles of Sicily, and as the weather had been 
fine and calm for several days one can hardly suppose they had dropped 
into the water from sheer exhaustion.—J. S. Walker; Yacht “ Aline,” 
Palermo, April 5, 1873.—F rom the ‘ Field.’ 

Summer Visitants in West Cumberland.— The following are the dates 
upon which the species were first observed. The extreme lateness of some 
of the dates seems due to the general scarcity of birds here, and the 
ungenial weather during April. April 23rd, willow wren; 29th, tree pipit. 
May 3rd, whinchat; 5th, cuckoo and grasshopper warbler; 6th, swallow; 
7th, common sandpiper; 8th, sedge warbler, house martin, sand martin . 
and nightjar; 9th, wheatears; 10th, common whitethroat; 12th, landrail 
and wood wren; 13th, garden warbler; 14th, swift; 15th, whimbrel; 
16th, spotted flycatcher. Yellow wagtails were not observed until the 
24th of May, and the blackcap and chiffchaff not until the 26th; but 
these three species are quite scarce.—J’. D. Power ; Cleator, Cumberland, 
June 9, 18738. 

On Aquila bifasciata and A. orientalis—I have long had in my pos- 
session two specimens of Aquila orientalis, Cab., one sent me by Dr. Bree 
and labelled by Mr. Gurney, and the other from Mr. Dresser. The latter 
is a Sarepta specimen from the Volga region, and the former from the 
Dobrudscha. On returning the Dobrudscha example, which Dr. Bree had 
submitted to Mr. Gurney, the latter sent the following memorandum :— 
“ The eagle which I have ticketed ‘ Aquila orientalis, Cab.,’ is identical with 
that so often sent in collections from Sarepta, near the mouth of the Volga, 
and is, in fact, the only species of eagle which I have seen from that locality. 
Ihave hitherto been in the habit of calling this eagle ‘ Aquila clanga of 
Pallas,’ but as Pallas does not appear, by the description of his Aquila clanga 
in the Zoog. Ross. As., vol. i. p. 351, to distinguish between this eagle and 
the smaller spotted eagle, A. nevia, and as his measurements, which are 
given in old French feet, inches and lines (for a scale of which see Finsch 
and Hartlaub’s Végel Ostafr.), agree better with A. nevia than with the 
present species, it will perhaps be best to adopt for the present species the 
name of Aquila orientalis, proposed by Cabanis in the Journal fiir Orn., 
1854, p. 369 (note), which, though not very well chosen, is the next in 
order of priority, and the earliest that can with certainty be applied to this 
eagle exclusively. The specimen now sent appears by its measurements to 


3644 Tue ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 


be a female, and is in adult plumage; the immature birds of this species 
being spotted in precisely the same manner as those of Aquila nevia, which 
is well shown in Yarrell’s figure of the spotted eagle.” I quote this 
memorandum by Mr. Gurney to show upon what good authority one of 
my specimens is named Aquila orientalis; and the other, sent me by 
Mr. Dresser, labelled “A. clanga, Sarepta,” closely resembles it. Mr. 
Gurney’s statement, that the immature is spotted like Aquila nevia, is, as 
far as I can see at present, a mistake; for we have the bird in India 
(A. bifasciata), and it never in any way resembles A. nevia. I have, from 
the first, been struck by the great similarity of these two specimens to our 
Indian Aquila bifasciata of Gray and Hardwick; but had not till the other 
day obtained Indian specimens according in every respect, to a feather, with 
the European examples of A. orientalis, above referred to. Now I have, 
and the accordance is so beautifully perfect that there is no alternative but 
to come to the conclusion that A. orientalis is identical in every respect 
with A. bifasciata.* I have now, therefore, three European-killed examples 
of A. bifasciata, the third being that sent me by Capt. Elwes, and referred 
to in ‘Stray Feathers’ (vol. i. p. 291). The two first are in nearly mature 
plumage, and the third is quite mature, and is the finest specimen of the 
bird I have seen. The two sent as “ A. orientalis” have only slight indi- 
cations of the nuchal patch; otherwise I should have recognized them at 
the first glance as A. bifasciata, as was the case with Capt. Elwes’s Bos- 
phorus bird. This term has, I believe, priority over A. orientalis of Cabanis, 
and if so will be retained for this eagle. The application of Pallas’s term 
“ A. clanga” to the same species by some European writers is, I believe, an 
error, if I read the original description correctly. It appears to refer to our 
Indian spotted eagle which we accept as Aquila neevia, and which I believe to 
be the true nevia. Klein, whose work is dated 1750, is the author of the term 
Aquila clanga, and Pallas quotes and adopts this synonym in preference to 
the older term Aquila nevia of Schwenckfield. This term Pallas quotes 
under the head of Aquila clanga, but as a synonym. Schwenckfield’s work 
is dated 1603. In a letter received the other day from my friend Mr. 
Anderson, he records the occurrence of a lineated A. Mogilnik at Aden, 
which was stunned by flying against the telegraph-wires there. I may as 
well mention here that the Indian imperial eagle, to which I applied 
Hodgson’s term of A. crassipes, is identical with the East European bird, 
A. Mogilnik, better known as A. imperialis, but the former is the prior 


* [Mr. V. Ball and I had the pleasure of comparing the two specimens of Aquila 
orientalis, referred to by Mr. Brooks, with a series of Indian A. bifasciata. They 
undoubtedly appear to be perfectly identical, both in structure and coloration. 
If the determination of those two specimens as A. orientalis is correct (and upon 
such good authority as Mr. Gurney it ought to be), there can be no doubt that the 
two species must be considered as identical.—F’. Stoliczka.] 


re 


THE ZooLocist—Auveust, 1878. 8645 


term. I compared our bird with an adult Turkish specimen sent me by 
Dr. Bree. Mr. Gurney also came to the same conclusion, after comparing the 
adult Indian birds, I had sent home, with European examples. The West 
European imperial eagle is, however, quite distinct, and is now known as 
A. Adalberti of Brehm. This is the species said to have no lineated stage, 
and having, when adult, an excess of white on the scapulars and ridge of 
wing. I senta fine series of our Indian Aquila hastata to the Norwich 
Museum. Mr. Anderson also sent one example in mature plumage. Besides 
these we sent others to ornithological friends. I hear from Messrs. Gurney 
and Dresser that the adult plumage of this species is not to be distinguished 
from that of the small Pomeranian spotted eagle which they term the true 
Aquila nevia. They assert, however, that, though the adults are alike, the 
immature birds differ. This is a point for further investigation, but the 
perfect accordance of the adults leads me to expect the same in the immature 
birds. The connection between the immature and the adult is the first point 
to be established, and this can only be done by the field naturalist. One of 
my ornithological friends informs me that the immature of A. orientalis 
(which we have shown is A. bifasciata) has spotted plumage like that of 
A. nevia; another friend informs me he has received the immature bird, 
and it ‘‘is strangely like A. bifasciata!” Now the latter eagle is not spotted, 
and the “ doctors,” who are both men of repute, “ differ.” These points will 
all be cleared up, it is to be hoped, before long; and we shall perhaps have 
the natural history of the eagles as clear and as correct as that of the 
common rook, with little or nothing else to be learned. At present the 
eagles appear to be in a state of dire confusion, which the English naturalists 
are daily making worse. 

PS.—Since the foregoing was written Capt. G. F. L. Marshall, who is 
much interested in this subject, came and examined the series used. He 
fully concurred in the identification of A. orientalis with A. bifasciata, and 
was even more positive than I was that the Danzic-killed Aquila hastata 
was indeed that species. It will be remembered it was sent to me labelled 
“ A. nevia.” My English ornithological friends with whom I communicated 
are incredulous regarding my identifications, and I therefore refer to my 
friend's corroboration. If all fails to convince them I shall have the series 
exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological Society—W. E. Brooks, C.E., 
Assensole, in the ‘ Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal’ (vol. xlii. pt. 2, 
1878). [Communicated by C. R. Bree, Esq.] 

Blackbird nesting on the Ground.—The nesting of the blackbird on the 
ground is much more common than is generally supposed. Three instances 
have come under my observation this season: the most remarkable is one 
in the park, under a small log of wood; the place first fixed upon was at 
the side of the log, and the nest was nearly finished, when it seemed to have 


SECOND SERIES—VOL., VIII. 2R 


8646 Tue ZooLtocist—Avueust, 1878. 


been trodden upon by the cattle, and abandoned; but almost close to it 
another nest has been placed under the end of the log, which now contains four 
eggs: all around the place is short grass. Last year I found a nest in a fir 
plantation, placed at the root of a solitary tuft of grass; the ground for some 
distance from the nest was quite level and bare. I have seen this season 
the nest of a missel thrush only two feet from the ground, placed in the fork 
of a slender thorn, quite bare, and close to the roadside. I went to examine 
the young just before they were fledged, and was rather surprised to find a 
young blackbird amongst them; there were three thrushes. The nest, when 
I first saw it, contained four missel thrush’s eggs, so I think that some one 
had taken an egg of the thrush and put a blackbird’s egg in its place. The 
birds all left the nest at the same time, though the blackbird was not so 
fully feathered. I was in hopes it would be left behind, as I was wishful to 
see whether the thrushes would feed it after their own young had left the 
nest. I do not know of any birds that are less particular in the choice of a 
nesting-place than blackbirds and thrushes are—John Sclater ; Castle Eden, 
Durham, June 10, 1872. 

Redstart nesting on the Ground.— Whilst in pursuit of Argynnis 
Euphrosyne, a redstart flew out from the bottom of a small bush, and on 
looking I found.a nest, containing six eggs, built on the ground amongst 
the thick herbage, &c., under the bush; on withdrawing to a little distance 
the bird returned to the nest again, so that I am certain of its identity. 
I have known perhaps of hundreds of redstarts’ nests, but never found one 
on the ground before.—John Kempster ; Clifton, Bristol. 

The Nightingale.—I know not whether the one-sided Act for the protection 
of our wild birds is the cause, but this season the nightingale has been 
unusually abundant in the neighbourhood of Ringwood, and several nests 
have been found in close proximity to our little town. Many persons who 
had never before heard the notes of this lovely songster are now quite 
familiar with its “jug, jug, jug,” and the varied harmony of its almost 
ceaseless song. During the latter part of April and the greater half of May 
the notes of this bird were to be detected at almost any hour of the night or 
day. Strange to say, the species did not seem to be commoner than usual in 
the woods, but only in the gardens close to the abodes of men. Many times 
did I listen to the song, feeling the entire force of the beautiful lines of 
Coleridge :— 

“Tis the merry nightingale 
That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates 
With fast thick warble his delicious notes, 
As he were fearful that an April night 
Would be too short for him to utter forth 


His love chaunt, and disburden his full soul 
Of all its music!” 


—G. B. Corbin; Ringwood, Hants. 


THE ZooLocGist—Aveust, 1873. 3647 


[Editorial Query.— What is the ruling motive for song in birds? In the 
domestic cock, in the robin, in the missel thrush, it seems very like a 
challenge to all the males of the same species to come and have a fight. 
I cannot regard it in the poetic and sentimental light; to me it does not 
seem a hymn of praise to the Creator, or a ditty addressed to a lady love— 
E. Newman.] 

Migration of the Sky Lark.—Some years ago, when we experienced a 
very heavy fall of snow, I noticed this species migrating in countless 
hundreds from north-east to south-west. They flew comparatively low, and 
their only business seemed a hasty retreat to a more congenial and hospitable 
neighbourhood. They made little noise during their journey, but their 
numbers must have been unlimited, as they were passing the whole of the 
day, and even in the evening twilight I could still detect the migration 
goingon. This season I have again noticed similar flights, not so extensive, 
but under exactly similar circumstances. The first fall of snow we had in 
February, when the ground became covered, was the signal for their transit, 
and accordingly the migration took place immediately. Their numbers 
must have been augmented by arrivals from the north, for, although a 
common species in Hampshire, I scarcely think all I saw were bred in this 
neighbourhood. As before observed, these took a direction from north-east 
to south-west, and I saw few, if any, after the first day’s migration. During 
the fall of snow at the end of February (when it covered the ground to its 
greatest depth), I did not observe any further migration, and in no case 
have I seen the birds return northwards. On each occasion of seeing these 
migrations the flight has been directed in the same course, away from the 
open fields and hills to the fir-woods on the opposite side of the river. It 
will perhaps be asked, Is it possible that the birds could have taken ad- 
vantage of the shelter afforded by these woods? I think not, as their 
flight, if from any great distance, must have been across the extensive 
woods of the New Forest before reaching us, where ample shelter, but little 
food, could be obtained, so I suppose that hunger is the whole and sole cause 
of these migrations, as I never observed it except when the ground was 
“snow-clad.” In severe frosts I have seen the birds eating turnip-tops, 
chickweed, &c., in sheltered fields, but I do not recollect ever seeing them 
migrate for frost alone, although they get distressingly thin in body and 
rough in plumage during a continued frost.—G. B. Corbin. 

Starling’s Nest under Ground.—I went to see the nest of a starling, 
containing four nearly-fledged young, which was about eighteen or twenty 

inches under ground, amongst stones, cinders and other rough materials, 
~ laid upon a drain round the foundation of the church, level with the 
ground, and covered with grass; there is but a small hole, like a rat-hole, 
perpendicular to the nest, but the passage turns round a stone, which I had 
to remove before I could satisfy myself that they were not there by accident, 


3648 THE ZooLocist—AvcustT, 1873. 


as there is a colony of them above in the belfry. They were discovered by 
the noise they made while being fed.—John Sclater. 

Starling’s Mode of Feeding.—I witnessed a few days ago a habit of the 
starling previously unknown to me. I was watching from a window a pair 
searching the newly-mown lawn, when I observed them pricking the ground, 
or rather grass-roots, with their mouths wide open, the mandibles being 
thus thrust in wide apart; this was continued until an insect was found, 
which was immediately swallowed.—Id. 

Note on the Cuckoo and Pied Wagtail.— The following relation has 
been given to me by my friend Mr. Edward Fountaine, of Easton, Norfolk, 
and is I think worthy of a place in the pages of the ‘ Zoologist.’. Mr. Foun- 
taine has a small garden adjoining his residence, which is bounded on the 
side next the public road by an old ivy-clad wall. For eight or nine years, 
ending in 1871, a pair of pied wagtails nested twice every year in this ivy, 
with the exception of one year, when they built their nest under the tiles of 
an adjacent wood-shed. In each of these years the wagtails safely reared 
their first brood, after which they annually constructed a second nest, in 
which, in every one of the above years, a cuckoo laid its egg, which was duly 
hatched and the young cuckoo successfully reared by the wagtails, except 
on one occasion when their foster-child was killed by falling out of the nest. 
Although the note of the cuckoo was frequently heard in the immediate 
vicinity, after the young cuckoo was hatched, the parent cuckoo was never 
observed iu any way to take any notice of its offspring. In 1872 the wag- 
tails did not build their first nest as usual in the ivy, but in a large block 
of wood in which flowers were grown in another part of the garden: this 
nest was accidentally destroyed, probably by a rat, after which the wagtails 
forsook the garden, and did not appear there again that season. The 
cuckoo was seen several times in the garden early in the morning during 
the month of June, 1872; but whether the wagtails made a second nest 
elsewhere in that year, and if so whether the cuckoo succeeded in finding it, 
Mr. Fountaine is unable to say. During the spring of the present year 
the wagtails again nested in the ivy, and there successfully reared their first 
brood, since which they have constructed a second nest in another part of 
the garden, which now (June 12th) contains four of their own eggs, but 
none of the cuckoo’s.—J. H. Gurney ; June, 1873. 

The Cuckoo.—How can it be ascertained with certainty whether the same 
hen cuckoo always lays eggs of the same colour, or whether (admitting this 
to be the case) she invariably lays in the nest of the same species—that is, 
in the nest of that species whose eggs most nearly approximate in colour to 
her own? And yet we must be satisfied on these points if we are to accept 
the ingenious theory of Dr. Baldamus. If we understand the learned 
German rightly, he states that, with a view to insure the preservation of 
species which would otherwise be exposed to danger, Nature has endowed 


THE ZooLocist—Auveéust, 1873. 3649 


every hen cuckoo with the faculty of laying eggs similar in colour to those 
of the species in whose nest she lays, in order that they may be less easily 
detected by the foster-parents, and that she only makes use of the nest of 
some other species (i.e. of one whose eggs do not resemble her own) when, 
at the time she is ready to lay, a nest of the former description is not at 
hand. This statement, which concludes a long and interesting article on 
the subject in the German ornithological journal ‘ Naumannia,’ for 1853, 
has deservedly attracted much attention. English readers were presented 
with an epitome of this article by Mr. Dawson Rowley in the ‘ Ibis’ for 
1865, and the Rev. A. C. Smith, after bringing it to the notice of the Wilt- 
shire Archeological Society in the same year, published a literal translation 
of the paper in the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1868. More recently, an excellent article 
on the subject, by Professor Newton, has appeared in ‘ Nature’ (18th Nov., 
1869).* To enter fully upon the details of this interesting subject would 
require more space than we have at our disposal; we can only glance, there- 
fore, at the general opinions which have been expressed in connection with 
it. If the theory of Dr. Baldamus be correct, is it possible to give a 
reasonable and satisfactory explanation of it? This question has been 
answered by Professor Newton in the article to which we have just referred. 
He says :—‘ Without attributing any wonderful sagacity to the cuckoo, it 
does seem likely that the bird which once successfully deposited her eggs 
in a reed wren’s or a titlark’s nest should again seek for another reed 
wren’s or a titlark’s nest (as the case may be) when she had an egg 
to dispose of, and that she should continue her practice from one season to 
another. We know that year after year the same migratory bird will return 
to the same locality, and build its nest in almost the same spot. Though 
the cuckoo be somewhat of a vagrant, there is no improbability of her being 
subject to thus much regularity of habit, and indeed such. has been asserted 
as an observed fact. If, then, this be so, there is every probability of her 
offspring inheriting the same habit, and the daughter of a cuckoo which 
always placed her egg in a reed wren’s or a titlark’s nest doing the like.” 
In other words, the habit of depositing an egg in the nest of a particular 
species of bird is likely to become hereditary. This would be an excellent 
argument in support of the theory, were it not for one expression, upon 
which the whole value of the argument seems to us to depend. What is 
meant by the expression “ once successfully deposited”? Does the cuckoo 
ever revisit a nest in which she has placed an egg, and satisfy herself that 
her offspring is hatched and cared for? If not (and we believe such an event 
is not usual, if indeed it has ever been known to occur), then nothing has 
been gained by the selection of a reed wren’s or titlark’s nest (as the case 
may be), and the cuckoo can have no reason for continuing the practice of 
using the same kind of nest from one season to another. While admitting, 
* Reprinted in the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 3505). 


3650 Tue ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 


therefore, the tendency which certain habits have to become hereditary in 
certain animals, we feel compelled to reject the application of this principle 
in the case of the cuckoo, on the ground that it can only hold good where 
the habit results in an advantage to the species, and in the present instance 
we have no proof either that there is an advantage, or, if there is, that the 
cuckoo is sensible of it. Touching the question of similarity between eggs 
laid by the same bird, Professor Newton says:—“I am in a position to 
maintain positively that there is a family likeness between the eggs laid by 
the same bird” (not a cuckoo) ‘even at an interval of many years,” and he 
instances cases of certain golden eagles which came under his own observa- 
tion. But do we not as frequently meet with instances in which eggs laid 
by the same bird are totally different in appearance? Take the case of a 
bird which lays four or five eggs in its own nest before it commences to sit 
upon them—for example, the sparrowhawk, blackbird, missel thrush, carrion 
crow, stone curlew, or blackheaded gull. Who has not found nests of any 
or all of these in which one egg, and sometimes more, differed entirely 
from the rest? And yet in each instance these were laid, as we may 
presume, not only by the same hen, but by the same hen under the 
same conditions, which can be seldom, if ever, the case with a cuckoo. 
Looking to the many instances in which eggs laid by the same bird, 
in the same nést, and under the same circumstances, vary iter se, 
it is not reasonable to suppose that eggs of the same cuckoo deposited 
in different nests, under different circumstances, and, presumably, dif- 
ferent. conditions of the ovary, would resemble each other. On the 
contrary, there is reason to expect they would be dissimilar. Further, 
we can confirm the statement of Mr. Dawson Rowley, who says, “I have 


found two types of cuckoo’s eggs, laid, as I am nearly sure, by the same ° 


bird.” (‘ Ibis,’ 1865, p. 183.) It is undeniable that strong impressions upon 
the sense of sight, affecting the parent during conception or in an early 
stage of pregnancy, may and do influence the formation of the embryo, and 
it has consequently been asserted that the sight of the eggs lying in the 
nest has such an influence on the hen cuckoo, that her egg, which is ready 
to be laid, assumes the colour and markings of those before her. This is 
not, however, supported by facts. For the egg of a cuckoo is frequently 
found with eggs which do not in the least resemble it (e.g., those of the 
hedgesparrow); or with eggs which from the nature of the nest could not 
have been seen by the cuckoo (as in the case of the redstart, wren, or willow 
wren); or deposited in a nest before a single egg had been laid therein by 
the rightful owner. Again, two cuckoo’s eggs of a different colour have 
been found in the same nest. If both were laid by one bird, we have a 
proof that the same cuckoo does not always lay eggs of the same colour; if 
laid by different birds, then the cuckoo is not so impressionable as has been 
supposed. What really takes place, we believe, is this:—The cuckoo lays 


THE ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. . 3651 


her ege upon the ground; the colour of the egg is variable according to the 
condition of the ovary, which depends upon the age of the bird, the nature 
of its food, and state of health at the time of oviposition. With her egg in 
her bill, the bird then seeks a nest wherein to place it. We are not un- 
willing to accept the suggestion that, being cognizant of colour, she prefers 
a nest which contains éggs similar to her own, in order that the latter may 
be less easily discovered by the foster-parents. At the same time, we so 
frequently find the egg in question amongst others which differ totally from 
it in colour, that we cannot think that the cuckoo is so particular in her 
choice as Dr. Baldamus would have us believe. —J. E. Harting, in 
Hardwicke’s ‘ Science-Gossip,’ 1st May, 1870. [Communicated by the 
author. ] 

Hybrid between the Common Pigeon and Turtle Dove—When in Rome, 
two months ago, I had an opportunity of seeing in the University of that 
city, and in the possession of Dr. De Santis, Professor of Natural History 
there, several specimens of a hybrid between the common pigeon and the 
turtle dove, which I believe is the first instance of their breeding together. 
The male was a house pigeon and the female a turtle dove. The young 
bird partook more of the turtle dove than the male parent in appearance.— 
John J. Dalgleish ; Brankston Grange, Culross, N. B., June 4, 1873. 

British Heronries.—In addition to the heronries already mentioned in 
the ‘ Zoologist,’ Iam happy in being able to report three more. In Killerton 
Park, near Exeter, the seat of Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, on the summit of 
a hill crowned with very lofty beeches, there has been a well-preserved 
heronry from time immemorial; the number of nests seemed considerable 
when I last saw then (in 1867), but I did not count them. Another 
heronry, if not more than one, flourishes in the grounds of my friend 
Sir William Clayton, at Harleyford, near Marlow, Bucks. And in the 
grounds at Kelsey Manor, Beckenham, Kent (P. R. Hoare, Esq.), there are 
always one or two nests annually, built in very aged Scotch firs, which hang 
over the lake.—Henry Burney; Wavendon Rectory, near Woburn, Beford- 
shire, June 28, 1873. 

Whimbrel in the New Forest.— It may interest the readers of the 
‘Zoologist’ to learn that the whimbrel is occasionally met with in the 
forest at other times than the “dead of winter.” On the 14th of May, 
1870, I stuffed a couple (male and female) which had been shot in the forest 
the previous day; and at the beginning of May of the present year I saw 
another which had been killed not far from Ringwood, and at the end of 
the month I was one evening walking across some boggy ground in the 
forest, in the hope of getting a view of a pair of hen harriers I had observed 
a short time previously, when a whimbrel rose out of some grass and heather 
almost at my feet. The species is, I believe, not rare during the winter 
months in some of the harbours of the Hampshire coast, but all the specimens 


8652 TueE ZooLocist—Auveust, 1873. 


above named were some miles from the sea; and although I have no 
reason to suppose that a straggling pair remain to breed in the forest, yet 
I thought the occurrence of the bird at such a time and place was worthy 
of remark, since the whimbrel is usually considered a mere winter visitor 
with us. Iam informed that a teal’s nest, containing eight eggs, was seen 
in the forest this spring.—G. B. Corbin; July, 1878. 

Waterhens nesting in Trees——On the 12th of June I put a waterhen 
off her nest, which was constructed fully nine feet from the ground, in a 
whitethorn at Hempstead, in Norfolk. The gamekeeper there told me 
that he had seen another waterhen’s nest this season about thirteen feet 
from the ground, in a spruce fir, and that some years since he found one 
in a spruce fir fully twenty feet from the ground. In each of these three 
cases the tree was situated near the edge of a large pond.—J. H. Gurney ; 
June, 18738. 

Wild Duck and Leech.—The following incident has just been related to 
me by my friend the Rey. H. M. Wilkinson:—A wild duck had been dis- 
covered in the river in an apparently dying state, and a closer inspection of 
the poor suffering bird revealed a strange state of affairs. The water was 
deeply tinged with blood for some distance, and the duck, which was about 


three-parts grown, having been caught, a leech was discovered fastened to - 


the inside of its mouth or throat, into which situation it doubtless had 
penetrated whilst the duck was feeding, and the poor bird had fallen a victim 
to the puny blood-sucker.—G. B. Corbin. 

Wild-fowl at Ringwood.—On the 15th of February a pair of shovelers 
were shot near the river. I did not see the female, but the male, which 
I weighed and measured, was a splendid bird and in most lovely plumage. 
This species is not at all a frequent one in this neighbourhood, even in severe 
winters: I have seen but four previously, so I am not at all acquainted with 
the bird; but I think the weight and measurement of the bird I recently 
saw are worth mentioning, as it seemed to me to be very small compared 
with a female I possess,—which I may state was sent by a friend from 
Treland a few seasons ago,—and it certainly is less than any of the few 
I have previously seen. It measured, when held up by the beak, exactly 
seventeen inches in length, and weighed barely eighteen ounces. Perhaps 
some of the readers of the ‘ Zoologist,’ whose knowledge of this species is 
more reliable and extended than my own, will kindly tell us if the bird was 
remarkable from its small size? Several specimens of the pintail duck have 
been shot, but were frightfully mutilated. As a rule, I believe wild-fowl 
have been abundant this season, but on account of the continued floods few 
comparatively were shot. I have seen some pochards and a few wigeon 
exposed for sale, but on the whole I do not think the gunners made much 
of a harvest. Strange to say, I have scarcely seen a siskin this winter, and 
the snow bunting, which I have seen on several occasions during snow in 


EO ee oe 


Tue ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 3653 


previous winters, has been entirely absent, as far as I have been able to 
learn.—G. B. Corbin. 


Shark and Pilot-fish— Off San Domingo, Monday, May 3, 18783. Two 
sharks appeared on the scene. The first went at the hook ravenously, and 
at the first attempt was most ignominiously hauled in and cut to pieces, 
while the other, a much larger one, made a grab at his tail as he disappeared. 
I never saw a more determined brute. ‘Three times was she hooked, and 
almost triced up; but before we could get a bowline round her fins to hoist 
her in, the hook drew, or she managed to wriggle herself free. However, a 
fourth time she came up, followed by five pilot-fish, the two which had at 
first accompanied the others having attached themselves to her company: her 
mouth was bleeding freely from where she had been wounded before, and 
yet she came at the hook with its same bit of pork as fiercely as ever. This 
time the hook held, and the bowline got well jammed behind the head, and 
in she came over the stern, and was taken forward on a grating into the 
ship’s head. Here the cutting up commenced, and, as she was a tremendous 
size round for her length, many people suggested she had young inside her. 
I had always been sceptical of sharks going about with young inside, but 
this time the question was settled, for I saw ten young sharks, from a foot 
and a half to two feet long cut out of her. They were quite lively and ready 
to start off on their own hook. They were a dark gray colour above and 
white below, and had all parts perfect,—eyes, breathing-holes, &c., —and 
snapped with their little jaws with as much vigour as their parent, but they 
had only very small attempts at teeth. In the stomach of the shark was 
found rather a curious medley of things—beef-bones, a jam-pot, marline- 
spike, lots of oakum, and oily rags used for cleaning guns. She had 
evidently been following us for a few days, but had not been noticed before, 
as we were going too fast through the water. In addition to the pilot-fish 
following her, the shark had two suckers attached, but they got scraped off 
in hauling her over the taffrail. I fancy she was between seven and eight 
feet long, and enormously heavy and big round from having so many young 
in her.—C. F’. Penny, R.N., in litt. 

Pilot-fish off Penzance.—Two pilot-fish were taken last night in the 
mackerel-nets here, about fifteen leagues off shore south-west from this 
place, and consequently in deep water. It is but very rarely that this fish 
is taken in the open sea,—they are usually captured in harbours,—and these 
are supposed to have followed some vessel home from the Mediterranean. 
The captors report that there were many vessels about at the time they 
were captured.— Thomas Cornish ; Penzance, June 28, 1878. 

Angel-fish at St. Leonards,—A fine specimen of the angel-fish (Squatina 
angelus, Yarrell, vol. ii. p. 407) has been taken here. The length from the 
tip of the nose to the tip of the tail was four feet five inches and a half, and 


SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 25 


3654 Tue ZooLocist—Auveust, 1878. 


its greatest breadth two feet eight inches: it weighed fifty pounds. I have 
saved its jaws.—J. S. Bowerbank; 2, East Ascent, St. Leonards-on-Sea, 
July 18, 1873. 


Octopus vulgaris at Penzance.—I yesterday obtained a living specimen 
of Octopus vulgaris, but unfortunately failed to keep it alive. It measured 
from the hinder end of the sac to the extreme end of the longest arm two — 
feet eight inches anda half. The sac to the mouth was eleven inches and 
a half, and to the eye eight inches; across the sac measured a trifle over 
six inches in the widest part.—Thomas Cornish ; May 28, 1873. 


Large Lobster.—In the Guernsey market, on the 19th of July, there was 
a fine lobster, which had been caught in Coles Bay. Its length, from head 
to tail, measured twenty inches: its claws were five inches and a quarter in 
width; its weight twelve and a half English pounds. This is not so large 
as the one caught at Plymouth, and mentioned in the July number of the 
‘ Zoologist’ (S. 5. 3618), but is still, I think, worth noticing.—C. B. Carey. 

Scyllarus Arctus at St. Leonards.—I have a very fine specimen of Scyllarus 
Arctus, found on the rocks of our coast. I had it fresh from the sea, and 
preserved it myself; it is in fine condition, and is five inches long. It is not 
described in Bell's ‘ Crustacea’ as a British species.—J. S. Bowerbank. 


A Difficulty for Darwinists.—The current number of the ‘ Zoologist’ 
commences with a paper by Mr. F. H. Balkwill, having the pretentious 
title, “ A Difficulty for Darwinists,” in which, like many others who do not 
fully understand the subject, he lays too much stress on the possibility of 
slight variations in an infinite number of directions. No doubt it is 
theoretically possible for an infinite number of variations to occur in living 
bodies, if they are within the influence of an infinite number of different 
forces, just as the result of a very large number of forces acting on a particle 
may cause it to take one of almost an infinite number of directions. But 
the forces acting on the living body are comparatively limited; and when— 
as in the cases of the thylacine and the dog, or of the wombat and the 
rodent, which are the author’s stumbling-blocks—the forces which have been 
called to act on the marsupial and placental types of organism have been 
practically identical, they having had to undergo the struggle for existence 
under similar circumstances, it is not to be wondered at, but only to be 
expected, that similar organisms should be the result, especially as the two 
types to start with are not separated by any great interval. It is just as 
probable, external circumstances being similar, that the isolated marsupial 
ancestor should give rise to carnivorous, rodent, and herbivorous forms, as that 
they should be developed from a placental type.-—‘ Nature,’ July 24, 1873. 

[I thought the marsupial and placental types were separated by a very 
great interval; but I shall be pleased to receive and publish Mr. Balkwill’s 
reply to this objection —E. Newman.] 


THE ZooLocist—A veust, 1873. 3655 


Proceedings of the Entomological Society. 


June 2, 1873.—Sir Srpney S. Saunpers, Vice-President, in the chair, 


Donations to the Library. 

The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the 
donors :—‘ Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences,’ vol. i. no. ile 
presented by the Society. ‘ Bullettino della Societa Entomologica Italiana,’ 
vol. v. trim. 1; by the Society. ‘The Journal of the Quekett Microscopical 
Club,’ nos. 20, 21 and 22; by the Club. ‘Fifth Annual Report on the 
Noxious, Beneficial and other Insects of the State of Missouri,’ by Charles 
V. Riley; by the Author. ‘Beitriige zur Kenntniss der Dipterenfauna 
Galiziens,’ von Dr. Max. Nowicki; by the Author. ‘Les Papillons 
Diurnes de Belgique, Manuel du jeune Lépidoptérologiste,’ par Louis 
Quaedvlieg; by the Author. ‘West Kent Natural History, Microscopical 
and Photographic Society: the President’s Address: the Council and 
Auditors’ Reports for 1872; anda Lecture on the Aquarium and its Con- 
tents, delivered in the Crystal Palace,’ by J. Jenner Weir, Esq., President, 
at the Soirée, November 6, 1872: by the Society. ‘Note sur les Genus 
Peribleptus, Sch., Paipalesomus, Sch., et Paipalephorus, Jekel,’ par M. H. 
Jekel; by the Author. ‘The Zoologist’ and ‘ Entomologist’ for June; by 
the Editor. ‘The Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine’ for June; by the 
Editors. 

Exhibitions, dc. 

Mr. Bond brought to the meeting some seeds of Gleditschia Sinensis, 
received from Japan, which were all destroyed by a species of Bruchus, of 
which he exhibited living specimens. 

Mr. Miller exhibited a Psyche case sent by Mr. Rothney from Calcutta. 
Tt was composed of the spines of some tree arranged longitudinally, so that 
the points were all at the upper end. 

Sir Sidney Saunders exhibited a series of living Hymenopterous larve 
and pupz in briar-stems, lately received from Albania. These briars having 
been recently split, showed the occupants in their natural cells. Specimens 
of the perfect insects reared from the larve were also exhibited, consisting of 
the following:—Trypoxylon figulus, Smith; Raphiglossa Eumenoides, 
Saunders ; Psiliglossa (Stenoglossa, Sauss.) Odyneroides, Saund. ; Odynerus 
levipes, Shuck.; Prosopis rubicola, Saund.; Osmia tridentata, Duf. & Perris ; 
and O. leucomelana, Kirb. ; 

Mr. Miiller communicated the following notes on the discovery, by 
Dr. Emile Joly, of Toulouse, of a nymph which he announced to belong to 
& species of Oligoneuria :— 

“ Having for the last fifteen years endeavoured to find the unknown early 
conditions of Oligoneuria Rhenana, Imhof, but so far without success, it is 


3656 Tue ZooLocist—Aovevust, 1873. 


a matter of no little consolation to me to be enabled, through the courtesy 
of my valued friend Dr. Emile Joly, to announce, on his behalf, to the 
Society, his important discovery of the first nymph known in the genus 
Oligoneuria, and belonging to the species named by him ‘ Garumnica.’ For 
this purpose I translate here Dr. Joly’s communication from the French 
MSS., agreeably to his desire. My friend writes, ‘I have the honour of 
addressing to the Entomological Society of London two drawings, to my 
knowledge entirely unpublished, and representing (fig. a), the upper side,* 


Fig. a. 


(The above are three times the natural length.) 
and (fig. B) the under side of the nymph of a new species of Oligoneuria, 
for which I have already proposed the specific name “ Garumnica.”+ In 
1869, on the very last excursion which I had the opportunity of making in 


* This nymph, like the one of Palingenia Roeselii (vide Mém. de la Soe. des 
Sci. Nat. de Cherbourg, t. xvi.), with long ciliw only on the internal border of the 
anterior legs, presents, like the last, above the thorax and in pairs overlying each 
other, four corneous sheaths intended to lodge the folded-back (repli¢es) wings of the 
insect up to the moment of its passing to the subimago state. It is therefore not, 
as Imhoff supposed, by a kind of division, by a spontaneous fissuring, that the four 
wings are formed, which are so easily recognised in the imago state of the insect, 
but rather that if sometimes there seem to exist only two wings, it is, as Hagen had 
at first deduced theoretically, because there exists a perfect attachment by simple 
agglutination of the posterior border of the fore wing to the anterior border of the 
hind wing. : 

+ Emile Joly, 1870, “Contributions pour servir a l'Histoire Naturelle des 
Ephémerines,” No.1, in t, iv, du Bull. de la Soc. d'Hist. Nat. de Toulouse, avec 
Planche, 


7) 


THE ZooLocist—Auveust, 1873. 3657 


the bassin of the Garonne at Toulouse, I had the good luck of detecting the 
singular metamorphoses of this species. In all probability this nymph is 

_ the first and only one discovered in this genus up to the present time, as 
neither Pictet, the founder of the genus (O. anomala), nor Imhoff (O. Rhe- 
nana), nor Hagen (O. Rhenana, var. pallida), nor my friend Albert Miiller 
in his different observations on the habits of O. Rhenana, nor M‘Lachlan 
(O. Trimeniana), nor lastly, even the Rey. A. E. Eaton, in his fine and 
quite recently published monograph on the Ephemeride,* mention anything 
concerning the larval stage (l'état de ver), or, as it is called in England, 
“the immature condition of the subaqueous stages of development,” of any 
of the species, the names of which I have enumerated. I intend to publish 
shortly the complete anatomy of this curious nymph.’” 

With regard to the above notes, Mr. M‘Lachlan remarked that it would 
be most desirable to obtain further and more minute particulars respecting 
Dr. Joly’s observations. ‘The information furnished was very vague, and 
no characters were given of the supposed new species. 

Mr. Wollaston communicated a paper ‘“ On the Genera of the Cossonide,’ 
including descriptions of 139 species which had not hitherto been 
recorded. 

The Secretary read the following remarks, communicated to him in a 
letter from Mr. Roland Trimen, of Cape Town :— 

“T have lately read with much interest the Rev. R. P. Murray’s notes 
‘On some Variations of Neuration observed in certain Papilionide,’}+ and 
desire to offer the following remarks thereon. In cases 1, 2, 8 and 4, 
Mr. Murray does not state whether the anastomosing or coalescing nervures 
are those of the fore or hind wings; but in the 1st and 2nd, it is clear, from 
the mention of Synchloé (Pieris) Mesentina, Cramer, that the fore wings 
are intended. In this Pieride, however, the junction of the first subcostal 
nervule with the costal nervure of the fore wings is not an aberration but a 
constant character of that species, as well as of P. Severina, Cram., and a 
few allied species, and (as mentioned by me in Trans. Ent. Soc. 1870, 
p- 378) has been noticed by both Wallengren and Wallace. 

“Tam enabled to supplement case 5, ‘ P. Clodias’ (? Parnassius Clodius, 
Meén.), by a very similar and even more remarkable instance in a male 
Papilio Merope, Cram., which has just recently come under my notice. As 
in Mr. Murray’s description, the subcostal nervules of the hind wing in this 
specimen of Merope are connected by a transverse nervule; but the addi- 
tional nervule (instead of being incomplete and confined to the right hind 
wing) is found in both hind wings and thoroughly unites the subcostal 
nervules. In this manner a perfect additional cell is formed (see a in figure) 


? 


* A. E. Eaton, “A Monograph on the Ephemeride,” in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 
1871, with six plates. 
+ Proc. Ent. Soc., 1872, pp. xxxiiii—xxxiv. 


3658 THE ZooLocist—Aveust, 1873. 


immediately adjoining and above the ordinary discoidal cell, and extending 
beyond it. The subcostal nervules are ‘angulated and drawn together’ by 
the transverse nervule, quite as Mr. Murray describes in P. Clodius, and 
the additional cell is of the same size and 
shape in both hind wings. It is observable 
that the true discoidal cell is not at all dis- 
torted, but of the normal size and form in 
both hind wings. ‘This interesting example 
of P. Merope was taken by Mr. J. H. 
Bowker on the Boolo River, a small tribu- 
tary of the Tsomo, in Kaffraria Proper. 

“T have in another place (Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xxvi. p. 501, note) 
commented on the remarkable neuration of the Papilionids, and pointed 
out how the presence of more than one cell enclosed by anastomosing 
nervures constitutes an indication of affinity to the Heterocerous groups of 
Lepidoptera; and this indication acquires additional significance in view of 
the interesting facts recorded by Mr. Murray respecting butterflies of this 
family, and of the circumstance of the tendency to form additional wing-cells 
finding such marked development in the specimen of P. Merope above 
described. There can, I think, be little doubt that (as Mr. Murray suggests 
in reference to the pre-discoidal cell discovered in some examples of Thais 
Polyxena, W. V.) these exceptional cases of neuration are referable to rever- 
sion to ancestral characters, and point to a remote community of origin 
between the Papilionide and the higher Heterocera. 

Tn my discussion (loc. cit., pp. 501-2) of this question of the position 
of the Papilionide, I overlooked Boisduval’s account (Faune Ent. de 
Madag., &c., pp. 6 and 113) of the larva of the splendid Urania Rhipheus, 
or [should not have quoted Cerura as affording the only other instance 
among the Lepidoptera of organs analogous to the Y-shaped tentacle of the 
Papilionide caterpillars. Boisduval states particularly (on the authority of 
Captain Sganzin, who reared a large number of the Urania) that the larva 
of Rhipheus possesses, ‘comme dans les Papilio,’ ‘deua cornes rétractiles, 
roses, placées sur le premier anneau,’ adding that it exserts them at will 
(‘fait sortir a volonte’). Mr. Wallace, not only in his paper on Malayan 
Papilionids (Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. xxv.), but more recently in his valuable 
‘Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection,’ 2nd edit. 1871, has laid 
such stress on the possession of the exsertible Y-shaped organ being, as the 
exclusive character of Papilionide larve, a sign of the highest development 
of the Lepidopterous Order, that the presence of an apparently identical 
organ in the undoubtedly Heterocerous Urania is a fact most worthy of 
special notice. 

« PS.—TI add a line to say that I have just heard (24th April) that proof 
of the species-identity of Papilio Merope and Ps. Cenea, Hippocoon and 


—— v 


THE ZooLtocist—Auveust, 1873. 3659 


Trophonius has been obtained by Mr. Mansel Weale, who has reared them 
all from larve found on Vepris lanceolata. I hope to give full particulars 
shortly.” 


New Part of ‘ Transactions.’ 
Part ii. of the ‘ Transactions’ for 1873 was on the table. 


July 7, 1873.—Hewnry T. Srarnron, Esq., F.R.S., &c., Vice-President, 
in the chair. 


Additions to the Library. 


The following donations were announced, and thanks voted to the donors : 
—‘The Proceedings of the Royal Society,’ No. 144; presented by the 
Society. ‘Proceedings of the Scientific Meetings of the Zoological Society 
of London, 1872,’ pt. 3; by the Society. ‘ Bulletin de la Societe Imperiale 
des Naturalistes de Moscou, 1872,’ No.4; by the Society. ‘Annales de la 
Societe Entomologique de France,’ 4e Ser., tome x. (Partie Supplementaire, 
Famille des Kucnémides 2e & Se Cahiers), 5e Sér., tome ii.; by the Society. 
‘Tllustrations of North-American Entomology (United States and Canada),’ 
by Townend Glover, Washington, D.C.—Orthoptera; by the Author. ‘De 
Skandinaviske og Arktiske Amphipoder beskrevne,’ af Axel Boeck; by the 
Author. ‘Exotic Butterflies,’ part 87; by W. Wilson Saunders, Esq. 
‘Lepidoptera Exotica,’ part xvil.; by E. W. Janson. ‘Catalogue of the 
Specimens of Hemiptera Heteroptera in the Collection of the British 
Museum,’ parts vi. and vii., by Francis Walker; by the Trustees of the 
British Museum. ‘ General List of the Spiders of Palestine and Syria, with 
Descriptions of numerous new Species and Characters of two new Genera;’ 
‘ Descriptions of Twenty-four new Species of Erigone;’ by the Author, the 
Rey. O. P.-Cambridge, M.A., C.M.Z.S. ‘The Butterflies and Moths of 
Canada, with Descriptions of their Colour, Size and Habits, and the Food 
and Metamorphosis of their Larve;’ by the Author, Alexander Milton 
Ross, M.D., &. ‘La Teigne du Pommier;’ by the Author, M. A. Guenée. 
‘Anteckningar til Lapplands Coleopter-Fauna,’ af John Sahlberg; by the 
Author. ‘Bidrag til Norges Insektfauna,’ af H. Siebke; by the Author. 
‘ Carcinologiske Bidrag til Norges Fauna: I. Monographi over de ved Norges 
Kyster forckommen de Mysider, Andit Hefte:’ ‘ Diagnoser af nye Annelider 
fra Christianiafjorden, efter Professor M. Sars’s efterladte Manuskripter ;’ 
‘Undersgelser over Hardangerfjordens Fauna; I. Crustacea;’ ‘ Bidrag til 
Kundskaben om Christianiafjordens Fauna: III. Vaesentlig udarbeidet efter 
Prof. Dr. M. Sars’s efterladte Manuskripter;’ by the Author, G. O. Sars. 
‘The Canadian Entomologist,’ vol. v., nos. 4 and 5; by the Editor. 
‘The Entomologist’s Monthly Magazine’ for July; by the Editors, 


3660 Tue ZooLocisr—Auveust, 1873. 


‘Newman’s Entomologist’ and ‘The Zoologist’ for July; by the Editor. 
‘On Nephropsis Stewarti, a new Genus and Species of Macrurous Crus- 
taceans dredged in deep water off the eastern coast of the Andaman Islands ; 
‘On new or little known Species of Phasmide,’ part I. Genus Bacillus ;’ by 
the Author, James Wood Mason, Esq. 


Exhibitions, é&c. 

Mr. Weir exhibited eight examples of Agrotera nemoralis, taken by him 
in June at Abbot’s Wood, near Lewes. They were observed only in the 
thickest parts of the wood. 

Prof. Westwood sent copies of two parts of his forthcoming ‘ Thesaurus 
Entomologicus Oxoniensis.’ 

Mr. Bond exhibited larvee of the Bruchus from Japan brought to the last 
meeting. The species was apparently undescribed, and would be included. 
in the paper on Japanese Curculionide, prepared (for the Belgian ‘ Annales’) 
by M. Roelofs. 

Mr. M‘Lachlan exhibited a strongly-marked instance of gynandromor- 
phism in a Dipterous insect (one of the Syrphide) taken by him at Black 
Park. 

Mr, Miller exhibited a number of small galls found by Mr. Trovey 
Blackmore on the under side of a broad-leaved species of oak growing near 
Tangier: they were probably formed by a species of Neuroterus. Mr. Black- 
more also exhibited some large galls found on the same species of oak, 
which had been taken possession of by an ant (Crematogaster scutellaris, 
Oliv.). Mr. Smith remarked that the common oak-apple in this country 
was sometimes taken possession of, ina similar manner, by a species of 
Osmia. 

Mr. W. B. Pryer exhibited a selection from his captures of Lepidoptera 
from China. 

Papers read, éc. 

Sir Sidney Saunders communicated a paper, “ On the Habits and Eco- 
nomy of certain Hymenopterous Insects which nidificate in Briars, and 
their Parasites.” The insects were exhibited at the last meeting, and 
Sir Sidney further exhibited a specimen of a Raphiglossa, in illustration 
of the remarkable position of the insect during repose. It was attached by 
its mandibles to a thorn, from which it extended horizontally, without any 
further support, the legs being uppermost. Mr. F. Smith reminded the 
meeting that an analogous habit had been recorded concerning Chelostoma 
florisomne, and the individuals observed were invariably males. 

Mr. Butler communicated a paper on the species of Galeodides, with 
description of a new species in the British Museum.—F’ G. 


THE ZOOLOGIST—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3661 


Hotices of Hew Books. 


Official Handbook to the Marine Aquarium of the Crystal 
Palace Aquarium Company (Limited). By W. A. Luoyp, 
Superintendent of the Aquarium. Fifth Edition, revised and 
enlarged. 1873. 


THE AQUARIUM is an Institution, a great institution, and in its 
present form a novel institution; but I venture to believe a lasting 
institution: it has passed through two eras, and has entered on a 
third; the first, which endured for a decade, say from 1830 to 
1840, was very humble, very instructive—almost wholly utilitarian ; 
the second, which endured for two decades, say from 1840 to 1860, 
was literary, poetic and fashionable ; and the third, upon which we 
have boldly and vigorously entered, may be styled commercial and 
ambitious: the first was the humble handmaid of Science; the 
second the servant of fashion; and the third the child of specula- 
tion. I need scarcely say the first decade had my entire and 
zealous sympathy ; the second my amused attention ; and the third 
my boundless admiration of the results obtained, without exciting 
much interest in its progress as a commercial venture. 

Three pitfalls—shall I call them crotchets ?—have beset the path 
of the aquarian author: jirst, the idea of planting the aquarium 
as a marine lettuce garden; secondly, the idea of making it the 
theme of a lecture on taste; and ¢hirdly, the idea of dictating the 
mode in which the prisoners shall breathe. Mr. Lloyd has not 
merely avoided the first of these, but has taught others to avoid it, 
and to allow Nature to be her own gardener; into the second and 
third, like Quintius Curtius, he has leaped headlong, generously 
sacrificing himself for the benefit of Science, or what he con- 
scientiously believes to be Science. I will bestow a few lines on 
each of these crotchets, or ideas, or pitfalls, call them which 
you will. 

i. The Gardening Crotchet.—We all know that botanists divide 
sea-weeds into three series, the olive, the red, and the green, and 
our three most esteemed authors on aquariums, Gosse, Rymer 
Jones, and Warington, have thought it desirable to plant the 
aquarium with one or other of these series: these eminent natu- 
ralists seem equally unaware that you cannot transplant a sea-weed 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 2T 


8662 THE ZooLocGist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


from the ocean into your parlour; much less can you select a 
peculiar colour: Nature will plant all the sea-weeds she requires, 
and will brook no advice or assistance from man. I have often 
smiled at the instructions given under this head, and have 
wondered whether the authors have discovered and avowed their 
error. Let us hear Mr. Gosse, who has been followed in a like 
strain by every dabbler in aquarian literature. I quote from ‘The 
Aquarium,’ p. 21. 


“ The first point to be attended to is the procuring of living sea-weeds, the 
vegetable element in the combination which is displayed in the Aquarium. 
And this must be the first thing, whether we are stocking a permanent 
tank, or merely collecting specimens for temporary examination, as we 
cannot preserve the animals in health for a single day except by the help of 
plants to re-oxygenate the exhausted water. By their means, however, 
nothing is easier than to have an Aquarium on almost as small a scale as 
we please; and every visitor to the sea-side, though there for ever so brief 
a stay, may enjoy, with the least possible trouble, the amenities of zoological 
study in a soup-plate, oreveninatumbler. * * * * Suppose the 
time to be the first or second day after full or new moon, when the tide 
recedes to its greatest extent, laying bare large tracts of surface that are 
ordinarily covered by the sea. ‘This is the most suitable time for procuring 
sea weeds, for these must be taken in a growing state; and hence the 
specimens that are washed on shore, and which serve very well for laying 
out on paper, are utterly useless for our purpose. With a large, covered, 
collecting-basket, a couple of wide-mouthed stone jars, a similar one of glass, 
two or three smaller phials, a couple of strong hammers, and the same 
number of what are technically termed cold chisels, tipped with steel, 
I proceed with an attendant to some one of the ledges of black rock that 
project like long slender tongues into the sea. An unpractised foot would 
find the walking precarious and dangerous, for the rocks are rough and 
sharp, and the dense matting of black bladder-weed with which they are 
covered conceals many abrupt and deep clefts beneath its slimy drapery. 
These fissures, however, aye valuable to us. We lift up the hanging mass 
of olive. weed from the edge, and find the sides of the clefts often fringed 
with the most delicate and lovely forms of sea-weed; such, for example, as 
the winged Delesseria, which grows in thin, much-cut leaves of the richest 
crimson hue, and the feathery Ptilota of a duller red. Beneath the shadow 
of the coarser weeds delights also to grow the Chondrus in the form of 
little leafy bushes, each leaf widening to a flattened top. When viewed 
growing in its native element this plant is particularly beautiful, for its 
numerous leaves glow with refulgent reflections of azure resembling the 
colour of tempered steel. * * * % High wading boots are necessary 


THE ZooLocist—SepremBeER, 1873. 8663 


for this purpose. * * * % The most valuable plant of all for our 
purpose is the sea-lettuce.”—‘ The Aquarium,’ pp- 21 to 28 inclusive. 


We must eliminate all this advice and much more which will be 
found throughout Chapter II. of ‘The Aquarium’; we must make 
a bundle of the collecting-basket, the two strong hammers, the two 
cold chisels, the two wide-mouthed stone jars, the one glass ditto, 
and all the paraphernalia of sea-weed collecting, and all aquarium 
books and aquarium advice, and all aquarium poetry and romance, 
if we would utilize the aquarium and make it a source of improve- 
ment and instruction. 

ii. The Lecture on Taste.—Mr. Lloyd has, I think, gone rather 
out of his way in his lecture on taste: we have become familiar with 
Mr. Ruskin’s idea of imitation; he condemns everything that is not 
real, not bond fide; a mantelpiece painted to imitate marble is one 
of his familiar examples; and thus Mr. Lloyd condemns the intro- 
duction of imitation cromlechs, imitation grottoes and imitation 
arches beneath the surface of the water. This section of aquarian 
literature admits great latitude of opinion, and I am quite willing 
to allow ornamentation to take its course; all attempts to restrain 
or direct it must seem rather pragmatical to those who think 
differently, and will certainly be unavailing. 

iil. The Crotchet on Lung-breathing.—My friend introduces a 
broad distinction between animals that breathe in the sea by means 
of lungs and by means of gills; and would forbid us to keep por- 
poises, because their respiratory organs differ from those of sharks. 
No such restriction as this is rational: a porpoise or dolphin is as 
legitimate an object for the aquarium as a dog-fish or a skate; 
I would even introduce a spermaceti whale, did not his magnitude 
and muscular powers Suggest certain difficulties both to his transit 
and to his captivity. I hope Mr. Lloyd will abandon this crotchet, 
and will exhibit a school of porpoises careering in his tank as soon 
as the Company can afford one sufficiently capacious. 

Eliminating these three crotchets: the transplanting, because 
false in principle and impossible in practice; taste, because its 
laws are not to be defined and dismissed in this offhand manner ; 
and the rejection of lung-breathers, because their presence would 
greatly enhance the interest of an aquarium, and because Nature, who 
knows so much better than ourselves, admits them in abundance, 
associating lung-breathers and gill-breathers, making them mutually 
dependent, and we must not expect to improvize a better form of 


3664 THE ZOOLOGIST—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


government than her own: it appears to me a very grave if nota 
fatal mistake to reject the teachings of Nature and substitute others 
in their stead. It cannot fail to strike the thoughtful mind that this 
mixing up of creatures differently constituted, differently organized, 
is the only method by which each will be constantly provided with 
the food and conditions adapted for the well-being of itself and the 
continuance of its kind. If you would confine tenants of the sea, 
make their cage as like the sea as possible; if you would keep the 
tenants of a river, make your prison-house a miniature river. Take a 
lesson from the gardener: associate phanerogams and cryptogams, 
the orchid and the passion-flower, with the fern and the Lyco- 
podium: Nature does this, and the gardener copies her and 
succeeds to perfection. 


Era I. UTILITARIAN. 


The birth of the aquarium is of such remote antiquity that we 
fail to ascertain the date with any certainty. The point at which 
any vessel containing water and fishes becomes an aquarium is 
equally open to discussion. There is abundant reason to suppose 
that the Chinese and the Japanese had their fresh-water aquariums 
thousands of years before the Christian era; the Romans certainly 
had theirs; but in neither of these instances is there any evidence 
of their being considered, as now, a noteworthy institution; by the 
Romans they were established for economic purposes and nothing 
more. Ido not know whether such vessels are again mentioned 
until 1665, when Mr. Pepys in his Diary, under date 28 May, 1665, 
as cited by Mr. Lloyd, observes, “'Thence to see my Lady Pen, 
where my wife and I were shown a fine rarity ; of fishes kept in a 
glass of water, that will live for ever—and finely marked they are, 
being foreign.” I consider this brief passage of infinite interest ; 
were I in a severely critical mood I might object to the expression 
“live for ever,’ because I doubt whether any created being enjoys 
perpetuity of existence; but waiving this objection, I think the 
passage establishes the fact that fishes were kept in confinement at 
Lady Pen’s in 1665; and that Mr. Pepys was informed that they 
had this extraordinary vitality. It is rather a notable fact that we 
know of no instances of fishes dying or being deteriorated by age: 
we never hear complaints of a sole, or a turbot, or a salmon, being 
old and hence objectionable: this can scarcely be asserted of our 
taurine or anserine, or even gallinaceous, food. 


THE ZooLoGIst—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3665 


Coming down to later times, we find that in 1743 our countryman 
Baker distinctly represented specimens of Hydra viridis kept in 
water in an upright glass vessel. 

It appears from the works of Esper, published continuously from 
1771 to 1784, that that distinguished entomologist constantly kept 
aquatic insects in water: he has given us most interesting par- 
ticulars concerning them, and seems to have been delighted in 
observing their longevity in confinement; he particularly mentions 
a male individual of Dytiscus marginalis, a carnivorous water beetle, 
- that lived three years and six months in his aquarium; and James 

Francis Stephens many years subsequently, commenting on this 
seemingly extraordinary fact, attributes this prolonged life to 
enforced celibacy. Esper has left no record, so far as I am aware, 
of the plan or principle of his aquarium, and I believe only this 
single record of his success. 

Simultaneously with Esper, Gilbert White seems to have utilized 
the aquarium for observation: the first edition of his ‘ Natural 
History of Selborne,’ printed in 1789, but written in 1781, has the 
following passage :—‘“‘ When I happen to visit a family where 
gold and silver fishes are kept in a glass bowl, I am always pleased 
with the occurrence, because it offers me an opportunity of ob- 
serving the actions and propensities of those beings with whose lives 
we can be little acquainted in their natural state. Not long since 
I spent a fortnight at the house of a friend, where there was such a 
vivary, to which I paid no small attention, taking every care to 
_remark what passed within its narrow limits.” This great naturalist, 
for great he really was in his singular acuteuess of observation and 
scrupulous truthfulness of narration, thus utilized an aquarium, 
although calling it by another name: his observations on the 
manner of death in fishes, on the structure of their eyes, and on 
their mode of progression, the pectorals being employed for gentle 
motion, and the caudal for “shooting along with inconceivable 
rapidity,” show to what good purpose he devoted these oppor- 
tunities of observing. | 

I have met with no evidence of experiments or arrangements 
of the same kind until, in 1830, my esteemed and respected 
friend James Scott Bowerbank, then residing at No. 19, Critchell- 
place, New North-road, continuously and successfully utilized the 
aquarium in his researches into the “ Circulation of the Blood in 
Insects.” Of all investigators I ever knew, Dr. Bowerbank was the 


3666 THE ZooLoGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


most enthusiastic, the most persevering, the most successful, and 
the most willing to impart his discoveries to others. I have always 
considered my introduction to Dr. Bowerbank one of the most 
fortunate events of my life, and the hours that I have spent under 
his tuition as the most delightful and most worthy of remembrance. 
Let us see what Dr. Bowerbank did with his aquarium, Cuvier’s 
‘Régne Animal’ was published in 1824, and contains the following 
paragraph :-— - 

“Dans les animaux qui n'ont pas de circulation, notamment dans les 
insectes, le fluide nourricier baigne toutes les parties; chacune d’elles y 
puise les molécules nécessaires a son entretien; s'il faut que quelque 
liquide soit produit, des vaisseaux propres flottent dans le fluide nourricier, 
et y pompent, par leur pores, les éléments nécessaires a la composition de 
ce liquide." —‘ Regne Animal,’ vol. i. p. 37. 


The English translation renders the passage thus :— 


“Tn animals that have no circulation, in insects particularly, the parts 
are all bathed in the nutritive fluid; each of these parts draws from it 
what it requires, and if the production of a liquid be necessary, proper 
vessels floating in the fluid take up by their pores the constituent elements 
of that fluid.”—‘ Animal Kingdom,’ vol. i. p. 18. 


No sooner had I read this than I expressed my dissent from 
such a doctrine; I felt certain that insects possessed a circulation. 
Whether influenced by a desire to bring Cuvier’s dictum to the 
experimentum crucis, or from a simple and characteristic thirst 
for truth, Mr. Bowerbank went into the question heart and soul. 
Throughout the years 1831 and 1832 he worked hard at the 
important question whether or no insects possess a circulation: to 
this end he sallied forth on larva-hunting expeditious with the late 
Mr. Tully, the celebrated optician, with one of whose excellent 
instruments his microscopic researches were conducted. “He 
[Mr. Tully] told me,” says Mr. Bowerbank, “all about these 
larve, and where to obtain them, and that they must be kept 
in the water to which they were accustomed ; so we always adhered 
to that plan, for we found that if we brought them home in a very 
little water, and added a considerable quantity from the house- 
cistern, the water thus added generally killed nearly all of them; so 
I employed a man to take an earthen jar that would hold at least a 
gallon of the very water in which the larve were found; this I 
poured into the glass prepared for it, putting in a little Conferva 


THE ZooLocGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3667 


and a few water-snails, Limnea peregra, and the smaller species of 
Planorbis, in the water, and floating a little duck-weed on the 
surface: then the glass was placed in the sun, so as to assimilate 
the condition of the little captives as nearly as possible to what it 
had been when in the ponds on Hampstead Heath in which they 
had been hatched, and in which they were found. Treated thus 
they continued alive and well, zzihout change of water, and thus 
I was enabled to continue the observations for nearly two years.” 

Although in this passage the words “aquarium,” “balance of 
life,” and “ compensating principle” do not occur, it is very evident 
that Mr. Bowerbank was aware of the use of vegetation in main- 
taining life-supporting properties in stagnant water, and the neces- 
sity also of imitating the natural conditions of the animals he 
desired to keep therein. ‘To this hour none of us have advanced 
further with fresh water, and success only results from keeping these 
objects steadily in view. Mr. Bowerbank’s paper was finished on 
the Ist of October, 1832, and was published at p. 239 of the 
‘Entomological Magazine’ for April, 1833. I need scarcely say 
that it placed the author at once at the head of all observers in this 
branch of Entomological Science. I regard it as the best, if not 
the first instance of thoroughly utilizing the compensation principle 
of the fresh-water aquarium: plants to evolve oxygen, animals to 
consume it. 

In the same year Professor Daubeny read, at the Cambridge 
meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 
a@ paper communicating the result of researches he was then 
making on the subject of confining animals and plants together in 
water, in the course of which he established beyond dispute that it 
was the illuminating and not the heating powers of the sun’s rays 
which caused the evolution of oxygen from plants. He then went 
on to say that the plants not only evolved oxygen but assimilated 
carbon from the poisonous carbonic-acid gas which results from the 
respiration of animals, decomposing it and rendering it harmless. 
Finally, he asserted boldly “that the influence of the vegetable 
might serve as a complete compensation for that of the animal 
kingdom.” ‘Thus he seems by inductive reasoning and possibly 
by seeing the successful results in many parlours in London, 
to have perceived as clearly, as he expressed happily, the theory 
and practice of the aquarium; but it must be. recorded that 
while everyone else was succeeding to admiration, Dr. Daubeny 


8668 Tur ZOOLOGIST—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


utterly failed in reducing his theory to practice, and his estab- 
lishment for exhibiting the compensatory process was totally 
unsuccessful. 

Imitation is the inevitable tribute, the sweet-smelling incense, 
offered on the altar of obvious success. I will not presume 
to express a doubt of the originality of many of those who set up 
aquariums between 1830 and 1840, but I think that most of us 
were incited to the act by Mr. Bowerbank’s successful example ; 
Goring and Pritchard admit the fact; they even quote Mr. Bower- 
bank as the authority for their doings. I was a similar imitator of 
my friend: after seeing his captives, and watching the unspeakable 
grace and beauty of their movements, I caught at once at this new 
field of observation. In January, 1832, 1 commenced operations 
with a water-net made of cheese-cloth: the Woolwich Marshes 
and Wandsworth Common were the scenes of my exploits, and a 
large white basin my first aquarium: some of the results were 
published at p. 815 of the first volume of the ‘ Entomological 
Magazine’ in 1833, simultaneously with Mr. Bowerbank’s ; I made 
my appearance as an aquarian, as I may truly say, hanging on by 
the skirts of my leader’s coat. I soon became absorbed in the 
denizens of the white basin, and they were as speedily transferred 
to a more convenient receptacle, an upright glass jar, where they 
lived in health for a very considerable time, but the only observa- 
tion published in 1833 was that “the carnivorous water-beetles, 
Dytiscus, Colymbetes, Acilius, Hydroporus, &c., in swimming 
moved their hind legs simultaneously, striking out with great 
vigour in the same way as a frog; whereas the herbivorous 
water-beetles, Hydrous, Hydrophilus, &c., moved their hind legs 
alternately, thus making weaker strokes and progressing in the 
water much more slowly.” Professor Westwood, at pp. 97 and 
123 of the first volume of his ‘Modern Classification,’ did me the 
honour to copy, endorse and adopt my observations. I might here 
introduce a multitude of jottings on the manners and customs of 
water-beetles in confinement, but I forbear. 

In the years 1836, 1837 and 1838 my friend Mr. Edwards, a most 
accurate and painstaking observer, then residing at 17, High-street, 
Shoreditch, by means of his aquarium, made himself thoroughly 
acquainted with one of the most deeply interesting and unexpected 
facts ever discovered in the entire range of Natural History—I 
allude to the nidification of sticklebacks. It was not until fourteen 


THE ZooLocisT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3669 


years afterwards that Mr. Warington, going over the same ground, 
observed the same facts, and recorded in the ‘ Zoologist’ (Zool. 
3635) the wonderful results. In the course of his communication 
Mr. Warington incidentally observes, “ Mr. Edwards, of Shoreditch, 
whose London garden-pond has afforded much interesting matter 
to many microscopists, informs me, in a note dated August 27, 1852, 
that it is fourteen years since he first noticed the fact of the stickle- 
back building a nest, guarding and defending the young ones.” 
Mr. Gratton, Mr. Bowerbank, and I, as well as microscopists out of 
number, were in the habit of visiting Mr. Edwards, and took great 
interest in his aquarian researches. 

I should, however, here record that Mr. Edwards’s first aquarium 
was, as Mr. Warington has described it, a “ London garden-pond”; 
in fact, it was a stuccoed basin through which a small stream of 
New River water was constantly flowing. This plan, perfectly 
successful as regards the health and vigour of his captives, was soon 
supplemented by the glass jar, so much more convenient for patient, 
- continuous and accurate investigation. Mr. Edwards was a watch- 
maker, and his sticklebacks were kept in a delightful little parlour 
behind the shop. It was not until some vears later that Mr. Gratton 
set up a similar stickleback observatory at 87, Shoreditch; and 
the late respected Matthew Marshall another, at his official 
residence ir the Bank of England, so that I enjoyed abundant 
opportunities of watching the proceedings of these “ wonderful 
fishes.” 

I mention Mr. Edwards as the first scientific man who observed 
the nesting of sticklebacks. I say “scientific,” because I am aware 
that from time immemorial the boys hunting “stitlers,’ and 
bringing them home in a quadrate pickle-bottle suspended from a 
stick, were perfectly cognizant of a fact which seemed to have been 
unknown to naturalists: from them I had learned, long, long before, 
that there were “cock stitlers” and “hen stitlers,’ and that the 
former were also called “redbreasts,” and were famous for their 
fighting propensities: often as I watched the exhibition of these 
propensities in the aquariums of Mr. Edwards, Mr. Gratton and 
Mr. Marshall, and often as my fingers itched to write an account 
of them, I always forbore, for the discovery was the property of these 
gentlemen, and not mine; and to them, and not to me, of right 
belonged the honour and glory that must result from making the 
revelation. Alas! these excellent men have passed away, and 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 2U 


3670 THE ZooLoGist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


have left no record of their doings except in the memories of their 
survivors. 

Our stickleback doings at that early period not only engrossed 
the attention of the little company of aquarians who met at 
Mr. Bowerbank’s hospitable mansion on a Monday evening, but 
attracted the notice of an outside public, to which they were the 
never-failing source of pleasautry: very refreshing was that in- 
cessant fusillade of small jokes to those who fired them, and very 
harmless to those who received them. Even the “inimitable” 
author of the ‘Pickwick Papers, whom nothing amusing, or 
ludicrous, or note-worthy, or instructive, ever escaped, took the 
tide of this little mania on the flood, and rendered Hampstead 
Heath and its ponds and its sticklebacks immortal in his pages. 
Mr. Pickwick is described as the author of a paper intituled 
“Speculations on the Source of Hampstead Ponds, with some 
Observations on the Theory of Tittlebats,” and the Club of which 
he was the enlightened President sent forth that eminent man to 
make further researches. The author adds, “There sat the man 
who had traced to their source the mighty ponds of Hampstead, 
and agitated the world with his Theory of Tittlebats, as calm and 
unmoved as the deep waters of the one on a frosty day or a 
solitary specimen of the other in the inmost recesses of an earthen 
jar.” This shows that the new fancy had taken so deep a hold on 
the public mind that it was worthy of good-humoured banter by a 
man who never fought with shadows. 

It was not until the year 1842 that the nest-building talents of the 
stickleback were fully revealed to the world, and then it was another 
species of stickleback, Gasterosteus spinachia, through another 
medium of observation (the open sea), and another hand (that 
of R. Q. Couch) that held the pen (Zool. 796). Mr. Couch, like his 
predecessors, has passed away, but unlike them has left a trace of his 
handywork which will endure as long as Ichthyology is a science. 

Again, Mr. Kinahan, addressing the Dublin Natural History 
Society, years afterwards, observes of Gasterosteus leiurus, “ Con- 
cerning the manner in which this little fish preserves its spawn not 
the slightest notice, if I may judge from the silence of our latest 
authorities, has been taken by any naturalist.” Alas! that it 
should have been so; yet numbers of us, 1 can positively assert, 
were as intimately acquainted with the facts which Mr. Kinahan 
recorded (Zool. 3526) as he could possibly have been. 


THE ZOOLOGIST—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 8671 


In 1851 Mr. Warington repeated these observations (Zool. 3636), 
and thus accomplished a task which Mr. Edwards was fully com- 
petent to have undertaken and completed twenty years previously. 
All honour to them both: these gentlemen, like Mr. Couch and 
Mr. Kinahan, and subsequently M. Conte of Paris, have given us 
abundant evidence that they observed accurately the facts which 
they have recorded so graphically. I trust that no confusion of 
dates will arise from my coupling the observations of 1838 with the 
records of 1851. It is really difficult to do otherwise, for a suc- 
cession of observations were being carried on during the whole of 
the intervening period, although no contemporary record appears 
to have been made. 

No one who has not witnessed, I may say who has not gloated 
over, the procreative and educational proceedings of the stickle- 
backs, can form any conception of their absorbing interest: no one 
who has not seen the “redbreast” in all his glory and pride of 
place, can possibly picture to himself the exceeding beauty of this 
little fish: it only endures while the cares of paternity are upon 
him: then, and then only, I might address to him the lines of Lord 
Byron’s dedication of Childe Harold to lanthe:— 

* Shall I vainly seek 
To paint those charms which varied as they beamed ? 


To such as see thee not my words were weak, 
To those who gaze on thee what language could they speak? 


* * * ‘ 
Oh, let that eye which, wild as the gazelle’s, 
Now brightly bold, now beautifully shy, 
Wins as it wanders, dazzles where it dwells.” 

It may be a strange conceit to transfer this picture to a fish, and 
to a male rather than a female, but it is appropriate; the female is 
a nonentity, a being without attraction; a provision for the con- 
tinuance of her kind, and nothing more; she fulfils her destination 
without love, without sentiment, without sensation, a perfect 
apathet: but with the male it is not so; his eye is more resplendent 
than the throat of a humming bird, and like that beautiful object 
varies with every change of position; it is now a burning sapphire, 
now a living emerald; his breast and belly are brilliant crimson 
thrown up by contrast with the delicate translucent green of his 
back; his entire body seems: diaphanous, his eye alone retaining 
its solidity; the rest is glowing, aye, melting, with internal in- 
candescence. Strange, but sad, this male Ianthe is possessed by a 


3672 ‘LH GOOLOGIST—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


demon! Can he be jealous of his inornate mate? jealous of the 
advent of other Ianthes? Yes, but he is only jealous of their 
meddling with his nursery: the loves of the fishes are wonderful, 
and man’s sagacity cannot understand them. 

But I am putting the cart before the horse: 1 have prepared a 
receptacle for this Ianthe, a lozenge-glass eight inches in diameter 
and twelve inches in height; two inches of loam cover the bottom, 
and perhaps an inch of very clean and very fine gravel covers the 
loam; a plant of Valisneria spiralis is rooted in the loam, and sends 
up its sword-like leaves and its corkscrew-like petioles to the sur- 
face of the water, each producing a single flower destined to float 
in company with innumerous green circular disks of duck-weed, 
and a dozen leaves of frog’s-bit, each doing its best to take firm 
hold of the water with its roots; those of the duck-weed are simple 
threads; those of the frog’s-bit generally tend downwards in an 
oblique direction, and are thickly fringed throughout with lateral 
fibres, making them look like minute bottle-brushes of rather un- 
usual proportions ; imagine small water-beetles treading the water 
in an orderly and business-like manner, and now and then rising 
to the surface like pigmy water-balloons, each with a bubble of air 
annexed to his posterior extremity: he is the manufacturer of his 
own gas: imagine half-a-dozen other water-beetles crawling de- 
liberately, belly upwards, among the duck-weed, and add a few 
smaller living creatures floating, or walking, or darting in the water 
just as fancy or instinct guides them, and you will have a tolerably 
correct notion of the sort of aquarium in general use amongst us 
Bowerbankians, and into the depths of which we gazed with 
boundless and unwearying satisfaction. Next witness the arrival 
of a quadrate pickle-bottle, with a wet string twisted three or four 
times round its neck and once or twice across its wide mouth, this 
transverse portion of string serving as a handle by which to carry 
it: the boy who brings this recommends the contents as being 
“prime stitlers, all cocks.” We take his word, and carefully 
pouring off the superfluous water, empty the living contents of the 
pickle-bottle into our aquarium. 

Success is neither certain nor immediate: my feelings at Deptford, 
where all my manual acquaintance with the aquarium was gained, 
have many times been cut to the quick by finding the sticklebacks 
chevying one another for days and nights round and round the 
lozenge-glass, until they died apparently from sheer exhaustion ; 


THE ZooLoGist— SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3673 


at first the amount of vital energy was excessive, far too great, but 
it was the old story, the sword wore out the scabbard; more 
frequently complete success was the result. We will suppose a 
dozen of these little fishes turned into the upright aquarium I have 
described; an hour will scarcely elapse before one of the fiery 
redbreasts asserts himself master, selects a part of the establishment 
“for building purposes” and drives off all intruders: if a second 
redbreast should call his supremacy in question and contest the 
point, he must be removed at the risk of disarranging the establish- 
ment, but this disarrangement is of less importance than it appears: 
after stirring up the contents of the glass in a most violent manner 
‘in your determination to eject an objectionable tenant of any kind, 
they will settle down in half an hour and arrange themselves as 
prettily and as naturally as before you converted their dwelling- 
place into a miniature Maelstrom. Leaving one redbreast master 
of the situation, he immediately commences building operations, 
but at first these operations do not seem to be conducted on any 
definite plan; and you begin to think the work is aimless and 
objectless: half a dozen nests will be begun and deserted; the 
structure is then pulled to pieces and the materials are carried 
elsewhere: what are these materials? little gravel-stones, roots of 
water-plants, hair-like Conferve spontaneously generated out of 
nothing, decaying leaves of Valisneria, and all manner of frag- 
ments, which we should characterize as rubbish: by-and-bye an 
event occurs, unseen and unnoticed, which concentrates all the 
attentions of the redbreast to one spot: this event is the deposition 
of spawn by a gravid female; I could never witness the operation, 
but have no doubt whatever that this event is the governing cause 
of future proceedings: a foundation, a circular wall or rim, is then 
constructed around the precious deposit, and this is increased, and 
improved, and consolidated, in the most wonderful manner, the 
builder being incessant in his labours; sometimes he will bite off 
a root of the duck-weed or frog’s-bit, and will set it floating in the 
water; he will then contemplate this fragment, remaining stationary 
at a little distance, and will hover like a kestrel over a mouse, sup- 
ported by the incessant fan-like motion of his pectoral fins: should 
the fragment bear this rigid inspection he proceeds to utilize it; 
sometimes, however, the fragment does not meet with his entire 
approval, and then it is at once abandoned. Mr. Kinahan has 
observed that after a fragment has been thus abandoned by one 


3674 THE ZooLoGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


fish no other will use it; they take hold of it, examine its capa- 
bilities, and invariably reject it; thus proving that these little 
creatures have some instinctive knowledge of its adaptability or 
otherwise to the purpose required; the occupations of searching, 
finding, testing, examining, selecting and rejecting materials seems 
incessant; sometimes, however, it will be interrupted by the ap- 
pearance of an intruder, who is immediately made an object of 
attack, seized, bitten, and compelled to retreat: the victor will chase 
him round the glass for a few seconds, and then return and survey 
his building; he is ever suspicious that it may have suffered 
injury during ever so short an absence, and will hang in water, 
like a Syrphus in air, with his head pointed towards his nest, until 
he is assured that his nursery is intact: this Syrphus-like suspen- 
sion is well worth studying; the little fellow, although perfectly 
still at intervals, will often, with a kind of start, change his position, 
and take up a new one on the other side of the glass, but still with 
his nose pointing towards the object of attraction, “true as the 
needle to the pole,” and there he will hang hovering, and winnowing 
the water with his fins, just as he had hung hovering before. After 
awhile, assured that his building is intact, he will resume his 
architectural labours. How often have I seen him, like a tailor- 
bird, carry some little plant-fibre, or perhaps a fragment of thread 
which I had dropped into the water for his especial use and benefit, 
and watched him pass the end through and through the walls of 
the nest, until it was adjusted to his mind; how often have I seen 
him stop when his body was half-way through the nest, his head 
projecting on one side, and his tail on the other; how often have 
I wondered by what seemingly miraculous power he passed through 
the nest he had taken so much pains to construct— yes! pass 
through it in any direction, as though, like Pepper’s ghost, the nest 
itself were an “airy nothing” which offered no resistance to his 
compact body, thews and sinews, muscles and spines. From time 
to time would he come forth, his eyes flashing fire, his breast 
glowing with rosy red, and if no disturbing element was near would 
contemplate his work with unmixed satisfaction; then he would 
go to work again. 

The question when or how the eggs are deposited, whether before 
or after the building of the nest, is by no means finally ascertained. 
Something like a love chase occasionally takes place, proving that 
fishes are not altogether insensible to the tender passion, but such 


THE ZooLoGIsT—SEPTEMEER, 18738. 3675 


scenes are rarely witnessed, and only revealed to those who have 
an unlimited allotment of time and patience: I have seen a male 
seize a female by the small of the back, by which I mean that 
slender part of the body which succeeds the last dorsal fin and 
precedes the caudal fin; and sometimes also by the sharp spike or 
spine which we call the ventral fin, and having thus seized her he 
seems disposed to say by force, not by words, “Come into my 
bower;” but these scenes are not understood: as I have already 
said, we know next to nothing of the loves of the fishes, and only 
imagine them by the results. As to the period required by the 
eggs in coming to maturity, we have evidence of a rather partial 
kind: “ Mr. Gratton had a fine brood hatched in fourteen or fifteen 
days, the nest having been formed immediately after the intro- 
duction of the fish.” This is the only record I possess. 

These little fishes are wondrous creatures when they first assume 
the parental figure; they look like spicules of silver or bright motes 
in sunshine, as they float in your aquarium: no one seeing them 
for the first time, and without the aid of a magnifier, could imagine 
them to be fishes: then as to number; we are accustomed to count 
the spawn of fishes by thousands and hundreds of thousands, but 
I think this is not the case with sticklebacks; I have taken some 
pains to ascertain, and have concluded that the average number of 
a brood does not exceed twenty: I have never counted more than 
fourteen. But I admit they may be more numerous: I have caught 
hundreds of these atomic fishes in my water-net, but then I know 
not how many broods composed the school. 

One word more: in 1843 Mr. Frederick Holme, then at Oxford, 
published (Zool. 200) his account of keeping water-beetles in 
confinement: no description of the prison-house is attempted, but 
Mr. Holme speaks of it as a “glass”: he says of his prisoners, 
“They speedily become familiarized to a certain extent, and will 
follow the finger round the glass in expectation of food.” He 
continued his observations during summer and winter for a long 
period. “When I kept a pair together,” thus he continues, 
“TI always found the male died first, and that his dead body had 
generally been mutilated and pretty nearly devoured by his widow. 
The females were at all times much more voracious than the males. 
I generally fed them with raw beef, of which they sucked the juices, 
but in summer I sometimes supplied them with small aquatic 
insects, which they seized with their fore feet and tore to pieces 


3676 Tue ZooLocistT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


with their mandibles, rejecting the elytra and other hard parts.” It 
will be seen from several expressions in this brief account that 
Mr. Holme’s observations were continuous, extending over summers 
and winters; we also learn with pleasure that the widows of 
water-beetles are not utterly inconsolable. I wish here to invite 
attention to the fact that up to this period (1844), although the 
aquarium was thoroughly utilized, more so indeed than ever since, 


its name had not been mentioned. 


EpwaRpD NEWMAN. 
(To be continued.) 


Harvesting Ants and Trapdoor Spiders: Notes and Observations on 
their Habits and Dwellings. By J. TRAHERNE MOGGRIDGE, 
F.L.S. London: L. Reeve & Co. 1873. 


Passages from the Ancients affirming the Harvesting Habits 
of Ants:— 


“Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: which 
having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and 
gathereth her food in the harvest."—Proverbs of Solomon, vi. 6—8, 


«The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in 
summer.” —Jd., xxx. 25. 


“The provident one, the ant, harvests the grain."—-Hesiod, Works and 
Days, 776. 


“The ant is neither ignorant nor careless of the future."—Horace, 
Satires I. 33. 


“ The beach is covered o’er 
With Trojan bands that blacken all the shore ; 
On every side are seen, descending down, 
Thick swarms of soldiers, loaded from the town. 
Thus in battalion, march embodied ants, 
Fearful of winter and of future wants, 
T’ invade the corn and to their cells convey 
The plundered forage of their yellow prey. 
The sable troops along the narrow tracks, 
Scarce bear the weighty burthen on their backs ; 
Some set their shoulders to the ponderous grain ; 
Some guard the spoil; some lash the lagging train ; 
All ply their several tasks, and equal toil sustain.” 

Virgil, Zineid, iv. 400. 


— 


THE ZOOLOGIST—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3677 


“ The Ants and the Grasshopper.—Once in winter time the ants were 
sunning their seed-store, which had been soaked by the rains. A grass- 
hopper saw them at this, and being famished and ready to perish, he ran 
up-and begged for a bit. To the ants’ question, ‘What were you doing in 
summer, idling, that you have to beg now?’ he answered, ‘I lived for 
pleasure then, piping and pleasing travellers.’ ‘O, ho!’ they said, with a 
grin, ‘dance in winter if you pipe in summer. Store seed for the future 
when you can, and never mind playing and pleasing travellers.’ "—Asopice 
Fabule@, Tauchnitz Hdition, p. 92. 


“Tn summer time, after harvest, while the ears are being threshed, the 
ants pry about in troops around the threshing floors, leaving their homes, 
and going singly, in pairs, or sometimes three together. They then select 
grains of wheat or barley, and go straight home by the way they came. , 
Some go to collect, others to carry away the burthen, and they avoid the 
way for one another with great politeness and consideration, especially the 
unburthened for the weight carriers. Now these excellent creatures, when 
they have returned home and stored their galleries with wheat and barley, 
bore through each grain of seed in the middle; that which falls off in the 
process becomes a meal for the ants, and the remainder is unfertile. This 
these worthy housekeepers do lest when the rains come the seeds should 
sprout, as they would do if left entire, and thus the ants should come to 
want. So we see the ants have good share in the gifts of Nature, in this 
respect as well as others.’—Hlian de Natura Animalium, ii. 25. 


“The ants not only store the seed, but bite out that beginning or point 
from which the plumule springs in a grain of wheat.”—Aldrovandus, De 
Insectis, lib. v., de Formicis. _ 


This last-named author also mentions a certain Simon Mariolus, 
who, “in his most pleasant and learned work, introduces a 
philosopher as taking his walks abroad and examining an ants’ 
nest with its seed-store.” In a word, the foregoing passages so 
exactly describe what Mr. Moggridge has recently observed that 
they have the appearance of having been written to confirm his 
statements, rather than of having existed centuries before our author 
entered on his praiseworthy task. 1 now proceed to quote 

Passages from the Moderns denying the Harvesting Habits 
of Ants :— 


“When observers of Nature began to examine the manners and economy © 
of these creatures more narrowly, it was found, at least with respect to the 
European species of ants, that no such hoards of grain were made by them ; 
and, in fact, that they had no magazines in their nests in which provisions 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 2x 


8678 THE ZooLoGIst—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


of any kind were stored up."—Kirby and Spence, Introduction to Ento- 
mology, 7th Hd., p. 313. 


“Do not let us attribute to the ant a useless prescience. Torpid during 
the winter, why should she make provision for that season ?”—Latreille, 
Natural History of Ants. 


“T am naturally led to speak-in this place of the manner in which ants 
subsist in the winter, seeing we have relinquished the opinion that they 
amass wheat and other grain, and that they gnaw the corn to prevent it from 
germinating." —Hiiber on Ants. 


“The curious idea, which seems to have commenced in very remote 
times, and to have been carried down by tradition, and which was assisted 
by the results of careless observations, concerning the habit of the ants in 
collecting and storing up provisions, as it were, under the influence of a 
wise foresight, is evidently incorrect.”—Emile Blanchard, Transformations 
of Insects, p. 196. 


A great many other authorities might be cited, but none can be 
more decided or more to the purpose than that of William Gould, 
for he not only shows, or believes that he shows, that Solomon was 
mistaken, but explains how the mistake arose: he traces the error 
to its source, and states that the cocoons which ants carry again 
into their nests, after having been sunned on a fine day, were 
supposed by Solomon and his successors to have been grains of 
wheat, poor simpletons! and “his accurate observations,” say 
Kirby and Spence, “ were among the first which led to a correction 
of the error,” and so Solomon was “ put down” as we “ put down” 
a naughty Sunday-school child who has been telling a story. This 
is the way with those who are wise in their own conceit. No one 
ever announced a discovery at a scientific meeting but it was “ put 
down” in this manner, and I have now for twenty years abstained 
from attending all such meetings, perhaps first, because I don’t like 
to be snubbed, contradicted and ridiculed, and secondly, because 
I don’t like to see others treated in this way. Nothing has tended 
so much to depress and retard the progress of Entomology in this 
country as the practice of snubbing beginners, and hence we are 
behind the whole world in our knowledge of that Science. Germans, 
French, Italians, Russians, Americans, have passed us in the race 
for knowledge, because those who ought to be leading us on are 
perpetually holding us back. The explanation of the discrepancy 


— 


THE ZooLoGist—SEPTEMBER, 1878. 3679 


between the ancients and their critics, between skilled observers 
and pragmatic teachers, is very simple; it is this: the observer, 
convinced of the accuracy of his observations and conscious of the 
truth of his assertions, cared nothing about supporting by details 
facts that were patent to all, and which he could not dream would 
be called in question; and the moderns, led by the ignis fatuus 
scepticism, believed only what they saw or received from some 
authority equally pragmatic with themselves. 

Mr. Moggridge gives all the passages I have cited pro and con, 
and gives them with a candour and clearness which naturalists must 
admire, even though they reject his conclusions, and it is very 
possible some such may be found, for scepticism is more confident 
than faith; disputation more congenial than concurrence. He 
determined to ascertain the truth, and to decide for himself whether 
the historians or the sceptics were in the right. On previous 
occasions he had obtained what he considered conclusive evidence 
of the harvesting instinct of ants, but at that time was not aware 
that the fact had been called in question; and that our more able 
observers, such as those I have cited, and “at the present day 
Mr. Frederick Smith, had by close scrutiny of the habits of these 
creatures proved that, wherever personal investigation had enabled 
them to put the matter to proof, no trace of harvesting was found.” 
It is the more remarkable that this absence of evidence in any 
particular district or county should have led to the rejection of 
conclusions to be drawn from a mass of facts observed, even in 
our own time, by Colonel Sykes, Dr. Jerdon, Mr. Charles a 
Dr. Buchanan White, and others. 

Mr. Moggridge was further incited to the investigation by certain 
remarks made by Mr. Bentham, in his presidential address to the 
Linnean Society in 1869, wherein that gentleman called attention 
to the want of reliable information as to the existence of such 
accumulations of seeds as are popularly supposed to account for 
the sudden appearance on railway cuttings, gravel from deep pits, 
and the like, of crops of weeds hitherto unknown in a district: he 
suggested that it might repay the trouble if some accurate observers 
were to take this matter in hand and examine samples of un- 
disturbed soil taken from various depths. It seems to have 
instantly occurred to Mr. Moggridge that a harvesting habit he 
had witnessed in the ants at Mentone, might afford an explanation ; 
he determined to pursue the enquiry, aud this book is the result. 


3680 THE ZooLoGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


He again visited the scene of his observation in the South of 
France, and thus describes what he saw :— 


“T had scarcely set foot on the garrigue, as this kind of wild ground is 
called to distinguish it from meadows or terraced land, before I was met 
by a long train of ants, forming two continuous lines, hurrying in opposite 
directions, the one with their mouths full, the other with their mouths 
empty. It was easy enough to find the nest to which these ants belonged, 
for it was only necessary to follow the line of ants burdened with seeds, 
grain, or entire capsules, which had their heads turned homewards; and 
there sure enough, at about ten yards distance, and partly shaded by some 
small cistus bushes, lay the nest, to and from the entrances of which the 
incessant stream of in-comers and out-goers kept flowing.”—P. 16. 


In this passage it will be observed that no mention is made of 
the storehouse and store; it shows that the ants were travelling 
loaded in one direction and returning unladen in the other; but 
what became of the loads of which they had disposed does not 
appear: the inference to be drawn is that these loads were 
deposited in the interior of the nest, but Mr. Moggridge deter- 
mined to leave nothing to inference, nothing to be surmised ; that 
had been the great error which it was his mission to dissipate. He 
noticed, as had previously been done by Colonel Sykes, on the 
outside of thé nests, large heaps of rubbish, consisting of a variety 
of objects, little lumps of earth, gravel and plant-refuse: he calls 
them “kitchen middens”; the greater proportion of these collections 
consisted of parts of grasses and seeds which had evidently been 
rejected as useless: in many instances the albuminous portion of 
the seeds had been abstracted, and the husks brought out and 
thrown on the “ midden.” It became of course an object of great 
importance to know what had become of the selected portion of 
the produce of the harvest-field. He determined that this object 
should be attained by selecting a nest where the coarse and hard 
rock, lying near the surface and barring their downward course, 
compelled the ants to extend their nests in a horizontal direction. 
Here he commenced his excavations, and with a most satisfactory 
result. 


“ Almost at the first stroke, I came upon large masses of seeds carefully 
stored in chambers prepared in the soil. Some of these lay in long sub- 
cylindrical galleries, and, owing to the presence in large quantities of the 
black, shining seeds of amaranth (Amaranthus Blitum), looked like trains of 
gunpowder laid ready for blasting.”"—P. 22. 


THE ZooLoGIsT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3681 


This was exactly what was required; the excavator spread out 
his treasure, and proceeded to ascertain, with the most scrupulous 
attention, what were its component parts. We may readily imagine 
the interest with which the inspection was made. 


* On carefully examining a quantity of the seed, grain and minute dry 
fruits taken from the granaries, I found that they had been gathered from 
the following plants:—fumitory (/umaria capreolata), amaranth (Ama- 
ranthus Blitum), Setaria, and three other species of grasses, moneywort, 
Alyssum maritimum, Veronica, and from four unrecognised species, one of 
which was a pea-flower. There were therefore in this nest seeds which had 
been taken from more than twelve distinct species of plants, belonging to at 
least seven separate families. The granaries lay from an inch and a half to 
six inches below the surface, and were all horizontal. They were of various 
sizes and shapes, the average granary being about as large as a gentleman's 
gold watch. I was greatly surprised to find that the seeds, though quite 
moist, showed no trace of germination, and this was the more astonishing as 
the self-sown seeds of the same kind as those detected here, such as fumitory, 


for instance, were then coming up abundantly in gardens and on terraces.’— 
P, 23. 


Mr. Moggridge confesses his difficulty in explaining the sound 
condition of many of the seeds found under circumstances so 
favourable to germination. In the examination of many thousands 
of grains and seeds taken at different times from the stores of 
twenty-one distinct nests, he only found traces of germination in 
twenty-seven, and of this number eleven had been mutilated in 
such a way as to arrest their growth. The sprouting seeds were 
found from November to February, while in the nests opened in 
October, March, April and May, no indications of germination 
were found, although the temperature and moisture of these months 
seemed highly favourable to germination. It is extremely rare to 
find other than sound and intact seeds in these granaries, and 
Mr. Moggridge consequently arrives at the somewhat vague and 
unsatisfactory conclusion that “the ants exercise some mysterious 
power over the seeds which checks the tendency to germinate.” 
The fact is the more puzzling since it was clearly proved that the 
vitality of the seed was not affected by this storing. On two 
occasions he tried the experiment. In the first instance the seeds 
were taken from a granary about four inches below the surface of 
the ground on the 10th of November, and sowed two days after- 
wards, and several of them had come up by the Ist of December. 


8682 Tue ZooLocisT—SEPTEMBER, 1878. 


In the second instance seeds found an inch and a half below the 
surface of the ground on the 29th of December, 1871, and sowed in 
England on the 18th of June, 1872, came up in large numbers ten 
days afterwards. Some seeds had the radicle gnawed off at its 
base, and these were sometimes brought into the sunshine, and after 
being thoroughly dried or malted, their starch being converted into 
sugar, they were again taken into the recesses of the nest. Seeds 
thus malted are devoured by the ants with great avidity. 


“Tt is, however, certain that, though a few individual seeds may sprout 
in the nests from time to time, either with or without the concurrence of 
the ants, the great mass remains for many weeks, or even months, quite 
intact, neither decaying nor germinating; whereas everyone knows that, if 
a quantity of seeds are placed in the soil in a moist and warm place, all the 
seeds that are of one kind will almost simultaneously begin to grow after 
the lapse of a fixed interval.” —P. 26. 


I have found in so many works accounts of “the battles of the 
ants” that the part of Mr. Moggridge’s work which treats of these 
wars contains little that is positively new to me, or will be so to 
many of my readers; yet the narrative which I extract below has 
another interest—it shows that the harvesting economy of ants, the 
collecting and storing grain, the disposition to plunder the posses- 
sions of others or to defend their own, are the inciting causes of all 
their wars; our ant-historians, Hiiber, Gould, Latreille, Kirby, 
and others, who constitute themselves authorities on the events of 
the wars, have failed to see the casus belli, the real object of the 
belligerents: had it been otherwise they could not have doubted 
that the ancients were correct in all their assertions, still less would 
they have called in question the wisdom of Solomon. Like the ento- 
mologists I have named, Mr. Moggridge was an eye-witness of these 
combats, and also of the marauding spirit and doings in which the 
wars originated. I should call them campaigns rather than battles, 
seeing that the ants sometimes would carry on the war day after 
day, week after week; a campaign, the events of which were duly 
noted, lasted forty-six days, namely, from the 18th of January to 
the 4th of March, both inclusive. He visited the seat of war twice 
a week for six weeks, and, constituting himself “ our special cor- 
respondent,” gives the following description :— 


« An active train of ants, nearly resembling an ordinary harvesting train, 
led from the entrance of one nest to that of another lower down the slope 


THE ZooLoGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3683 


and fifteen feet distant; but, on closer examination, it appeared that, though 
the great mass of seed-bearers were travelling towards the upper nest, some 
few were going in the opposite direction and making for the lower. Besides 
this, at intervals, combats might be seen taking place, one ant seizing the 
free end of a seed carried by another, and endeavouring to wrench it away, 
and then frequently, as neither would let go, the stronger ant would drag 
seed and opponent towards its nest. At times other ants would interfere 
and seize one of the combatants and endeavour to drag it away, this often 
resulting in terrible mutilations, and especially in the loss of the abdomen, 
which would be torn off, while the jaws of the victim retained their in- 
domitable bull-dog grip upon the seed. Then the victor might be seen 
dragging away his prize, while his adversary, though now little more than a 
head and legs, offered a vigorous, though of course ineffectual, resistance. 
-I frequently observed that the ants during these conflicts would endeavour 
to seize one another’s antenne, and that if this were effected the ant thus 
assaulted would instantly release his hold, whether of seed or adversary, 
and appear utterly discomfited. No doubt the antenne are their most 
sensitive parts, and injuries inflicted on these organs cause the greatest pain. 
It was not until I had watched this scene for some days that I apprehended 
its true meaning, and discovered that the ants of the upper nest were 
robbing the granaries of the lower, while the latter tried to recover the 
stolen seeds both by fighting for them and by stealing seeds in their turn 
from the nest of their oppressors. The thieves, however, were evidently 
the stronger, and streams of ants laden with seeds arrived safely at the 
upper nest, while close observation showed that very few seeds were 
successfully carried on the reverse journey into the lower and plundered 
nest.”—P. 38. 


Mr. Moggridge contrived to imprison a colony of Atta barbara, 
the species on which he made most of his researches, but found 
great difficulty in gaining much knowledge of their subterranean 
life: he concludes that on one occasion he saw them actually eating, 
but although there is nothing very unreasonable, or improbable, or 
unnatural in an ant condescending to take food, it is a fact not 
clearly established previously: the theory generally received is that 
the depredations of pismires on our sugar-basin, our plums, peaches 
and pears, are rather for the benefit of their progeny than of them- 
selves; however, we will hear what can be said on the subject, 
and J am sure every reader will give the writer credit for the utmost 
painstaking as well as scrupulous exactness. 


“The ants were in the habit of coming out in numbers of an evening 
to enjoy the warmth and light of my lamp, and it was on one of these 


8684 TuE ZooLoGist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


occasions that I first observed them in the act of eating. I perceived that, 
in the midst of the black mass of ants gathered together on the side of the 
glass jar, one was holding up a white roundish mass about as big as a large 
pin’s head. Having turned a stream of bright light, passed through a con- 
denser, on this group, and being permitted by the ants to make a free use 
of my pocket lens, I was able to see the details with great precision. The 
white mass appeared to be the flowery portion of a grain of millet, and 
I could see that two or three ants at a time would scrape off minute 
particles with their toothed mandibles, and take them into their mouth, 
repeating the operation many times, before giving place to other ants, and 
often returning again. It certainly appeared to be a bond fide meal that 
they were making, and not merely an act performed for the benefit of the 
larve, as when they detach crumbs from a piece of bread and carry them 
below into their nest.”—P. 46. 


The trapdoor spiders must inevitably wait another month; they 
are crowded out of this, but I assure them they shall not be 


forgotten. 


EDWARD NEWMAN. 
(To be continued.) 


Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. 
By Joun CorpeEaux, Esq. 
(Continued from §. 8, 8558.) 


May, JUNE AND JULY, 1873. 


Dotterel (Endromias morinellus).—A friend informs me that he 
saw a trip of about twenty-five on the wolds on Sunday, April 27th. 
This is about the time for their appearance during the spring 
migration. 

Stock Dove.—Far more common than formerly; several now 
come regularly every day into the marshes, from the woods and 
plantations on the wolds, to feed in recently-sown fields of peas 
and tares. ’ 

Turtle Dove.-—The turtle dove has nested for the last two or 
three years in a small and very sheltered wood in this neighbour- 
hood, where they will be strictly preserved. This is the first 
instance I have met with of their nesting in North Lincolnshire. 

Nightingale—Several heard during the month. 

Swift.—Very late in arriving at their nesting-haunts; first ob- 
served inland on the 16th; on the 19th at Great Cotes; wind N., 
wild and strong; temperature very low for season. 


THE ZooLocist—S£PTEMBER, 1873, 38685 


Garden Warbler and Sedge Warbler.—May 19th. First heard. 

Spotted Flycatcher.—May 23rd. First seen. 

Hooded Crow.—May 16th. A single bird in one of the planta- 
tions this morning. I have reason for thinking this may have 
remained behind to nest. This afternoon (August 5th) I found and 
shot at a young hooded crow in one of my fields; it was not fully 
fledged, and weak on the wing: although badly hit it managed to 
get off, by falling beyond a high fence into a crop of wheat, where 
I afterwards spent much time in an unsuccessful search. The same 
day, in the morning, when riding round the farm, I saw either this 
or another perched on a gate-post and examined it through my 
binocular. 

Godwit, §c.—May 24th. Bartailed godwit, knot, gray plover and 
dunlin on foreshore, in summer plumage; whimbrel on grass-lands 
in considerable flocks; gray plover numerous on flats. None seen 
after this date. 

Cuckoo.—More than usually numerous, 

Hobby.—May 24th. I saw one this morning in chase of a small 
bird. 

White or Barn Owl.—A pair have nested this season, for the 
first time, in an old elm adjoining my yard. The eggs, three in 
number, were laid on rotten wood and the castings of the bird, in 
a hole made by the breaking away of a rotten bough. On the 5th 
of May I found two nestlings in the down and an addled egg. The 
smell from the place was most offensive. The old owl came regu- 
larly each evening about 8.40 to feed the young, an operation 
which was conducted with much snoring and hissing on the part 
of the latter: their food was mainly the common mouse and short- 
tailed field vole, occasionally varied, I believe, with a young rook 
taken from the nest. Until the second brood were hatched only 
one of the parent birds appeared to take any part in carrying food: 
I watched them closely nearly every evening, and never saw more 
than one thus employed: after this, however, both old birds came 
and took part in the feeding. In the same tree were two starlings’ 
and five rooks’ nests; also many of the latter on the neighbouring 
trees. On two or three occasions I have seen the owl glide through 
the tree-tops over the nesting rooks, a proceeding which has been 
the signal for a regular onslaught and chase round the premises 
and garden, the pursued finally taking refuge in a large old yew, 
where he was secure from attack. Once the rook-driven ow] passed 

SECOND SERIES—YOL, VIII. 2¥ 


3686 THE ZooLocist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


so close to my face that I distinctly saw either a young rook or 
some other bird in his claw. A day or two later I found the 
remains of a nestling rook under the owl’s quarters, and in such a 
position that it could not have fallen from any nest; later J took 
part of the skull and beak of a nestling from the castings, wrapped 
up in a lot of mice fur and bones. The first pair of owlets did not 
leave the nest, not even to perch in the tree, till fully fledged, on 
the Ist of June: at this time there was a second pair hatched off 
in the hole. I conclude the first pair must have materially 
assisted in incubation, as I can scarcely think their den could have 
held three full-sized owls. The first pair certainly did not leave 
the nest till long after the second were hatched;. they used to 
come out regularly about 8.30 each evening, beating round the 
paddocks and garden, much as the old birds did, and being fed by 
them on the neighbouring trees. The second pair got away about 
the end of June: since this time I have not seen them. 

Brownheaded Gull.—June 30th. Saw the first young of the year 
on the foreshore. 

Heron.—July Ist. Several young herons, birds of the year, in 
the marshes. 

Green Sandpiper.—July 8th. There was a single green sandpiper 
on the beck this afternoon. 

Whimbrel.—July 12th. We have had whimbrel on the coast 
all through the summer. This evening, at 8.80, two flocks passed 
over the yard towards the Humber flats. 

Pochard (Fuligula ferina).—July 12th. There was a fine old 
male, in full plumage, swimming close to the embankment this 
morning. 

Redshank.—July 21st. I hear the wild “chirrup” of the red- 
shank on the flats. With my binocular, I was watching one this 
morning feeding on the muds under the embankment. Whata 
pretty bird it looks in its delicately shaded and pencilled dress 
and bright coral legs, as it daintily steps over the semi-fluid ooze, 
scarce leaving the imprint of its feet behind,—now wading through 
some shallow pool, or standing awhile and jerking its head and 
body, much after the fashion of the common sandpiper,—ever and 
anon, too, picking out some small worm-like object from the mud. 
I subsequently found this to be a small annelid about an inch in 
length: the flats in places were pitted with their minute holes, 
which I at first mistook for the borings of some wader, but looking 


THE ZooLocist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3687 


more closely saw what looked like minute flashes of light shooting 
over the ooze, this appearance being due to hundreds of small 
reddish worms, which were perpetually emerging and as rapidly 
retracting, each from its own little boring; their motions were so 
rapid that it was difficult to follow them. The redshank was 
gathering these, not from the surface (for they were much too quick 
even for the nimble wader), but by probing the mud. On with- 
drawing the worm, which was held crosswise, I saw the bird 
frequently wash it before swallowing, which was done by shaking 
it under water in the shallow pools left by the receding tide. The 
heat this day was tremendous, the thermometer standing at some. 
degrees above 80 in the shade; the mud-flats steamed and reeked 
under the noonday glare, the hot air over them quivering like the 
blast from an iron-furnace. 

Guillemot, &c.—On the 10th of July there were many guillemots 
and razorbilled auks, with their young,—many of these still unable 
to fly,—along the coast of Holderness and Lincolnshire. 

Turnstone.—August 2nd. I saw small family parties of young 
turnstones and a few old birds on the Spurn coast this morning. 
They are most active in their motions when looking for food, 
running rapidly to and fro amongst the masses and ridges of tide- 
driven wrack and sea-weed, which they keep perpetually probing 
and turning over in their search for insects and sand-hoppers. 


JOHN CORDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire. 


Rare Birds near Barnsley.—The closing months of last year and the 
opening ones of the present have given opportunities to observe many birds 
rare to South Yorkshire, of which Barnsley is the centre. This has been 
especially the case with swimming and wading birds, whose appearance in 
such unusual numbers was occasioned by the changeful season. The chief 
of these have been the little bittern, at Hiendley Reservoir, on the 26th of 
August, 1872; the blackheaded gull, at the same place, on the 17th of 
September; the reeve, at Barugh, near the Barnsley Canal, on the 30th of 
August; four tufted ducks, at Dunford Reservoir, on the 30th of October ; 
the common scoter (not observed in this part for many years), at Dunford 
Reservoir, on the 18th of November; a pair of little grebes, or dabchicks, 
at Cannon Hall Pool, also a pair of longeared owls near West Melton, and 
a shorteared owl at Mapplewell, on the same date ; the great crested grebe, 
at Bolton-on-Dearne, on the 30th of November; the greater and lesser 


3688 THE ZooLoGist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


spotted woodpecker, in Dearne Woods, on the 26th of December ; the velvet 
scoter (or velvet duck), the pochard, scaup and tufted ducks, on Hiendley 
Reservoir, on the 25th of January, 1873; the goldeneye, golden plover and 
lesser grebe, with hundreds of coots, on the Ist of February, on this fine 
sheet of water, belonging to the Barnsley and Wakefield Canal Company ; 
the waxwing (or Bohemian chatterer), at Cannon Hall Park, on the 12th of 
February ; a pair of great crested grebes, at Worsbro’ Reservoir, on the 19th 
of April. I regret that the last-named and many of the above were shot.— 
T. Lister ; Barnsley. 

Orangelegged Hobby, &e.—As it is always a matter of interest to 
ornithologists to know where rare species of British birds are located, 
perhaps you will allow me to record that the specimen of the orangelegged 
hobby (female), mentioned in your last as having been killed at Alresford, 
near this town, and all the four specimens of pintailed sand grouse 
(Syrrhaptes paradoxus) killed in Essex in 1863,—one male and two females 
at Mersea (see Prof. Newton’s paper, ‘ Ibis,’ 1864), and one female killed 
at Peldon, near here, but not mentioned in that account,—have been added 
to my private collection.—C. R. Bree ; Colchester, July 12, 1873. 

Montagu’s Harrier at Alderney.— One of these birds was shot at 
Alderney last week: it is an adult male, in full plumage. I saw it at 
Mr. Couch’s, who has preserved and stuffed it—C. B. Carey; Candie, 
Guernsey, July, 1873. 

Missel Thrushes Nesting in Rocks.—These birds are very rare visitants 
to our neighbourhood excepting in hard winters, and then they are not 
numerous. Last year, however, a pair built a nest on a small ledge or 
niche on a perfectly bare rock at the entrance of St. David's Harbour; but 
what became of the brood Iam unable to say, as I never saw one of the 
young ones on the wing. This season a pair (probably the same) built their 
nest over the old one, and although within a few yards or even feet of 
where vessels trading to the harbour continually passed, yet they success- 
fully “ brought down” a brood of fine young ones, which I have repeatedly 
seen on the wing in. the neighbourhood of the nest. I may as well add 
that this district is almost entirely destitute of trees—so much so that it is 
an old adage ‘that whoever‘cuts a horse-rod in St. David's parish is liable 
toa fine of five pounds,” and that for a very good reason, for there are 
none to be had.—Samuel Williams; St. David’s, July 25, 1873.—From 
the ‘ Field’ of August 2nd. 

Yellowhammer’s Nest in a Fruit Tree against a Wall.— On the 25th 
of July I found, in a garden in Fifeshire, two yellowhammers’ nests built 
in fruit trees against the garden wall, the one five feet and the other seven 
feet from the ground. The latter was placed on the remains of a black- 
bird’s nest which had been destroyed.— Walter T. Ogilvy ; British Museum, 
August 11, 1873. 


THE ZooLOGIsST—SEPTEMBER, 1878. 3689 


[I have this spring had a pair of yellowhammers build in ivy on a wall 
inside my bird cage.—E. Newman.] 

A new Bird of Paradise, Drepanornis Albertisii—In the ‘ Sidney Mail’ 
Signor Luigi Maria D’Albertis gives the following account of a new bird of 
paradise discovered by himself in New Guinea:—‘‘ Among other birds 
obtained at Atam, [ may mention a new species of bird-of-paradise, 
which perhaps may even prove to be a new genus. I secured only a male 
and female, which have been transmitted to the Zoological Society of 
London by the last April mail steamer, and they are unique specimens. 
It is evidently a very rare bird, for many of the natives did not know it, 
but others called it ‘Quama.’ The peculiarity of this bird consists in the 
formation of the bill and the softness of the plumage. At first it does not 
appear to have the beauty usually seen in the birds of this group, but when 
more closely observed, and under a strong light, the plumage is seen to be 
both rich and brilliant. The feathers that arise from the base of the bill 
are of a metallic green and of a reddish copper-colour; the feathers of the 
breast, when laid quite smooth, are of a violet-gray, but when raised form a 
semicircle round the body, reflecting a rich golden colour. Other violet- 
gray feathers arise from the flanks, edged by a rich metallic-violet tint; but 
when the plumage is entirely expanded the bird appears as if it had formed 
two semicircles around itself, and is certainly a very handsome bird. Above 
the tail and wings the feathers are yellowish, underneath they are of a darker 
shade. The head is barely covered with small round feathers, which are 
rather deficient behind the ears; the shoulders are of a tobacco-colour, and 
underneath the throat of a black blending into olive-colour; the feathers of 
the breast are violet-gray, banded by a line of olive, and those of the vent 
white. The bill is black, eyes chestnut, and the feet of a dark leaden 
colour. The food of this bird is not yet known, nothing having been found 
in the stomachs of those I prepared but clear water.” In ‘ Nature’ for 
August 14th, Mr. Sclater gives a more detailed description, and another is 
still to be published in the forthcoming part of the ‘ Proceedings of the 
Zoological Society.’ Mr. Sclater, in the same number of ‘ Nature’ thus 
announces the discovery of a second new species by M. D’Albertis :— 
** Besides this paradise-bird, M. D’Albertis procured from the natives, in the 
vicinity of Orangeri Bay, on the western coast of New Guinea, opposite to 
Salawatty, two imperfect skins of a second apparently new species. This is 
a true Paradisea, nearly allied to the greater and lesser birds-of-paradise 
(P. apoda and P. papuana), but having the long lateral plumes more of an 
orange-red, as in P. rubra. These skins were likewise exhibited at the 
Zoological Society’s meeting on June 17 last, and the species, in accordance 
with M. D’Albertis’ wishes, was proposed to be called Paradisea Raggiana, 
after the Marquis Raggi.” 

Nutcracker in Somersetshire.— It may interest your ornithological 


$690 THE ZooLoGIsT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


readers to learn that, on the 4th instant, a nutcracker (Nucifraga caryo- 
catactes) was observed by myself and others flying over the Kingscliffe 
Woods, about two miles from North Petherton. We had a good view of it 
for upwards of a mile, and repeatedly heard it utter its shrill discordant 
note. There is a record of one having been seen in this county some 
seventy years ago; but so far as I can learn no recent examples have been 
observed here.—T. Cosmo Melvill ; Maunsell House, near Bridqwater.— 
‘ Field,’ August 16. 

Extraordinary Flight of Swifts.—A correspondent writing to me from 
Brighton says—* A strange sight was visible here on June 30. For hours 
there was a continuous flight of swifts from east to west. There must have 
been some thousands of them, and I think I saw more swifts on that after- 
noon than I ever saw before in my life. What could have been the cause 
of this? Surely it was too late in the season for fresh arrivals to this 
country.” —F’. Bond ; 203, Adelaide-road, N.W.—‘ Field,’ July 26. 

Extraordinary Flock of Swifts——Your correspondent F. Bond remarks 
on the enormous number of swifts which passed over Brighton on the 30th 
June last, and it may be interesting to him and other of your readers to 
know that on the following morning about 5.30, when walking up to Hyde 
Park, I saw immense numbers of these birds flying to the westward, at 
about a hundred yards above the ground, passing over the lower end of 
Prince Albert’s-road and the Brompton-road. There must have been from 
fifteen hundred to two thousand of them, and in all my observations of birds 
and their habits I never saw such a congregation of this species. Can any 
one give a reason for such an assemblage, so late for a spring arrival, and so 
early for an autumnal departure ?—‘ Field,’ August 2. 

Stock Dove breeding in Confinement.—My friend Mr. Harrison Weir 
has been successful in breeding the wild stock dove: he purchased two, a 
male and female, at different times and in different places; from the 
beginning they were quiet and semidomestic in their manners, and seemed 
at once reconciled to confinement. They paired in April, and the season of 
courtship presented some rather noticeable features; the male raised his 
wings and tail, the latter being spread so as partially to conceal the former, 
whereas among domestic pigeons, and I suppose the same habit obtains 
with Columbia livia in the wild state, the tail of the male is depressed during 
courtship, and the points of the feathers are scraped along the ground. No 
nest was made, but a single feather was laid on the sawdust provided for 
the eggs, which the female seemed very reluctant to lay; the male kept her 
in the nesting-box three days before this event took place; when she escaped 
from her prison-house now and then to feed, he buffetted her with his wings 
until she returned, and the blows he inflicted were by no means light ones ; 
at length an egg was deposited, and then another; they were rounder and 
smaller than those of the domestic pigeon: after this she sat with exemplary 


THE ZOoLOGIsT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3691 


patience. The young ones were hatched in about sixteen days; when they 
first emerged from the egg they had a little yellow down on their bodies, 
very little indeed, but just enough to say they were not quite naked; the 
legs and back were flesh-coloured, but in three days changed to dark purple, 
and this colour gradually altered, and has now turned to the usual red; the 
beak has become bright yellow, inclined to red. The young birds are now 
able to fly strongly, and the old ones are breeding a second time. This 
species seems to have been imperfectly understood by our publishing 
ornithologists. Bewick makes but three species of Columba; he calls them 
Ginas, Palumbus and Turtur. Montagu also has but these three species 
(see my edition of Montagu, p. 57): thus one species is omitted, and 
Mr. Yarrell attempts to account for the omission in the following words :— 
“Montagu appears to have considered the Rock Dove and Stock Dove but 
as one species, applying the trivial name Cinas to the Rock Dove, which is 
truly described, and giving no description of the Stock Dove. Bewick has 
figured the Rock Dove under the specific name Ginas, and remarks that 
‘the Stock Dove, Rock Pigeon and Wood Pigeon, with some small 
differences, may be included under the same denomination.’” This seems 
scarcely satisfactory. I agree with Yarrell in rejecting Bewick’s view of 
combining the three, but cannot agree with him in saying that “the Rock 
Dove is truly described” under the name of (inas by either author, for 
Bewick clearly lays down as a distinctive character of Ginas that “the 
lower part of the back and the rump are light gray or ash-colour,” aud he 
has tinted the figure in order to represent this colour. Now if I were asked 
to distinguish Livia from Cinas by any single character, I should say that 
Livia always had the lower part of the back pure white, and Gnas always 
gray or ash-coloured: I believe the white patch of the former is the most 
difficult character to eradicate in our domestic pigeon, and at the same time 
it is one of the most unmistakable proofs of its descent from Livia, or the 
rock dove. Of the accuracy of Bewick’s figure I have uo doubt, but it was 
probably drawn from a stuffed specimen of the domestic pigeon. This 
particular variety closely resembles the Egyptian Columba Schimperi of 
Bonaparte.—EHdward Newman. 

Wild Pigeons Nesting in a Stable. — About ten days ago my gardener 
drew my attention to a pair of wood pigeons which were continually 
flying about an old stable—now a garden-house—not ten yards from the 
kitchen door. This garden-house is ventilated by wooden boxes let into 
the wall, and open at the top; and yesterday in one of these boxes I found 
two wood pigeons’ eggs laid on the remains of a tomtit’s nest of last year. 
The pigeons had made no nest for themselves, as there were but three 
small sticks in the box.—‘ Field’ of August 2. 

[The title of this note does not quite agree with the text. Wild pigeons 
may mean anything excepting tame ones; but the term “ wood pigeons 


? 


8692 THE ZooLocist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


indicates, as I venture to suppose, Columba palumbus ; and if this suppo- 
sition be correct, it is an unlooked-for occurrence.—E. Newman.] 

Redlegged Partridge plentiful in East Kent. — On the 1st inst. I was 
visiting at Smeeth, near Ashford, and in the course of my walks my 
attention was called to two partridges’ nests, in which the young had been 
hatched this year. Isaw at once from the egg-shells that both were the 
nests of the redlegged partridge (Perdix rufa). These two nests were 
within a hundred yards of each other. A third nest, very near the same 
spot, was mentioned to me, but I had not time to go and examine it. ‘It 
appears that this species of partridge is on the increase in Kent, and, being 
difficult to shoot, will soon abound to the exclusion of the more valued 
common English partridge.—James Murton ; Silverdale, Carnforth, August 
11, 1873. 

Waterhens Nesting in Trees.—In June last I found a waterhen’s nest in 
a large yew tree by the side of a brook, at about nine feet from the ground. 
It contained eight or nine eggs, which were in due time hatched; and later 
on I saw the young birds in the brook. That they were the birds which 
were hatched in the yew I have no doubt, as there was no other nest any- 
where near.—T. EL. Tatton ; Cheshire, August, 1873. 

Bustard in Suffolk. — During the past few days a strange bird has been 
seen on the Wangford and Lakenheath warrens. The two gentlemen who 
saw it describe it as being nearly as large as a turkey, and of a rusty colour ; 
in fact more like a turkey than anything else. When it flew it was a long 
time before it could rise from the ground. They could not get nearer than 
sixty or seventy yards to it. I have been over myself, but could not see 
the bird, the warrens being so very extensive. The labouring men in the 
district to whom I spoke confirmed the account previously received.— 
William Howlett, in ‘Field’ of August 16. 

Ostrich-Farming at the Cape. — We saw the incubator, and in it forty- 
five eggs in the process of hatching. This operation is now performed 
to almost perfection, quite equal to anything the parent birds can do them- 
selves, even supposing they are unmolested and escape all kinds of accidents 
to which they are exposed. Out of the forty-five eggs we saw, we may 
safely conclude forty-two would produce live and healthy chicks. The 
results now, of several batches, are fourteen out of fifteen to be hatched ; 
and Mr. Douglass seems pretty sanguine that he shall presently hatch all 
the eggs placed in the incubator, provided they are fertile. The number of 
ostriches at Hilton is as follows: Breeding birds—males, 2; hens, 4; 
pullet, 1—total, 7. Full-grown and nearly full-grown birds, 14; one- and 
two-year-old birds, 59; this year’s chickens, 75—total, 155. And though 
we have every respect for the old proverb, yet, with the experience afore- 
said, we have every confidence in adding twelve more for the eggs now in 
the machine, besides which some of the hens are laying every day. They 


THE ZOOLOGIST—SEPTEMBER, 18738. 3693 


laid last year up to May, when they were permitted to hatch a small clutch 
of eggs themselves, as it was thought they ought to have a rest from 
laying —Grahamstown Journal. 

Remarkable Posture of the Norfolk Plover. — The following note on 
the Norfolk plover, from the pen of Mr. Reynolds, who was living in 
Norfolk when this occurred, originally appeared in the ‘ Naturalist’s Scrap- 
Book,’ Liverpool district, some years ago, and is, I think, quite worthy of 
insertion in the pages of the ‘ Zoologist.’ It is here reprinted, almost word 
for word, from the original. After stating one or two interesting facts with 
reference to the bird, he says :—“ I have often observed in adult birds that 
the tail-feathers and under tail-coverts were much worn and rubbed away, 
and could not account for this until I kept some of the birds in confine- 
ment in my garden. A friend who was staying with me, a very good 
naturalist, whilst looking for them, discovered them resting on the entire 
length of the tarsus. My son being with him he sent for me, and I saw 
them in that position quite at rest. It then occurred to me at once that 
this was the reason of the worn appearance of the tail and under tail- 
coverts.’—H. Durnford ; 1, Stanley Road, Waterloo, Liverpool, August 7, 
1873. 

A New Heronry in Cornwall.—Three pairs of herons commenced forming 
a new heronry last spring, building nests and rearing their young in 
Cheviock Wood, by the side of the St. German’s River, Cornwall; and the 
keeper, who took the greatest interest and pride in their preservation, said 
that it was quite wonderful to see how many flat fish, &c., brought by the 
old birds to feed their young, had fallen under the trees. Unfortunately 
I was not informed of this interesting circumstance until after the nestlings 
had flown, or I should certainly have visited the place. However, next 
spring I shall assuredly do so, when I hope to find the number of nests 
increased. ‘There is an old-established heronry at Warleigh, a few miles 
distant, but on the Devonshire side of the river Tamar.— J. Gatcombe ; 
8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Devon, August 14, 1873. 

Flamingo in the Isle of Sheppey. — Although this bird is well known 
in Europe, it has hitherto been considered an entire stranger to Great 
Britain, specimens in private collections being obtained from abroad. It 
will be interesting perhaps to many to learn that a female flamingo (Pheni- 
copterus ruber) was on Saturday last shot at Elmley, Isle of Sheppey, full- 
winged, and measuring 4 ft. 6 in. in height. The plumage is perfectly white, 
excepting the wings, which are tinted with a beautiful rose-colour. It is 
now in the hands of Mr. George Young, naturalist, of Sittingbourne, for 
the purpose of being stuffed and mounted.— Arthur John Jackson ; Sitting- 
bourne, August 7.—‘ Field,’ August 16. 

[I think Mr. Jackson may be mistaken in the specific name; P. ruber 
is an American species; the European species, P. Antiquorum, is more 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 22 


3694 Tue ZooLocist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


likely to occur in England, as suggested by the Editor of the ‘ Field..— 
E. Newman.) 

Captain Feilden’s Criticisms on Mr. Durnford’s Ornithlogical Notes.— 
In answer to Captain Feilden’s criticisms, in the August number of the 
« Zoologist’ (S. S. 8643), on my notes in the July number, I will reply as 
shortly as possible. He is right in saying that in more than one instance 
I have gained my information second-hand, which he appears to speak of in 
very disparaging terms, though almost in the same breath giving us a 
second-hand note himself; but I believe my informants to be thoroughly 
trustworthy, and I think it must be evident to all the readers of the 
« Zoologist’ where I have done so. This is almost inevitable, when one can 
only pay a flying visit to any locality for the purpose of making ornitholo- 
gical notes, though one’s own observations are undoubtedly the most 
valuable. On reading his remarks on my notes on the Sandwich tern, 
I immediately wrote to the tenant of the land on which these birds breed, 
but regret to say I have up to this time (Aug. 18th) received no reply. 
T can therefore now only repeat, it is my firm conviction that the eggs were . 
given me as having been taken this season ; and I can safely assert that on 
the 31st of May there were no Sandwich terns at their usual breeding-place 
on Walney Island, and the watcher who accompanied me assured me they 
had then nested and left the place. As regards the herring gulls, I stated 
that the adult birds which bred on the South Stack, near Holyhead, were 
very jealous of their tenements, “ not even allowing their own young to 
nest amongst them.” As the same number of birds (as nearly as can be 
judged) return year after year to this rock, it is a fair presumption that they 
are the same individual birds which have nested on it in former years: this 
of course cannot be proved, but it is extremely likely to be the case, as it is 
known to be the fact with swallows, and I believe with some other birds. 
Captain Feilden finds fault with me for employing the term “ mallard ” for 
the male of the shieldrake: I am aware this term is usually applied to the 
male of the wild duck, but as it was used by the lighthouse-keeper who told 
me the story I have reproduced it in my paper. Surely this note with 
reference to the breeding of the shieldrake cannot be unintelligible to 
Captain Feilden or anyone else, though possibly I might have expressed 
myself more clearly; ‘ breeding-quarters” is obviously a misprint for 
« feeding-quarters,” and I am sorry to say there are several such misprints 
in my notes, at which I express my regret, but they are, I think, in all 
cases so self-evident that I have not thought it worth while to correct them. 
Since writing the above on the herring gulls, I have read Bishop Stanley's 
account of their desertion from and return to the South Stack (Stanley’s 
Birds, pp. 402—405), a portion of which I here reproduce: —“ Upon this 
rock (the South Stack), which, before the erection of the lighthouse, was 
almost inaccessible, myriads of sea-fowl used to build, but when the works 


THE ZooLocist—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 3695 


were commenced, in 1808, the unusual appearance of persons on the 
island, with their noisy operations of blasting, so disturbed the proceedings 
of the birds recently arrived, that, with the exception of a solitary pair of 
gulls, the whole body, including guillemots and razorbills, took to flight. . 
This solitary pair had taken post on an inaccessible ledge of bare rock, on 
the face of a precipice, and seemed to be aware that nothing but shot or 
stones could dislodge them. Their determined confidence in the security 
of their stronghold met with its due reward, orders being issued that none 
should molest them. The consequence was, they became quite familiarised 
to the noise and bustle, and remained until their young were reared, and in 
a condition to shift for themselves. In the ensuing spring, the same pair, 
as was supposed, retook possession of their old post, and strict orders were 
given on no account to disturb them ; and as a further protection no fire- 
arms were allowed to be used; nor were strangers who disregarded these 
rules to be admitted again on the island. In consequence of a rigid 
attention to these humane regulations, the same pair continued, for five 
successive years, to visit this ledge, rearing their young, consisting gene- 
rally of two and never exceeding three in number. But although only this 
single pair were observed to breed on the island, a considerable number, at 
tintes, as if aware of their security, sought the shelter denied them on the 
mainland, where, notwithstanding the bare and perpendicular character of 
the precipices, there was scarcely a spot amongst the clefts and hollows to 
which the young men and boys of the neighbourhood did not find their 
way, in search of eggs, for which they found a ready demand. The main 
body of gulls, at length finding that these wonted haunts no longer afforded 
security, either taught by the experience of the above pair, or by their own 
observations, in the spring of the sixth year took refuge on the island, 
chiefly at the south end, on an inclined plane of rock, where they have 
remained, during the breeding season, ever since; and on this spot, in 
particular, their artless nests are spread in such numbers, that it is difficult, 
at times, to avoid treading on them.” I shall not fail to let Capt. Feilden 
know the result of my inquiries concerning the Sandwich terns. — H. 
Durnford ; Southwold, Suffolk, August 18, 1873. 

Larus cachinnans.—In a letter which I have received from my friend 
Von Heuglin, dated Stuttgart, August 2, 1878, he informs me that he has 
clearly proved that the above bird is a very distinct species from and having 
nothing in common with Larus leucopheus. The latter is a constant 
variety of our herring gull (L. argentatus), but smaller. Hartlaub and 
Finsch have confounded the one with the other. Blasius gives Cachinnans 
as a variety, Argentatus and Leucopheus as No. 49 of his varieties com- 
monly considered as species. This determination of Von Heuglin will add 
a new bird to the European list. I have a nice series of four eggs of 
L. cachinuans from Southern Russia sent me through Von Heuglin. Each 


3696 Tue ZooLocGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


egg differs in markings, and they all differ from the eggs of L. argentatus 
in markings.—C. R. Bree. 

Cormorant Fishing.—In a letter lately received from my good friend 
M. Pierre Pichot, of Paris, is the following interesting bit of news relating 
to cormorant fishing :—* I have had this morning a very interesting letter 
from Mr. De la Rue, the forest inspector, who keeps our birds. He has 
been down to Chatellerault to fish a pond so much crowded with weeds 
that it was impossible to take any fish there, either by line or by net. So 
the master of the place, Mr. Trenille, one of our good masters of hounds, 
laid a wager of £25 with some friends that he would take fish there with 
Mr. De la Rue’s cormorants; and accordingly De la Rue went down there 
last week, and won the wager most splendidly. But he tells me of a very 
interesting episode. His two cormorants are in full flight, and while standing 
at the foot of the Castle of Chitrée, whose ruins stand over the valley of the 
Vienne, which river runs at about one mile’s distance, the cormorants espied 
the water in the valley, and one of them named ‘ Red’ immediately took to 
his wings and flew towards the river. All the assistants believed the cor- 
morant lost, but De la Rue calling out loudly to his bird, and waving his 
glove as a ‘lure,’ called him back instantly, and the cormorant, after 
having described a wide circle round the ruins, alighted at the feet of*his 
master. This is the first time I have heard of a cormorant being flown like 
a hawk.” I have for many years used trained cormorants for fishing, but 
never experienced a similar thing.—/’. H. Salvin, in the ‘ Field.’ 

Introduction of European Birds in the United States for Economic 
Purposes.—“ A very deserving institution has recently been established in 
Cincinnati, under the title of the Cincinnati Acclimatisation Society, its 
object being to effect the introduction of such foreign birds as are worthy 
of note for their song or their services to the farmer or horticulturist. The 
Society announces that during last spring it expended 5000 dolars in 
introducing fifteen additional species of birds, and that it had already suc- 
cessfully accomplished the acclimatisation of the European sky lark, which 
is stated to be now a prominent feature of the summer landscape in the 
vicinity of Cincinnati. Among the species which it is proposed to introduée 
is the European titmouse, considered abroad as one of the most successful 
foes of insects injurious to vegetation.”"—* Nature,’ August 14; 1873. 

[When may we hope to see the same enlightened views prevalent in 
Britain ?—Edward Newman.] 


Large Snake.—The ‘Times of India’ contains an account of the death 
of a huge boa constrictor which infested some marshy ground at the foot of 
the hills near Poodoocottah. The animal was regarded as sacred by the 
natives, who would not molest it, although only on the morning when 
Dr. Johnston and Mr. Pennington, with great danger to themselves, bravely 


THE ZooLoGisTt—SEPTEMEER, 1878. 8697 


hunted it up and shot it, it had swallowed a young child. The animal is 
about twenty-one feet long, and its stuffed skin is to be deposited in the 
Madras Museum. 

Rare Fishes at Penzance.—I have to report the under-mentioned five 
rarities :— 

The Blackfish (Centrolophus Pompilus).—Taken in Mount’s Bay. I had 
the fish dressed by broiling. Its flesh was white, soft and flaky, and of a 
very delicate flavour. 

The Solenette (Monochirus linguatulus).—I took this myself—or rather, 
a starfish took it, and I took the starfish holding the solenette in its feelers. 
It was a small well-marked specimen, three inches long. 

The Braize or Beker (Pagrus vulgaris).—I took this in my nets. It was 
a small specimen, but is the first I have seen for several years. 

Bloch’s Gurnard (Trigla Blochii).—I took two specimens at Lamorna, 
in this bay, on long lines. I regard this fish not as rare in this neighbour- 
hood, but as frequently confounded with red hellick. 

The Torpedo (Raia Torpedo).—It was taken in a trawl on the bank 
between the Lizard and the Land’s End. The fisherman who caught it 
did not know what it was, and did not become aware of its electrifying 
powers until he was in the act of cleaning it: on attempting to take out the 
gut he received a very unpleasant shock.—Thomas Cornish; Penzance, 
August 8, 1873. 

Fox Shark off the Coast of Cornwall—aA few days since I was much. 
interested in examining, in the flesh (or rather fish), a specimen of the fox 
shark or thrasher (Carcharias vulpes), which was captured about a fortnight 
ago at Mevagissey, Cornwall, and from thence forwarded to Plymouth, 
packed in salt, to be preserved for the Museum of the Plymouth Institution. 
It was a rather small specimen, about five feet six inches long, the upper 
lobe of the tail alone measuring half that length; but the most remarkale 
feature in connection with its capture, was that of its being caught with a 
hook and line, which so rarely happens on our coasts that Mr. Couch, in 
his ‘ History of the Fishes of the British Islands,’ says that no instance of 
it has come within his knowledge, though sometimes taken in drift-nets. 
However, this example was really taken with a common whiting-hook baited 
with a piece of pilchard, at a depth of thirty-five fathoms, I was told; and 
when it was brought to the surface of the water it struggled and fought 
so gamely that it could not be hauled into the boat, and was allowed to rush 
away with the whole length of line, which somehow becoming coiled round 
its long tail, so hampered the fish that it was afterwards got into the boat 
without difficulty—John Gatcombe. 

Brighton Aquarium.—‘“ Brighton still keeps far ahead of all rivalry in 
the size of its aquarium, and fairly deserves to be considered the leader of 


8698 _ Tue ZooLocist—SepremBeER, 1873. 


the very commendable fashion that has set in. The public are becoming 
every day better acquainted with the peculiarities of the more recondite 
creatures who live where the purple mullet and the gold fish rove, and 
where the mermaid is decking her green hair with shells—creatures, many 
of them, which were not nearly so well known before this to most people as 
the mermaid herself.” —‘ Daily News,’ August 18. 

[This neat but comprehensive paragraph appears in a leader, not as an 
advertisement.—Z. N.] 

A Difficulty for Darwinists (see Zool. S. S. 3581 and 3654).—I have 
read the objections to my paper, quoted from ‘ Nature,’ in your last number, 
and avail myself of your kind offer of space for replying to them. I quite 
agree with the writer of the criticism that the title, “A Difficulty for Dar- 
winists,” was objectionable as being pretentious; the difficulty, however, was 
one which occurred to my own observation, and which has ever since 
remained as a bona fide difficulty to the acceptance of Darwin’s theory, in 
my own mind. Iam quite willing to admit that I do not fully understand 
the subject. I do not pretend to anything more than a smattering of 
Zoology; still the remarks in ‘ Nature’ do not seem to me a satisfactory 
solution of the matter; so far as I can understand them they are more like 
a cursory opinion, not meant for serious consideration, than really addressed 
to the difficulty. If I have not adverted in my paper to the possibility of 
such an answer being made it was because it hardly seemed necessary. The 
writer concedes to me that “it is theoretically possible for an infinite 
number of variations to occur in living bodies,” as if my argument had been 
all about abstract possibilities, and then takes up a position to show from 
actual fact what was probable and what was not. Now this is a position 
I cannot yjeld to him. I had already stated it as a fact that the forms and 
arrangements of teeth in vertebrates were practically infinite, and that the 
structure and development of teeth in the wombat, thylacine, dog and rodent 
respectively, were exceedingly complicated and high types of development, 
there being evidence to show that the steps in their evolution have been 
exceedingly numerous and gradual. It will not do for my criticiser to 
assume that I have only argued in an abstract way that “It is possible for 
an infinite number of variations to occur in living bodies.” If he wishes to 
attack this position of mine he must first show that my statement of fact is 
wrong, i. e. that there are but few forms and arrangements of teeth in nature, 
and that those of the wombat, thylacine, dog and rodent, are organs of low 
type and simple development. The writer goes on to say that marsupial 
and placental types of organism having had “ to undergo the struggle for 
existence under similar circumstances, it is not to be wondered at, but only 
to be expected, that similar organisms should be the result.” Now Ido 
not think any genuine Darwinist would accept this sentence as a sound 


THE ZooLOoGIstT—SEPTEMBER, 1878. 8699 


deduction, even if it were correct in the fact, which I maintain it is not, that 
the marsupial and placental types have had to struggle under similar circum- 
stances. Mr. Darwin lays it down that the controlling forces which direct 
the path of variation in a species are the other species with which it has to 
struggle; and if these forces were sufficiently definite and restricted in their 
action to produce two such similar dental types as those of the thylacine and 
dog, independently of each other, it strikes me that classification of mammals 
would no longer be possible; should we not have dogs, cats, rodents and 
ruminants arising from independent sources all over the world? Darwin 
himself says (‘ Origin of Species,’ chap. xiii. p. 413), “I believe that some- 
thing more is included; and that propinquity of descent—the only known 
cause of the similarity of organic beings—is the bond, hidden as it is by 
various degrees of modification, which is partially revealed to us by our 
classifications.” The writer sums up by saying that “it is just as probable, 
external circumstances being similar, that the isolated marsupial ancestor 
should give rise to carnivorous, rodent and herbivorous forms, as that they 
should have developed from a placental type.” Does he mean that because - 
one thing is as probable as another, that in any way explains why both 
things should have taken place? When the first discoverers of Pitcairn’s 
Island were accosted by one of the natives asking them in broken English to 
throw him a rope, would he think it a good explanation of this fact to have it 
suggested to him that it was just as probable, external circumstances being 
similar, that such a simple form of speech should have been developed from 
the needs of isolated human nature on Pitcairn’s Island as in England? 
I think his mind would hardly be satisfied by such an explanation.—F. H. 
Balkwill. 

Lakes Albert and Tanganyika.—Sir Henry Rawlinson has received and 
published in the ‘ Times’ a letter from Sir Samuel Baker, dated Khartoom, 
July 2, entirely confirming, as far as Sir Samuel’s opinion may be trusted, 
the statement copied from the ‘Telegraph’ into the August ‘ Zoologist’ 
(S. S. 3639). Sir Samuel expresses a hope that he will be in England in 
September. In reference to the oneness of Lakes Tanganyika and Albert 
Nyanza, he says:—‘ The envoys sent by M’tése all assured me that the 
Tanganyika is the M’wootan N’zizé (Albert Nyanza) and that Ujiji is on 
the eastern border; that you can travel by boat from Ujiji to the north end 
of the Albert Lake; but you must have a guide, as some portions are very 
narrow and intricate. From my experience of the high water-grass, 
I should expect islands and floating vegetation in the narrow passes 
described. I am by no means fond of geographical theories, but the 
natives’ descriptions were so clear that I accepted as a fact that the Tan- 
ganyika and Albert Lakes are one sheet of water, with marshy narrow 
straits overgrown with water-grass, through which you require a guide.” 
Sir Samuel's letter is of great length, and contains many details of his wars 


3700 THE ZooLoGisT—SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


and dealings with the natives of Central Africa, but nothing particularly 
interesting to the naturalist except the above extract, which it will be 
observed is in direct antagonism to what Mr. Stanley has published as to 
the survey of the northern extremity of Tanganyika.—E. Newman. 


Death of Dr. Saxby.—Our readers will share the regret which we feel in 
recording the death of one of our best ornithologists, Dr. Henry Saxby, late 
of Balta Sound, whose communications to the ‘ Zoologist’ have so often 
borne witness to his unwearied assiduity in the cause of Science. Owing 
to failing health, partly the result of prolonged suffering from a badly 
broken arm, his contributions to its pages had latterly become infrequent ; but 
his note-books, written up to within three weeks of his death, which occurred 
at Inverary on the 4th of August, show to the last that minute vigilance 
and conscientiousness as an observer for which he was so remarkable 
throughout. A memorandum, which we have pleasure in issuing with the 
current number of the ‘ Zoologist,’ will show that his long-announced book 
on the Birds of Shetland is soon to appear, the materials for the small 
portion not yet in order for the printer existing abundantly in his well- 
indexed journals. The testimony of competent judges who have examined 
the MSS., among them the Duke of Argyll, who has taken much interest 
in the work, is such as to warrant us in hoping for a valuable accession to 
our knowledge of the birds which visit the northern part of Great Britain, 
no fewer than fifty-seven species previously uurecorded having been added 
by the author to the Shetland list. In addition to the MSS. has been left 
a series of drawings of eggs of birds breeding in the islands, beautifully 
executed in water-colours, together with a very fine collection of skins and 
of eggs of assured British origin. Those who knew and loved our brother 
naturalist for his gentleness and kindly nature in private life will be well 
prepared to learn that he died in quiet faith, commending to God's care his 
widow and five little children, the youngest of whom was born but a few 
hours before his death. Dr. Saxby was only in the thirty-seventh year of 
his age, but for twenty-five years he had kept an almost daily register of the 
birds which came under his notice; and by residence in the south of 
England, in Belgium, and in North Wales, he had acquired a familiarity 
with the appearance and habits of arboreal and other land birds, which 
enabled him to identify them at a glance wherever they occurred.—S. H. 8S. 

[I am indebted to an old and valued correspondent for a second obituary 
notice of my lamented contributor: it is written in the same kindly spirit 
as the above, bearing ample testimony to the merits of the deceased, but is 
not quite so complete in those details which it is desirable to preserve—_ 
Edward Newman.) 


THE ZooLoctst—OcrToBER, 1873. 8701 


drotices of Sew Books, 


Official Handbook to the Marine Aquarium of the Crystal 
Palace Aquarium Company (Limited). By W. A. Luoyo, 
Superintendent of the Aquarium. Fifth Edition, revised and 
enlarged. 1873. 

(Continued from §, S. 3676.) 


Era II. Literary, Porric AND FASHIONABLE. 


In this second era or campaign, as I may call it, Mr. (now 
become Dr.) Bowerbank resigned the command, which, like 
Alexander’s, was divided amongst four of his generals, Warington, 
Gosse, Mitchell and Rymer Jones. 

Mr. Ropert WarineTon, of Apothecaries’ Hall, not only devoted 
every spare moment of his life to experimenting on different forms 
of vessel, different arrangements of light, and different combinations 
of inhabitants, in order to ascertain the fittest, but he introduced a 
new element, substituting salt water for fresh, marine animals for 
fresh-water animals, sea-weeds for Valisneria. I was a constant 
visitor at Apothecaries’ Hall, and found Mr, Warington ever ready 
to exhibit and explain his experimental proceedings, for it must be 
admitted they were experimental; for unlike Mr. Bowerbank, who 
seems to have attained success at a single bound, Mr. Warington 
had to think out his plans, and as his was altogether new ground, 
or rather new water, he was subject to repeated failures and 
disappointments, but eventually he triumphed over them all. 

At our delightful reunions at Mr. Bowerbank’s, first at Critchell- 
place and afterwards at Highbury, the lamented Davin WILLIAM 
MircHELL, then the energetic Secretary of the Zoological Society, 
who was ever on the alert for something to “ draw,” was a frequent 
visitor ; the sticklebacks arrested and rivetted his attention, and he 
was not long in taking a lesson from Mr. Bowerbank’s book: every 
one urged it; and Mr. Mitchell listened with marked attention, and 
conceived the project of an aquarium in the Regent’s Park. With 
Mr. Mitchell there was seldom much time lost between the con- 
ception and the execution ofa plan. In this instance these followed 
each other with unparalleled rapidity; he commenced building 
forthwith, ordered his tanks, and stocked them with their appro- 
priate inhabitants, availing himself of every observation previously 
made either by Mr. Bowerbank or Mr. Warington. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 3A 


3702 THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 


On Saturday, May 21st, 1853, as reported in the ‘ Atheneum’ of 
May 28th, there was opened at the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s 
Park a building or room for the express purpose of exhibiting living 
marine animals. This building, I believe, received at the hands 
of the Council the title of “ Marine Vivarium,” but this inflated 
appellation soon became toned down by the visitors to the more 
modest and less assuming one of “ Fish House,” which it has borne 
from that time to the present. J extract from the ‘ Atheneum’ of 
Saturday, May 28, 1853, the following details, which will be 
interesting as a contemporaneous record of a notable event, and as 
inaugurating the second era in aquarian history. Moreover, it has 
the advantage of incorporating an account of the prior but more 
humble efforts, in the same direction, of Sir John Dalyell and 
Mr. Warington, and this saves me the otherwise necessary labour 
of describing the very important result of the indefatigable exertions 
of these distinguished aquarians. 


“ Fresh-water fish were tried first in these gardens. Perch, pike, roach, 
dace, eels, sticklebacks and minnows were all to be watched, and their 
domestic secrets and most retired proceedings to be brought to light. The 
grand experiment, however, of making a little ocean, a miniature sea, in 
which we might look on the habits of the creatures of the great deep had 
yet to be made. Sir John Dalyell, it was well known, had kept a sea 
anemone alive for twenty-eight years, and numerous other marine creatures 
for less periods; but then throughout these twenty-eight years every morning 
he had had sea-water brought to his house. It seemed almost impossible to 
bring up sufficient quantities for such a purpose into our inland towns. 
Gradually it became known that by aérating the salt water by means of 
filtering or agitation it became fitted for the support of animal life. Here 
then a chance of success to an object long desired seemed to present itself, 
and the enterprising Secretary of the Zoological Society determined to make 
a trial on a small scale. He began with sea anemones and some of the 
more hardy shell-fish, and succeeded most satisfactorily. While, however, 
this experiment was in progress a fact of much greater importance became 
known. It had been observed by vegetable physiologists that plants purify 
a small quantity of water just as they purify the air,—that is, by taking up 
carbonic acid and giving out oxygen,—and here was the explanation of the 
fact of animals living for any length of time in a limited quantity of water, 
provided there were plants enough to take the carbonic acid which the 
animals threw off, and supply the oxygen which they needed. The question 
naturally arose, Why should not sea-weeds do the same for sea-water as 
fresh-water plants do for fresh water? Various dredgers and sea-shore 


THE ZooLoGisT—OcTOBER, 1873. 3703 


naturalists had successfully had recourse to this plan; but we believe the 
merit of first having perfectly succeeded with an arrangement of the kind in 
London is due to Mr. Warington. By arranging sea-plants and animals 
in a limited quantity of sea-water, he so maintained the balance of animal 
and vegetable life that for several months they required neither fresh water 
nor any mechanical aération. It is the adoption of this plan on a large 
scale that constitutes the novelty of the Vivarium now opened to the public 
in the Zoological Gardens. At the present moment there are in the glass 
house six large tanks of glass containing marine invertebrate animals and 
fish. These tanks have been arranged in something like zoological order. 
The first contains a variety of crustaceans, crabs, lobsters and shrimps. 
Here may be seen in living activity species of these creatures only to be 
caught by the dredge, and which have been only occasionally seen when 
cast up on our coasts or pinned down in our museums; several of the 
spider crabs—which are inhabitants of the deep sea—will attract more 
attention among these specimens. In the second tank is a collection of 
Echinodermata. A third tank contains a collection of sea anemones or 
animal flowers. The more common forms of these lowest members of the 
great family of polypes are scarcely unknown to the least curious visitors 
of our sea-coasts, but it has fallen to the lot of few to see them to such 
advantage as they now may here. In variety of colour they almost vie 
with a bed of tulips, and they will enable the observer to understand some- 
thing of the beauty which arrests the attention of the traveller in the 
South Seas, where these creatures and their allied forms abound. The 
naturalist will also find in this tank some of the less common of the species 
of the family Actiniade which are found on the British coasts. In a fourth 
tank is a collection of the British Mollusca. Those who gather shells by 
the sea-shore will recognise many of their old acquaintances in this depart- 
ment, but no longer as uninhabited dwellings. Each contains its proper 
tenant. Several species of ascidian Mollusca are found here, whose rough 
membranaceous and ungainly exterior would hardly lead to the conclusion 
that they are allied to shell-fish at all, did not their interior inhabitant 
reveal the fact. In another tank a highly interesting group of Mollusca, 
the nudibranchiate, are to be seen. These have no shells, and are remarkable 
for their delicate colouring, and for the curious forms assumed by their 
gills or breathing organs, which being placed outside of their bodies have 
got for them the name of naked-gilled. The species of this family belong 
to the genera Doris and Kolis. In the fourth tank are also contained some 
species of barnacles and sea-acorns (Cirripedia), which, with their hard 
molluscous-like shells, were once included under the Mollusca, but are 
now known to have an internal structure which allies them with the articu- 
lated tribes of animals: in this tank are some small species of sea-fish, 
including the blenny, the fifteen-spined stickleback, the wrasse and the 


- 


3704 THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 


father-lasher (Cottus bubalis). The Annelides are represented in several of 
the tanks by species of Aphrodite and the beautiful Sabelle. Many of the 
leaf-like and vegetable-looking objects at the bottom of the tanks are 
popularly called sea-weeds, and demand a microscope to make out clearly 
their animal nature. Nevertheless a sharp eye will detect a downiness on 
the surface of their bodies, which is the tentacle of the minute creatures 
that inhabit every portion of their structure, and are the representatives in 
our seas of those mighty workers, the coral animals of the southern ocean. 
The present collection is, we believe, only an earnest of future development. 
Some marine creatures, such as the jelly fishes, are not at present repre- 
sented, but before the summer is over a collection of these fragile forms will 
undoubtedly find a place in the Marine Vivarium of the Society.” 


The aquarium immediately became a fashion, a rage, an in- 
fatuation, which, now that we are sobered down and are able to 
regard a stickleback with equanimity and a sea anemone without 
any sensible increase in the rapidity of pulsation, it seems difficult 
to realise. The press lent its powerful aid to this result. A 
judicious publisher is not he who invents, but he who avails him- 
’ self of an invention: a man who embarks his capital in a ‘ Principia’ 
or a ‘Paradise Lost’ will be esteemed a man of discernment by 
future generations, but will not be remunerated by the present. 
The successful journalist follows, while he is supposed to lead, 
public opinion; he deludes even himself with this gratifying but 
shallow fallacy. It was not until the parlour-pond had thoroughly 
established itself as a fashion that the press detected in it a source 
of profit. Book-makers and book-publishers then saw their oppor- 
tunity, and were not slow to embrace it: the press teemed with 
aquariums. My friend Mr. Van Voorst took the lead in this move- 
ment, and amid the surging wave of aquarian literature, original 
and imitative, his volumes are still the best and most likely to 
endure. I will give the titles and dates of those aquarian volumes 
which appear to possess inherent excellence, interspersing those of 
a few tracts which, although of minor importance, assisted greatly 
in fanning into flame the fire that had already been kindled. 


1850. On the Adjustment of the Relation between the Animal and 
Vegetable Kingdoms, by which the Vital Functions of both are 
Permanently Maintained. By Robert Warington. (‘ Zoologist’ 
for 1850, p. 2868.) 

1852. Observations on the Natural History of the Water Snail and Fish 
kept in a confined and limited portion of Water. By Robert 
Warington. (‘ Zoologist’ for 1852, p. 3633.) 


Tue ZooLocist—OcrToBeER, 18738. - $705 


1858. On Preserving the Balance between the Animal and Vegetable 
Organisms in Sea Water. By Robert Warington. Read at the 
Hull Meeting of the British Association. (Printed in the ‘ Annals 
and Magazine of Natural History’ for November, 1853, and at 
p- 4118 of the ‘ Zoologist’ for 1853.) 

1853. Aqua-vivarium. An article by Dr. Edwin Lankester. (Printed in 
the Natural History Division of the ‘ English Encyclopedia.’) 

1858. A Naturalist’s Rambles on the Devonshire Coast. By Philip Henry 
Gosse. 452 pp. letter-press and 28 plates, most of them coloured. 

1854. The Aquarium; an Unveiling of the Wonders of the Deep Sea. 
By Philip Henry Gosse. 278 pp. letter-press, 6 coloured plates, 
and 6 engravings on wood. 

1856. Tenby; a Sea-side Holiday. By Philip Henry Gosse. 400 pp. 

letter-press and 23 plates, most of them coloured. 

1858. The Aquarian Naturalist; a Manual for the Sea-side. By Thomas 
Rymer Jones. 524 pp. letter-press and 8 coloured plates. 

1860. Actinologia Britannica; a History of the British Sea Anemones 
and Corals. By Philip Henry Gosse. 362 pp. letter-press and 
11 plates, 10 of them coloured. 


These delightful works abounded with lucid descriptions, 
pleasing pictures, poetic quotations, and graphic accounts of the 
doings of aquatic animals as first seen by the assistance of the 
aquarium: nothing can exceed the beauty of some of the word- 
painting by Pairrp Henry GossE; and as for THomas RYMER 
JonEs, he is overflowing with poetry: no less than one hundred 
and sixty-two quotations, or as I may call them “snatches of 
song,” are scattered through his “pleasant pages.” He seems to 
have been so led away by his subject that he could not resist the 
impulse to break forth into melody. 

A complete change had now taken place in the element as well 
as in the style of treating of it, the water employed for the experi- 
ments during the first era being almost invariably fresh, during the 
second period almost entirely salt: the object during the first era 
was almost entirely confined to the habits of the living tenants of 
the aquarium; during the second period, the fashion, admeasure- 
ments, size, materials, structure and ornamentation entered largely 
into aquarian literature; indeed these matters, utterly ignored by 
Bowerbank and his followers, became of paramount importance. 
Mr. Gosse says :— 

“The tank is 2 feet long, 134 foot wide, 14 foot deep; the sides and 
the ends of 3th plate-glass; the bottom of slate, the corners of beech 


3706 TueE Zootocist—OcToBER, 1873. 


wood, turned into pillars, each surmounted by a knob, and united by a 
frame top going all round. The glass is set in grooves in the slate and 
wood, and fastened with white-lead putty.”—‘ Aquarium,’ p. 101. 


Mr. Warington, after experimenting unsuccessfully for some 
years, gave instruction for the making of a small tank as a more 
permanent reservoir, with certain improved modifications as regards 
form and the admission of light. He writes thus :— 


« From the experience I had obtained in my experiments with the fresh- 
water tank, I was induced to modify slightly the construction of the vessel ; 
thus at the back or part towards the light the framing was filled with slate, 
in the same way as the ends and bottom; for I had found that the glass 
originally employed very soon became covered with a confervoid growth 
which had an unpleasing appearance to the eye, and in consequence of 
which I have been obliged to paint the glass on the exterior to prevent the 
growth from increasing to too great an extent. It was almost an unnatural 
mode of illumination, as all the light should pass through the surface of the 
water. The front towards the room and the observer was constructed of 
plate-glass, the whole being set in a stout frame-work of zinc and cemented 
with what is known under the name of Scott’s cement, and which I have 
found to answer for the purpose most admirably. Within the tank were 
arranged several large pieces of rockwork thrown into an arched form, and 
other fragments were cemented against the slate at the back and ends, 
and at parts along the water-line, so that the creatures could hide them- 
selves at pleasure; a short beach of pebbles was also constructed in order 
that shallow water could be resorted to if desired; the whole tank was 
covered with a light glass shade to keep out the dust and retard evaporation.” 
—‘ Zoologist,’ 4119. 


Professor Rymer Jones, modestly referring to Mr. Warington 
and Mr. Gosse as his authorities, recapitulates Mr. Warington’s 
instruction, and points out its advantages :— 


« First, that it allows of a most extended view of the whole interior of the 
aquarium. \ 

“ Secondly, that it enables the occupants to resort to any depth they may 
desire, or even to ascend the sloping back and emerge from the water. 

“ Thirdly, it admits of a much larger surface beiug exposed to the action 
of light; and 

“ Fourthly, the sloping top allows the water which condenses on the 
glass to trickle off and return to the aquarium without first resting on the 
zinc or iron frame-work. It need hardly be suggested that the sloping back 
is to be covered with light rockwork extending to a short distance above the 
water line.”—‘ The Aquarian Naturalist,’ p. 6. 


THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 3707 


Each of these various instructions, insisting on the exclusive use 
of putty, white lead, red lead, Scott’s cemeut, &c., were severally 
regarded as embodying the perfection of human wisdom until the 
next adviser suggested an improvement; but notwithstanding this 
wide divergence on minor points, it is an important fact that all 
aquarian authorities seem to have deliberately considered and 
tested, and then uniformly rejected and condemned, all attempts at 
aération or circulation. 

Dr. Lankester avers that circulation is only needed as “ precau- 
tionary” until the vegetation is quite established. Mr. Warington 
says, “‘ With the sea-water obtained in January, 1852, I have been 
working without cessation up to the present time, agitating and 
aérating when it became foul during unsuccessful experiments on 
the sea-weeds, but since then it has rarely been disturbed,” and then 
he emphatically adds, and I think it desirable to express his decision 
by italics :—“ ¢ must be decidedly understood that no agitation 
or so-called aération is required when the balance of animal and 
vegetable life is properly established.” This sentiment, perhaps 
somewhat less decidedly expressed, runs through all the aquarian 
books of this era: I wish, indeed, to show beyond the possibility 
of doubt, that the system of aération and circulation belong to the 
third era, but it were of no avail to supplement the fiat of the 
leader with the milder enunciations of the followers; it is like 
adding wine and water to wine. 

It must not, however, be supposed for a single instant that the 
aquarian literature of the era is restricted to dry and useless advices 
or mistaken prohibitions: such a conclusion would be decidedly 
erroneous, utterly opposed to fact, and Mr. Gosse’s work especially 
abounds in truthful descriptions of aquatic life which might fairly 
challenge a comparison with anything that has ever been written 
on the “manners and customs” of the World of Animals. I will 
make but one extract in proof of this, a long one indeed, but 
I cannot divide it without destroying its value, and as for making 
an abstract or abridgment, it is quite out of the question. The 
author’s ideas might possibly be conveyed in an abstract, but the 
life, the soul of the passage would be wanting if I robbed it of the 
author’s phraseology. 

“ The Sepiola.—My notions of the Cephalopoda, derived from figures of 


the various species in books, were anything but agreeable. I thought of 
them as hideous, repulsive, fierce, atrocious creatures, hated and feared 


3708 THE ZooLocisT—OcToBER, 1873. 


whenever seen. But an acquaintance with the pretty Sepiola vulgaris has 
not a little modified these ideas; and its beauty, sprightliness, and curious 
habits have made it quite a favourite pet among the denizens of my 
Aquarium. I take it in considerable numbers in this Bay, by means of 
the keer-drag already described, which rakes the bottom. It is a little 
creature, rarely exceeding an inch in length; though the extensibility of 
the arms somewhat varies its dimensions. When we turn out two or three 
from the net into a pail of sea water, they are at first restless and active. 
They shoot hither and thither, as if by a direct effort of will, but in reality 
by the impulse of rapid and forcible jets of water directed towards various 
points from the mouth of the flexible funnel situated beneath the body. 
After a few moments they suspend themselves in mid-water, hovering for 
many seconds in the same spot, scarcely moving a hair’s breadth either way, 
but waving their large circular swimming-fins rapidly and regularly up and 
down, just like the wings of an insect. Indeed, the resemblance of the little 
Cephalopod, in these circumstances, to a brown moth hovering over a flower, 
is most close and striking, and cannot fail to suggest an interesting com- 
parison. The body is held in a horizontal position, the large protuberant 
eyes gazing on either side; and the arms, grouped together into a thick 
bundle, hang freely downwards. If you essay to count these organs you 
find only eight; and even if you are aware that one of the characters of the 
genus is to have ten, of which two are much longer than the rest, you may 
search for these latter a long time in vain. Of course I mean during the 
life and the health of the animal, when its impatience of being handled 
presents obstacles to a very accurate investigation; you may then turn it 
over and over with a stick, and look at the bundle of arms from above and 
below in turn, now grouped together, and now thrown all abroad in anger 
at being teased; still you can make out but eight. It was not until after 
many trials that I at length caught a peep at the missing organs—the pair 
of long arms—and discovered that it is the animal’s habit to carry them 
closely coiled up into little balls, and packed down upon the mouth at the 
bottom of the oral cavity. If we manage to insert the point of a pin in the 
coil, and stretch out the spiral filament, the little creature impatiently 
snatches it away and in a twinkling rolls it up again. 

“A zealous votary of the circular system would seize on this analogy 
with the spirally folded tongue of a moth, and triumphantly adduce it as 
additional proof that the Cephalopoda represent, in the Mollusca circle, the 
Lepidoptera among insects. While thus hovering motionless in the water, 
the Sepiola presents a fair opportunity for observing its curious transitions 
of colour, which are great and sudden. We can scarcely assign any hue 
proper to it. Now it is nearly white or pellucid, with a faint band of brown 
specks along the back, through which the internal viscera glisten like silver. 
In an instant the specks become spots, that come and go, and change their 


THE ZooLoGist—OctToBER, 1873. 3709 


dimensions and their forms, and appear and disappear momentarily. The 
whole body,—arms, fins, and all,—the parts which before appeared free, 
display the spots which, when looked at attentively, are seen to play about 
in the most singular manner, having the appearance of a coloured fluid, 
injected with constantly varying force into cavities in the substance of the 
skin, of ever-changing dimensions. Now the spots become rings, like the 
markings of a panther’s skin; and as the little creature moves slightly, 
either side beneath the fin is seen to glow with metallic lustre, like that of 
gold leaf seen through horn. Again the rings unite and coalesce, and form 
a beautiful netted pattern of brown, which colour increasing leaves the 
interspaces a series of white spots on the rich dark ground. These and 
other phases are every instant interchanging and passing suddenly and 
momentarily into each other with the utmost irregularity. But here is a 
change! One is hovering in quiescence, his colour pale, almost white; one 
of his fellows shoots along just over him; with the quickness of thought, 
the alarmed creature turns from white to an uniform deep brown, the rich 
full colour suffusing the skin in a second, like a blush on a young maiden’s 
face. The hue is very beautiful; it is the fine, deep, sienna-tint of tortoise- 
shell; a substance which, indeed, the mingling clouds of brown and pellucid 
horn closely resemble in the intermediate phases of colour. Hitherto we 
have seen the Sepiola only in the pail of water into which it was turned out 
of the net. After a little while it drops upon the bottom, and crouching up 
remains motionless; if you rouse it, it will again swim for a few minutes, 
but presently seeks some corner, into which it thrusts its rear, and huddles 
up as before. This is all that you will see of its habits under such circum- 
stances; for in all probability the morning will reveal your protégé a lump 
- of white jelly, dead and stiff, with uncoiled arms, on the naked floor of his 
prison. But introduce him while in health into an Aquarium, where living 
sea-plants are perpetually revivifying the water, and where the bottom, 
varied with sand, gravel, and pieces of rock, imitates the natural floor of 
the sea, and you will soon see other particulars in the economy of our little 
friend, which will, I doubt not, charm you as much as they have pleased 
me. The Sepiola is a burrower; and very cleverly and ingeniously does it 
perform a task which we might at first suppose a somewhat awkward one— 
the insertion of its round corpulent body into the sand or gravel. Watch it 
as it approaches the bottom, after a season of hovering play such as I have 
described. It drops down to within an inch of the sand, then hangs 
suspended, as if surveying the ground for a suitable bed. Presently it 
selects a spot; the first indication of its choice being that a hollow about 
the size of a silver fourpence is forcibly blown out of the sand immediately 
beneath the group of pendant arms. Into the cavity so made the little 
animal drops; at that instant the sand is blown out on all sides from 
beneath the body backward, and the abdomen is thrust downward before 
SECOND SERIES—VOL., VIII. 3B 


3710 THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 


the cloud of sand which has been blown up settles, but which presently falls 
around and upon the body. Another forcible puff in front, one on each 
side, and another behind, follow in quick succession, the fine sand dis- 
placed at each blast settling round the animal, as it thrusts itself into the 
hollow thus more and more deepened. I was not at first quite sure by what 
agency these blowings, so admirably effective and suited to the purpose, 
were performed. The jet in front I readily attributed to the action of the 
fleshy funnel projecting from beneath the mantle on the breast: but I did 
not see how this could blow a stream directly backwards. I therefore put 
one of my pets into a vessel with glass sides, which was furnished with the 
requisite sand and water. I at once saw that the funnel was indeed the 
organ employed, and the only one, in every case; and perceived its beautiful 
adaptation for the work it had to do, in its extreme flexibility. This organ 
is very protrusile, and being perfectly flexible, its orifice can be, and is, at 
will pointed in any direction, so as to blow the jet of water forward, back- 
ward, or to either side at pleasure. It frequently occurs, of course, that 
small stones are mingled with the sand, or the animal may find it con- 
venient to burrow in the loose gravel. In either case the arms come to the 
aid of the funnel, the sucking disks with which they are furnished being 
made to adhere to the stones, which are dragged out and thrown aside. 
You may suppose this to be a clumsy expedient, but you would think 
differently if you saw it; the rapidity with which the arms are thrust under, 
and drawn out, bearing pieces of stone of comparatively large size, and the 
graceful ease with which they are then thrown forward, discharging and 
dropping the burden, impress the mind with admiration of the beautiful 
fitness of the organization for the requirement. This use of the funnel, 
and of the sucking arms, so different from their normal purposes, affords 
additional examples of that Divine economy in creation, which, when a new 
formation is ordained, does not always form new and special organs for the 
necessity, but adapts some already employed in other service for the new 
work; while still both the one and the other function are fulfilled with such 
perfection as shows that every emergency was foreseen and provided for in the 
mighty plan, and that it was not for want of resources that distinct actions 
are performed by the same instrumentality. We admire the skill of the 
artizan who can effect different operations with the same tool, especially 
when we see that each kind of work is of faultless excellence. The ordinary 
employment of the sucking arms is no doubt the same as in other Cephalo- 
poda, the capture and retention of prey. Of this I saw an instance in the 
case of one of my Sepiole which had seized a shrimp (Crangon trispinosus), 
a sand-burrower like itself, and was, when I saw it, holding it firmly against 
the horny jaws, which were devouring it. The discharge of ink through the 
funnel I have also witnessed, though this is far from being a frequent action 
with this species. One of them that had been for a day or two in an 


THE ZooLocist—OctToseEr, 1873. 3711 


Aquarium, and was evidently at home there, I put into another vessel. 
No other animal was present, but the strangeness of the new abode evidently 
frightened it; it darted about in manifest alarm and excitement, and pre- 
sently shot forth from its funnel a cloud of inky fluid to a distance of several 
inches; another and another discharge succeeded in rapid sequence, and it 
was not for some time that the animal recovered its equanimity. It did not 
appear to me that this fluid could be of much service to the little creature 
in the way of concealment; for although the matter was tolerably copious, 
and densely black, it did not diffuse itself in the water, but remained in 
masses, and when moved with a stick was drawn into slimy strings.” 


Here ends the second era in the history of the aquarium, and 
although we are indebted so greatly to the leaders of this period 
for their patient research and indomitable perseverance, it cannot 
truthfully be denied that a large share of these qualities was wasted 
on useless instructions about selecting and cultivating sea-weeds; 
in cruel and mistaken advice to keep the captives without food ; 
and in denouncing the very principle, that of aération and cir- 
culation, by which alone the aquarium can become permanent. 


Epwarp NEwMay. 
(To be continued.) 


Ornithological Notes from Norfolk. By H. Stevenson, F.LS. 
(Continued from Zool. 8. 8. 3561.) 


APRIL, 1873. 

Spring Migrants.—The following dates of arrival of spring 
visitants have been chiefly supplied me by Mr. J. H. Gurney, sen., 
from his own observations, or with some other authorities in different 
parts of the county :—Chiffchaff, March 27th, Northrepps. Wry- 
neck, March 31st, Surlingham; April 6th, Keswick; 12th, North- 
repps. Blackcap, April 5th, Northrepps. Redstart, April 7th, 
Earlham. Swallow, April 14th, Elmham. Sand Martin, April 4th, 
Surlingham; 15th, Stoke. Sedge Warbler, March 30th, Surling- 
ham. Lesser Whitethroat, April 16th, Keswick. Young song 
thrushes able to fly, April 16th, Northrepps; young blackbirds, 
April 20th, Norwich. Nightingale, April 17th, Northrepps. Cuckoo, 
April 22nd, Northrepps. A considerable flock of fieldfares was 
seen at Northrepps on the 20th of April. 

Guillemot.—A bird killed about the 20th of March had acquired 
its full summer plumage. 


wie. — Tue ZooLocist—OcrToBER, 1873. 


Hawfinch.—A single bird and a pair seen early this month at 
Thorpe, near Norwich, no doubt remaining to breed. 

Great Crested Grebe.— Owing to timely protection I have a 
good account of this species on most of our large broads, but 
unfortunately they return to those waters too soon to come at once 
under the protection of the Act. 

Ring Ouzel.—One shot at St. Faith’s, near Norwich, on the ist. 

Sea Eagle.—A fine young male of this species was shot at 
Stokesby, near Yarmouth, on the 22nd, having been seen for some 
days in that neighbourhood. The bird was brought to me in the 
flesh, and though very fat, I found only a few small fish-bones, 
a little fibrous grass, and fragments of dry reed in the stomach. 

Nocturnal Migrants.—Professor Newton informs me that on 
the 18th, between twelve and one o’clock in the morning, he heard 
birds passing over the town of Cambridge, apparently of but one 
species, although he was unable to recognise the note satisfactorily : 
they continued passing for about ten minutes. I observed the 
same thing at Norwich on the night of the 20th, but not later than 
ten o'clock. 

Woodcock.—A perfectly white woodcock is said to have been 
seen at Corton, near Lowestoft, about the 20th of this month. 
A nest with four eggs, with the bird sitting upon them, was found 
this month in a plantation at West Tofts, and other birds have 
been seen. 

May, 1873. 

Whitewinged Black Terns.— Of this species, no longer a rarity, 
at least in this county, five specimens were killed out of a flock of 
seven, at Hickling, near Yarmouth, on the 30th, and seven more 
are said to have been seen. 

Spoonbill. —One shot on Breydon about the middle of this 
month. . 


JUNE, 1873. 

White Stork.—A fine bird was shot at Potter-Heigham, near 
Yarmouth, on the 5th, no doubt the same recorded in the ‘ Field,’ 
about that time, as observed in the adjoining county. 

Blackbird.—Second nest of young birds hatched on the 8rd. 

Spoonbill.—Three killed at one shot on Breydon on the 9th, and 
a fourth, about the same time, in the same locality. Of the first 
three, two had slight crests and full-sized bills, the other no crest 


THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 3713 


and a bill only seven inches long; this was a female, but all the 
others were males. The single bird had a full crest, but none 
exhibited any yellow colour on the breast. 

Woodcock.—A small red woodcock was caught in a garden at 
Yarmouth on the 14th, and proved a female on dissection. The 
bird was very bare of feathers on the thighs and under parts, but 
showed no other indications of having been nesting; internally it 
seemed to be out of condition. — 

Kingfisher’s Nest.—On the 6th of this month, when the young 
birds were able to fly, I examined a nest of this species, perforated 
into the face ofa large chalk pit, about two feet six inches from 
the top of the jamb, and partly concealed by the overhanging 
grassy summit. This pit is in the parish of Keswick, near Norwich, 
and some two hundred yards from any stream. It is in the 
same neighbourhood as the nest I examined some few years back, 
which was situated in the bank of a meadow-drain. The present 
nest contained six full-fledged young, with the feathers on the top 
of their heads much matted with the soil, which had dried on. 
The chamber itself was domed, four inches deep by six inches 
wide, and just the height of the nestlings, and from the mouth of 
the hole to the back of the nest was nearly twelve inches. On the 
floor were a very few fish-bones, but no other lining of any descrip- 
tion, which confirms my impression that in new nests the eggs 
are laid on the bare soil, and the fish-bones accumulate gradually 
by the castings of the young. I have no doubt the previous nest 
I examined had been used for several seasons, as perfect walls of 
dried fishy matter had formed round it, and still more recent 
deposits were heaving with maggots. In this case, except close to 
the entrance, the nest was perfectly sweet and the fish-bones 
white and dry. The entrance-hole measured three inches by two 
inches in width. I have no question that this nest was made by 
the birds themselves, and not adapted from a sand martin’s or 
other boring. Many small fish which had been dropped by the 
birds were lying at the bottom of the pit, and it is believed that for 
two or three seasons the same pair have nested lower down, at the 
extremity of an old rabbit-burrow. 


JuLy, 1873. 


Swallow's Nest.—Found a nest of this species, on the 16th, 
attached to the side of a rafter in a boat-house, the birds gaining 


3714 THE ZooLoGiIsT—OCcToBER, 1873. 


an entrance only between the bottom of the door and the water. 
The nest, as usual, built of clay and lined with feathers, had a large 
mass of grass-stems hanging over the front, making it look like a 
sparrow’s winter haunt. The eggs were hard set upon. 

Swift.—Unusually numerous this summer in and around Nor- 
wich: I never remember to have seen so many in this neighbour- 
hood as during the intensely hot weather that prevailed in the 
middle of this month, which these birds seemed to revel in, in the 
hottest hours of the day. 

White Starling.—A pure white starling was shown me by a 
birdeatcher, which he had netted with others in the course of this 
month. 

Carnivorous Taste in a Rook.—That rooks destroy the eggs of 
game, particularly in dry seasons, there is no question, and their 
very near relationship to the carrion crow is as strongly marked, at 
times, by carnivorous propensities. Mr. Gurney has informed me 
of the following case in point, which occurred on the 7th of this 
month at Northrepps. The head keeper, when visiting his coops 
in the middle of the day, to feed the young pheasants, observed a 
rook rise from one of the coops, but paid no attention to the 
circumstance at the time. On returning with a supply of water in 
about half an hour he found a young pheasant, quite dead but 
warm, on the spot where the rook had been, and having set a trap, 
baited with a portion of the bird, in less than an hour he found a 
rook dead in the trap. Mr. Gurney examined this bird, which was 
a young one of this season, in good condition, and in its stomach 
found portions of the young pheasant. How the latter was killed it 
is difficult to say, as it was a fine three-quarter grown bird, healthy 
and strong. 

Green Sandpiper.—Mr. Gurney informs me that owing to the 
decoy-pond at Hempstead, near Holt, having been cleared out 
recently, and the mud thrown on to the banks, this species has 
been attracted to the spot in unusual numbers. A few had been 
seen there by the keeper early in the month, but on the evening of 
the 24th no less than ten were seen by Mr. Gurney himself, which 
rose wildly, some singly, others in twos and threes; but they soon 
returned to the same locality from whence they had been flushed. 
Mr. Lubbock, in his ‘ Fauna of Norfolk,’ records a similar abundance 
of this species, many years back, at Norton, in Suffolk, where a 
range of meadow-drains had been “fyed” out in like manner, 


THE ZooLocist—OcToB_ER, 1873. 3715 


and remarks, “The black soil of ditches appears an irresistible 
temptation to it.” 


AvucustT, 1873. 


Green Sandpiper.—An adult bird was shot on the 20th, at the 
margin of a pond at Northrepps; and on the 25th I saw three 
flying together on the banks of the Yare, near Cantley. Two or 
three specimens have been also brought to our Norwich bird- 
stuffers. 

Greenshank.—A bird of this species was shot at the same pond 
as the last-mentioned bird on the 2I]st; it proved to be a bird of 
the year. 

Nocturnal Migrants.—The call-notes of birds over the city have 
been heard on many nights during this month, more particularly 
preceding the thunder and vivid lightning which has occurred on 
several successive evenings, between the hours of nine and twelve. 
On the 15th and 17th the passage of migrants was noticed after 
dark by many individuals. On the night of the 24th, at eleven 
o'clock, very dark, with summer lightning all the evening, I heard 
redshanks whistling overhead, passing apparently in small groups, 
but proceeding due north and south. The same thing occurred 
the next night about nine o’clock, preceding a sharp thunder-storm. 
Stragglers of other species, whose cries were difficult to recognise, 
passed at the same time over my garden—one, an undoubted ringed 
plover, if one might judge by its clamour, flying singly. The red- 
shank’s whistle, as the chief harmony, has been unmistakable this 
autumn, but, strange to say, I have heard no golden plover, which 
usually form the bulk of our whistling night birds. 

Swift and House Martin.—The large number of swifts seen for 
many weeks over my garden had nearly all disappeared prior to 
the 24th of this month, and on the 31st I observed only two pairs 
amongst many house martins. Of the latter a large number con- 
gregated on the slates of a house next to mine on the 31st, but these 
disappeared about mid-day, and I have seen only a few stragglers 
since near this part of the city. During the intensely hot weather 
the house martins, in the hottest glare of the sunshine, ascended 
into the deep blue vault of heaven, and there performed a mazy 
dance, accompanied by loud twittering notes, which alone directed 
the eye to their whereabouts when “scarce so gross as beetles.” 
This I have observed on many occasions, but I think generally 


8716 Tue ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 


during a prevalence of great heat. If swallows and their kindred 
fly low, with impending showers, for their insect prey, do they 
ascend in pursuit of the same during scorching heat? 

Little Gull.—A very young bird, judging by the dark markings 
on the head, back and wings, was shot near Yarmouth, about 
the 25th. 

Temminck’s Stint.—Mr. Gurney informs me that a specimen of 
this stint, a young male of the year, was shot at Hickling on the 
29th, where another (two seen at that time) had been killed about 
a week previously. 

Terns.—Both at Yarmouth and Lowestoft a considerable number 
of these birds, chiefly common terns, have been seen fishing off the 
coast; but several specimens of the arctic tern have been sent to 
Norwich for preservation lately. 

Razorbill and Guillemot.—Said to be very plentiful in the 
“ Roads” this autumn off the Yarmouth coast. At Lowestoft I saw 
lately two guillemots, plucked and dressed like chickens, at a 
poulterer’s shop. I wonder what name they would be sold by if to 
other than fishermen’s wives? 

Sparrowhawk.—FEarly in the morning of the 31st a young male 
of this species was caught inside a covered fowls’ yard at North- 
repps Hall, near Cromer, having, as supposed, dashed itself through 
the top netting. The fowls were shut up, and it is probable, there- 
fore, that two pigeons roosting in the covered yard were the objects 
of his attack, though he seems to have been too much bewildered 
when inside to make any hostile demonstrations. 


HENRY STEVENSON. 
Norwich, September, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Devonshire and Cornwall. 
By JQgHN GATCoMBE, Esq. 
(Continued from 8. 8. 3632). 


Juty, 1873. 
2nd. There are many young wheatears on the banks of the 
Laira. 
4th. Again visited Wembury Cliffs, and found that some of the 
young herring gulls were almost able to fly, although others showed 
a considerable amount of down among their feathers, especially 
about the head; in some places there were three young birds 


THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 3717 


together, and in others only one. Cormorants were plentiful on the 
rocks below, and a quantity of martins were flying in front of the 
high cliffs, on the faces of which no doubt they had their nests. 
Common buntings, too, were plentiful on the walls and bushes in 
the fields above. 

6th. Watched several families of starlings in grass fields, the old 
ones in constant attendance on, and feeding, their young, notwith- 
standing they appeared well able to provide for themselves. 

7th. There were large flocks of herring gulls in the Sound; and 
I am sorry to add that many have been lately killed and taken to 
the birdstuffers, notwithstanding the Sea Birds Act. 

10th. Walked along the coast beyond Bovisand, some miles 
from Plymouth, and was surprised to find a family of six common 
sandpipers on the rocks, which had already left their breeding- 
place on the moor. I do not remember having before seen these 
birds so early on the sea coast after the nesting season. 

14th. Went to the valley of the river Tamar, near Launceston, 
and observed many gray wagtails on the rocks and stones by the 
side of the stream, feeding their young, although the youngsters 
seemed pretty expert in catching insects for themselves. Common 
sandpipers are now becoming rather numerous on the banks. of our 
estuaries, and will soon distribute themselves freely along the sea 
coast preparatory to their departure for the winter. Within the last 
few weeks many kingfishers, young and old, have been killed and 
brought to the birdstuffers. 

16th. My friend Mr. Bignell, of Stonehouse, told me that he had 
seen a family of six Cornish choughs at the Bolt Head, near Sal- 
combe, on the Devonshire coast; and the same gentleman having 
observed a pair of these birds a month or two before at the same 
place, I have no doubt that they bred and brought out four young 
ones, which would account for the family of six seen on the second 
occasion. Bolt Head is, I think, quite a new locality for the 
Cornish chough. 

21st. Saw an adult specimen of the Norfolk plover running 
about in a garden at Stonehouse, and was informed that it had 
been shot at and wounded slightly in the wing some three or four 
months before, near Liskeard, in Cornwall: I mention this as the 
species is so rarely met with in Devon or Cornwall. A redbacked 
shrike was caught with bird-lime and brought to Mr. Rogers, of 
Plymouth, who deals in live birds; and some years since he had a 

SECOND SERIES—VOL., VIII. 3c 


3718 THE ZooLocistT—OcTOBER, 18738. 


woodchat shrike brought to him, caught by a birdcatcher, but in that 
instance the shrike dashed down at a “ call-bird,” and was captured 
in the net. 


AveustT, 1873. 


Ist. Starlings, both young and old, assembled in large flocks to 
roost in some shrubs and trees at Stonehouse this evening. 

4th. Visited the river Tavy on a fishing excursion, and found 
swifts very plentiful in the vicinity. 

5th. A large number of herring gulls in the Sound, both young 
and old, the latter in severe moult, looking very ragged, which has 
been the case for some time past. 

8th. Saw two more young redbacked shrikes, which had been 
caught with bird-lime, kept in a cage, and fed with meal-worms, 
small birds and raw meat. Mr. Rogers told me that they actually 
ate several ripe gooseberries which he threw into the cage. 

llth. A great many curlews, ring dotterel and dunlins on the 
mud-banks of our rivers. From this date until the 16th swifts 
plentiful in the neighbourhood of Plymouth, chasing each other 
and screaming in the early morning and evening. Sparrows are 
now assembling in vast flocks in the stubble-fields. This afternoon 
1 saw a family of redbacked shrikes on a hedgerow, the old birds 
at times feeding the young ones. Lesser blackbacked gulls have 
now returned to our harbours, but I cannot find out where they 
have nested on this part of the coast. 

18th. Observed a flock of linnets, some of the old males among 
which had still magnificent rose breasts, as bright as in spring. 

24th. Remarked the first kingfisher among the rocks on the sea 
coast, where they make their appearance every autumn, but not 
generally so early. 

25th. Observed my last swift, but a friend tells me that he 
thought he saw one a few days later. We have been having some 
severe gales lately, and it was blowing very hard when I saw the 
swift. I read in the ‘ Field’ newspaper accounts of large flocks of 
swifts having been observed flying west over London and Brighton 
in June last, which may perhaps in some measure account for their 
being so plentiful with us in Devon and Cornwall this summer. 
A few weeks since I had a beautiful young swift brought to me 
which had been picked up from the ground stunned, having no 
doubt flown against something: it was kept in a cage all night, 


TuHE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 3719 


but the next day, on giving it its liberty, 1 was rejoiced to see it fly 
away, apparently as well and strong as if nothing had happened. 
I think the young swift of the year is handsomer than the adult 
one, so many of its feathers being delicately edged with a narrow 
line of buffy white. Observed some young oystercatchers on the 
coast to-day, and am glad to find young herons plentiful on the 
mud-banks. Robins have now returned to our gardens in the town, 
and are already uttering their plaintive autumnal song. 

26th. Visited Torquay, where I remarked the first blackheaded 
gull on the coast since the breeding season; it was, I think, an 
adult, which had entirely lost the black hood of summer. The 
weather was very boisterous at the time, blowing a very stiff gale, 
and on a rock a short distance from the shore, called the Shag 
Rock, I saw no less than thirty or forty cormorants, all crouched 
in a horizontal position, with their necks drawn back on their 
shoulders, facing the gale, producing altogether a very strange 
effect, considering these birds generally stand so erect. 

27th. Young gulls are now very plentiful in our harbour, and 
I am sorry to add that one man shot eleven the other morning from 
the rocks as they flew by, the prevailing gales bringing them so 
close to the shore. 

28th. Saw the first tern on the coast: this is rather early, as 
it is rarely seen here until September, and generally after a gale. 
Wheatears are very numerous on the coast just now, which is 
usually the case before their departure for the winter. 

30th. Again rambled along the coast beyond Bovisand, and 
observed a single young redbacked shrike on the edge of the cliff 
skirting the coast. Redbacked shrikes have been more plentiful 
in our neighbourhood this season than I have known them to be 
for some years past. I was much amused at seeing a young 
herring gull make constant dashes at a cormorant in the water, 
which had a large fish in its mouth, much too large to be swallowed 
easily. Directly the gull made a dash, down would go the cor- 
morant, and the moment it reappeared the gull would renew the 
attack, until at last, after the most violent efforts on the part of the 
cormorant, the fish disappeared in its capacious maw. In the 
evening I found the great bunting numerous among the furze- 
bushes on the cliffs, where no doubt they had come to roost; but, 
strange to say, I did not see a single rock pipit during the day, 
although in another month that species will be abundant all along 


3720 Tue ZooLocistT—OcTOoBER, 1873. 


the coast. Swallows and martins have not yet diminished in 
number, but the former are congregating every morning on the tele- 
graph-wires. Martins are in many places still feeding their young. 
Should these gales continue I shall expect to see phalaropes in a 
few days. I have just examined a fine old hobby which had been 
knocked down by a young man with a stone: having lost several 
young ducks lately, and thinking a hawk to be the thief, he watched, 
and had not watched long before he saw the hobby perch on an 
apple tree close by, upon which he took up a stone and knocked it 
down, breaking its wing by the blow; then, after keeping the poor 
bird alive for a few days, he carried it to a birdstuffer, who killed 
and stuffed it; but I could find nothing in its stomach save the 
remains of the common dung beetle. 
JOHN GATCOMBE. 


8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth, 
September 5, 1873. 


On the Migration and Habits of the Curlew Sandpiper (Tringa 
subarquata, Giildenstaedt). By Joun Corpeavx, Esq. 


At the end of the last week in August and early in September 
there was an extraordinary migratory arrival of curlew sandpipers 
in the Great Cotes marshes. 

On the 31st of August I was crossing a very bare sheep-walk, 
about a mile from the shore, when I came upon a flock of small 
waders sitting breast to the wind, and very much resembling little 
lumps of chalk scattered over the short green herbage. I supposed 
them either dunlins or ringed plovers, hundreds of which at this 
season frequent these marshes; but on bringing my binocular to 
bear it became at once apparent that they were neither of these: 
from the peculiar tint of the under parts they might, however, have 
passed muster for young knots in the plumage of the first autumn, 
but if so they were the smallest knots I had ever seen. A nearer 
acquaintance therefore became absolutely necessary before I could 
determine the species, and I had no gun. A slight hollow, where 
an old top grip had been filled in, favoured an approach, and up 
' this I wriggled for some distance, and then slowly bringing my 
eyes level with the surface, found I was within twenty yards; one 
look through the glass at this distance was sufficient to show they 
were curlew sandpipers. There were sixty or seventy, somewhat 


THE ZooLtocist—OcrToBeER, 1873. 3721 


scattered at first; but suspecting something was wrong, they ran 
together in a cluster, and stood looking towards my hiding-place: 
a well-directed shot at this range would have half exterminated 
them. 

They appeared birds of the year, having the same buff-coloured 
wash on the lower neck and breast which we find in the young 
knot. There was a rather conspicuous lightish streak over the 
eye; the bill was long and decurved at the end, but not more so 
than in the dunlin; they stood, however, higher, and looked a 
larger bird than this species. Some on the outside kept rising 
and flying over the heads of those in the rear, showing at the same 
time their most characteristic distinctive mark, the white upper 
tail-coverts. 

In their habits they more nearly resemble the reeve than the 
dunlin: they run rapidly with the tibio-tarsal joints much bent, 
and they have the same habit which we see in the reeve of raising 
themselves, stretching their necks, and peering about when they 
suspect danger. Their flight also is very reeve-like, their long 
pointed wings increasing the resemblance. ‘They fly in a lump or 
cluster, close together, sometimes rising to a considerable height, 
and then again sweeping or skimming the ground, wheeling rapidly 
round the pasture and dashing up to windward, they will alight 
suddenly and commence feeding. 

Later in the day I returned to this field with my gun, but did 
not get a shot: they had then got mixed up with a flock of peewits, 
rising and going off to the coast together. 

September Ist. Again on the look out for the curlew sand- 
pipers, but did not find them in this field. In a marsh about half 
a mile further inland there were about fifteen or twenty in company 
with peewits, and feeding with them. I got a long shot at three, 
dropping one; the survivors, instead of making off, continued to 
fly round and hover (winnowing the air like kestrels) above their 
‘wounded mate, and uttering the most piteous little bird-wail I ever 
heard. It was wonderful to see such an exhibition of feeling and 
sympathy on the part of these little creatures. In an adjoining 
field, a very bare summer-eaten clover, there were many more 
foraging in company with curlews and peewits; these latter rose, 
leading the sandpipers with them. There were probably from one 
hundred to a hundred and fifty; these collected into two flocks, 
flying round in a wide circle, and did not offer a shot. 


3722 THE ZooLoGisT—OcTOoBER, 1878. 


” 


Their call is peculiar; it is not a whistle, but a “chirrup,” and 
may not inaptly be rendered by this word. When the flock are in 
full chorus, which is generally the case when they are on the wing, 
the effect is exceedingly musical and pleasing: it is not unlike the 
twittering of snow buntings, and most opposite to the sharp distinct 
call of the dunlin. 

I saw several other small parties during the next two hours, and 
later two flocks in a thirty-five acre pasture near my marsh farm- 
stead—probably about seventy in one, fifty in the other. I killed 
four out of these, some of the survivors, as in the previous instance, 
hovering for a short time over the dead birds, uttering the same 
pitiful wailing note. 

These flocks all occurred within a comparatively circumscribed 
area, and I can speak positively as to their having been composed 
exclusively of curlew sandpipers. I saw, however, during the day 
many very extensive gatherings of similar appearance careering 
above the marshes at great distances, much too far indeed for 
identification, yet judging from what I had seen on my own land, 
I feel tolerably confident that they also were curlew sandpipers, 
and probably all of them migratory flocks. On the following day, 
as far as I could judge, they had entirely left me district, and 
I have only seen half a dozen since. 

In the specimens procured, the bill and claws are black; the 
legs, tarsi and feet very dark green—the colour known as “in- 
visible green;” iris dark brown. The stomachs of three examined 
were filled entirely with insect remains,—Coleoptera, Diptera, and 
their larvee,—also several sharp angular fragments of quartz, not 
picked up in this district. 


JOHN CoRDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Ulceby, Lincolnshire, 


aa 


Bottlenosed Whales off Penzance.—Five large cetaceans, which, from 
what I saw of them (viz. the back fin and part of the back adjacent to it), 
I believe to be bottlenosed whales, or “ blowers,” passed my boat about 
two miles off the shore here, on Wednesday evening, the 20th of August. 
Three were much larger than the other two.—Thomas Cornish ; Penzance, 
August 22, 1873. 


THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 8723 


A few Last Words on the Cuckoo Question. By the Rev. ALFRED 
CHARLES SmiTH, M.A. 


[I intended, and almost promised, to exclude all communications on this 
subject unless consisting “ wholly or chiefly of facts;” but Mr. Smith, the 
originator of this discussion, in this his final paper, has given so fair, and 
so inoffensive, a review of the whole matter, and the hypothesis which he 
now introduces to our notice is so ingenious, and is stated with so much 
modesty, that I cannot hesitate about departing in this one instance from a 
resolution made perhaps somewhat too hastily —Edward Newman.] 


As IJ had the honour of introducing the question of the colouring 
of cuckoo’s eggs in the pages of the ‘ Zoologist’ in 1868, and again 
in the spring of this year, perhaps I may be allowed to reply to the 
various expressions of opinion called forth in its pages; or rather, 
may be permitted to examine the conclusions to be derived from 
these opinions, which I will try to do as fairly and impartially as 
I can. 

(1) I think I may assume that the balance of opinion favours 
the theory that the eggs of the cuckoo do vary in colour to a 
considerable extent. I hasten to add that there are some, and 
good ornithologists too, who deny this, and who even declare that 
the eggs of the cuckoo are of peculiarly unvarying colour; but it 
will not be disputed that those who so think, or at all events who 
have so declared their opinion, are in a very small minority. 

(2) In the next place I venture to say that it has been pretty 
generally allowed that the eggs of the cuckoo strangely resemble 
the eggs of other birds, especially those among which the egg 
of the cuckoo is frequently found. In the view of the German 
ornithologists, so often quoted in previous papers, this is thought 
to be the rule, though that view is qualified by the addition that 
“to this rule there are very many exceptions.” In the opinions 
of most of our English ornithologists, however, it seems to be 
considered that the rule is in favour of the colour generally 
(perhaps conventionally) assigned by common consent to the 
cuckoo’s egg; and the exceptions (also allowed to be numerous) 
when the egg of that bird resembles those of the species in whose 
nest it is laid. 

On these two points most of those who have examined the 
question are, I think, agreed; but beyond this, opinions differ 


3724 THE ZooLocisT—OcToBER, 1873. 


widely; and when we come to discuss the probable reasons for 
such variation in colour, and assimilation of colour to the eggs 
of the selected foster-parents, there are almost as many theories as 
disputants. The German writers, indeed, appear to be unanimous 
in ascribing this peculiarity to the provision of Nature that “the 
cuckoo’s egg, coloured and marked in a very considerable degree 
like the eggs of those birds in whose nests they are about to be laid, 
might the less easily be recognised by the foster-parents as substi- 
tuted ones.” (‘ Zoologist’ for 1868, p. 1157.) But this explanation 
does not seem to be accepted in England, where it has been 
more than once pointed out that such a provision is wholly 
unnecessary, inasmuch as the foster-parent willingly accepts the 
intruded egg, whether with or without such resemblance to its own 
in colour. The cause above assigned therefore does not seem to 
our ornithologists to be adequate, and so a variety of conjectures 
has been hazarded, and a multitude of reasons suggested, but none 
of them to my judgment in any degree convincing, or indeed so 
plausible, as the original motive assigned by Dr. Baldamus and his 
followers. 

And yet, could we but discover it, there must be some sufficient 
cause for so peculiar a habit. I hardly like to hazard_a conjecture, 
which may in all probability turn out to be a mere fancy; but it 
has occurred to my mind many times of late whether it is possible 
that the young cuckoo can by any means derive from its foster- 
parent so much of that nurse’s nature (whether by the diet on which 
it has been brought up, on which exclusively the young of the 
foster-parent would, had they survived, have been fed or otherwise), 
as when its own turn for breeding arrived, to affect (though un- 
consciously to itself) the colouring of the eggs it laid. 1 do not 
offer this as a solution of our difficulty: I merely throw it out as a 
hint or a fancy which has suggested itself to my thoughts; but 
before it is rejected as far-fetched and ridiculous, let me submit 
these few considerations to those who care to pursue the enquiry. 

First, however, I would mention in passing, as worthy of obser- 
vation, that the young cuckoo has been oftentimes declared to have 
acquired the exact note of its foster-parents. Of this Mr. Thompson 
gives decisive evidence in the case of a young cuckoo which was 
taken out of a titlark’s nest, and of which he says, “for several 
weeks after the cuckoo was placed in confinement it uttered, when 
in want of food, a note so closely resembling that of the titlark 


THE ZooLoGist—OcTokRER, 1873. 3725 


that it would have been almost impossible to distinguish between 
them.”* It is true this may be mere mimicry, or the result of 
imitation; but it must be remembered that in calling for food, the 
young cuckoo can only imitate the note of its foster-parents, its 
foster-brethren having perished on its account in their infancy. 
Here then we have the young cuckoo in one important respect 
partaking of the nature of its foster-parents. I do not, however, 
wish to push this point too far, or to lay greater stress upon it than 
it deserves. Let it be taken for what it is worth, though I think it 
deserves consideration in connection with the subject before us. 

And now, in support of my fancy, I first unhesitatingly assert 
that the cuckoo, about to lay her egg, has no more notion of its 
colour than any other bird has. The will of the parent has nothing 
whatever to do with it. Iam too ignorant of the process by which 
the pigment or colouring matter is diffused over the egg, or of the 
exact moment when it receives that pigment before leaving the 
oviduct, to be able to show by conclusive reasoning that birds, of 
whatever species, are wholly passive and unconscious, while the 
colouring of their eggs is going on; but I venture to assert, without 
much fear of opposition, that such is the case with all birds, and 
with the cuckoo not less than with other species. 

What it is that influences the colouring matter, and produces 
a blue egg for one species, a brown egg for another, and a reddish 
egg for a third, I can no more describe than I can account for the 
varying colours in plumage in the respective species of birds. 
Whether the colouring process in regard to the egg is influenced in 
any degree by the kinds of food the bird eats, I do not know; 
though that food has an effect on the colour of the plumage of 
birds I do know; of this the familiar case of the bullfinch 
becoming black if fed on hemp-seed, is a well-known and sufficient 
example. 

Next, I submit that in all probability the young of the several 
species of even our insect-eating warblers are not fed on precisely 
the same diet. This in many cases is obvious; because whereas 
one species procures its insect-food near the banks of streams or 
ponds, another in our meadows and gardens, and another in the 
hedgerows and ditches, these must undoubtedly feed their young 
on the insects which abound in the districts they severally frequent. 
Then I think it is not improbable that the same rule holds good in 

* -Natural History of Ireland,’ vol. i. p. 360. 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 3D 


3726 TuE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 


regard to all species of birds. I mean that the hedge accentor 
will feed its young with one kind of food, the robin with another, 
and the wagtail with a third, and so on throughout the list of 
foster-parents to which the cuckoo entrusts her progeny. If this 
be conceded, and if it be considered possible that diet may affect 
the colouring matter of the eggs, we are advanced some way on the 
road towards allowing the plausibility of my fancy. 

But I would now observe that if any hen bird of any species 
arrived at maturity be dissected and examined, it will be found that 
her ovary will contain the germs of all the eggs she will ever lay 
during her life-time. It is not impossible, then, that if influenced 
at all by the nutriment on which she was brought up, she may be 
permanently influenced, in regard to the colouring of all the eggs 
she will lay. Not to mention that it is far from unlikely that a 
cuckoo, hatched by a hedgesparrow or wagtail, might ever after 
affect the diet to which it was first accustomed, just as an Eton 
Colleger returns in after life with extreme relish to the roast mutton 
which formed his daily dinner at school. 

It is true that in this theory I have no precedent or even 
analogy in the feathered race to guide me, for how can one expect 
a precedent in aught that pertains to so exceptional a species as 
the cuckoo? but still I have some sort of corroborative evidence to 
adduce from the insect world. I allude to the case of bees; and 
it is now an acknowledged fact that in the event of any accidental 
destruction or unexpected loss of the queen bee (when provision 
had not been made for her successor, after the usual custom, by 
rearing princesses in the cells specially prepared for the royal 
brood) the nurses will adopt the grub of an ordinary worker, and 
by feeding it with a special diet, reserved on other occasions for 
the royal cells alone, will from that worker grub develope a queen, 
differing in size and colgur as well as vocation from the individual 
it would under ordinary circumstances have become.* Such a 
permanent effect in this case has a particular diet on the uncon- 
scious and passive infant. 

I repeat that the theory I have been discussing is but a fancy, 
but possibly it may be worth examination. When first it occurred 
to me I made an effort to get it corroborated, or overthrown, by 
laying it before one whose authority in such matters is of European 
reputation, and who would have carried conviction in its favour, or 


* See Bevan on the Honey Bee, p. 21. 


THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1878. 3727 


the contrary, by any decided opinion upon it he expressed. But 
when, in answer to my enquiries, he most kindly replied “ that he 
had no sufficient information on the point, such as would warrant 
him to pronounce any dogmatic judgment on it,” I thought it not 
altogether worthless; and hence I submit it to the readers of the 
‘Zoologist.’ I should, however, in candour own that the naturalist 
to whom I wrote, but whose name I have no authority for men- 
tioning, added, “ My zmpression is that differences of food would 
not produce the effects which you suppose possible; and that im- 
pression is derived chiefly from there being hardly any evidence of 
variations being due to slight differences in the nature of the food.” 
My correspondent then proceeds to give me several interesting 
examples of change of colour in plumage, and especially calls my 
attention to the paper (in Proc. Zool. Soc.) on the Australian 
cuckoos by Mr. Ramsay, where that gentleman “ states that two of 
the species when they lay their eggs in an open nest, manifest a 
decided preference for nests containing eggs similar to their own 
in colour.” 

This is all I have to say about the eggs of the cuckoo. It is 
true that we have arrived at no absolute conclusion: we have yet 
much to learn about that mysterious bird. Still I submit that the 
discussion which has taken place in the pages of the ‘ Zoologist’ 
has not been without its value, nor without its interest; and I for 
oue shall be exceedingly pleased if the subject is renewed next 


year. ; 
ALFRED CHARLES SMITH. 
Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 

September 6, 1873. 


Report of the ‘Close Time’ Committee of the British Association 
for the Advancement of Science (Section D). 
BraprorD, 1873. 

Tue Commirrer re-appointed at Brighton, for the purpose of con- 
tinuing the investigation on the desirability of establishing a ‘“ Close- 
Time” for the preservation of indigenous animals, beg leave to report 
as follows :— 

1. The apprehension expressed by your Committee in their last 
Report, as to the probable effects of the Wild Birds Protection Act, 
has been more than justified by events, for, so soon as that Act came 
to be applied, it gave almost universal discontent, and your Com- 
mittee have not found one person who is satisfied with it. 


3728 THE ZooLocist—OcrToBeErR, 1873. 


2. In the House of Commons, Mr. Auberon Herbert moved and 
obtained the appointment of a Select Committee to consider the 
subject of the Protection of Wild Birds. 

8. Three members of your Committee, on being summoned, gave 
evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons. 

4, The Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons 
has not, to your Committee’s regret, yet been published, but your 
Committee have good reason for believing that it will contain the 
following recommendations :— 


“‘(i) That the protection of certain wild birds named in the Schedule 
of the Wild Birds Protection Act of 1872 be continued. 

“ (ii) That all other wild birds be protected from 15th March to 
1st August, provided that owners or occupiers of lands, and 
persons deputed by them, have permission to destroy such 
birds on lands owned or occupied by them. 

“‘ (iii) That one of Her Majesty’s Secretaries of State be empowered to 
except, in any particular district, any bird from the protection 
afforded, either by the Act of 1872 or by the proposed Act, 
if he think necessary to do so. 

“ (iy) That, for the sake of giving better protection to the swimmers 
and waders, no dead bird, if such bird is mentioned in the 
Sea-Fowl Preservation Act, or the Wild Birds Protection Act 
of 1872, be allowed, from 15th March to 1st August, to be 
bought and sold, or exposed for sale, whether taken in this 
country or said to be imported from any other country. 

‘“‘(y) That any violation of this proposed Act, or of the Wild Birds 
Protection Act of 1872, be punished by the payment of costs 
alone for the first offence, except under aggravated circum- 
stances, and the payment of costs and a fine not exceeding 
5s. for every offence after the first.” 


5. Your Committee wish emphatically to condemn these recom- 
mendations as a whole, and all but one of them separately, for the 
following reasons, numbered as are the recommendations :— 


i. The great majority of the birds named in the Schedule of the Act 
of 1872 do not require protection, as has been shown in former 
Reports of your Committee; they therefore think that in the 
present state of public opinion it is inexpedient that such pro- 
tection should be accorded to them. 

ii. That for the sake of protecting other wild birds, most of which 
certainly do not want protection, rights would be continued to 
owners and occupiers of land which would be denied to other 
persons: consequently the principle of privilege, usually urged 
as one of the strongest objections to the Game Laws of this 
country, would be introduced into the proposed Act, which 
would thereby be subject to the attacks of all those who are 


Tue ZooLocist—OcrTosBeEr, 1873. 3729 


opposed to those Laws. Further, that if there be any need to 
protect such other wild birds, the need is greater, in most cases, 
to protect them from the owners and occupiers of land than 
from other persons. 

iii. That the power to be given to the Secretary of State would virtually 
be that of repealing the Act, either entirely or in regard to any 
particular kind or kinds of birds, at his sole will and pleasure, 
without his acting on the opinion of any responsible adviser or 
expert assessor; and that in consequence of such unlimited 
power being entrusted to a high officer of State, who cannot be 
expected to have any personal knowledge of the intricacies of 
the questions involved, the results would in most cases be highly 
unsatisfactory to all persons concerned ; it being also taken into 
consideration that the state of the law would vary very con- 
siderably in different parts of the country, even perhaps in dif- 
ferent parts of the same county. Furthermore, the granting of 
such power to any authority presumes that some kinds of birds 
would be at once exempted from protection, which is tanta- 
mount to inviting persecution on such kinds of birds as would 
be included in what has been termed a “‘ Black List.” 

iv. With this recommendation your Committee have the pleasure of 
entirely concurring. 

y. The anticipation of your Committee, that the penalties imposed by 
the Act of 1872 would be found insufficient, having been proved 
by experience to be true, your Committee consider that the 
proposed increase of such penalties is quite inadequate to secure 
efficiency to the new Act; regard, however, being had to the 
indefinite phrase, “except under aggravated circumstances,” 
the meaning of which your Committee cannot explain. 


Finally, your Committee wish to point out that, so far as they have 
the means of knowing the nature of the evidence given before the 
Select Committee of the House of Commons, the four recommendations 
which they condemn are directly opposed to that evidence. 

6. The increasing interest taken by the public generally in the 
question which your Committee have been now for five years 
appointed to investigate, is shown by signs too numerous to mention. 
Your Committee, however, observe with regret that in the minds of 
some persons it has been mixed up, if not confounded, with other 
questions which are entirely distinct. Two of these may be specified 
—(1) the Utility of Birds to Agriculturists, and (2) the State of the 
Law as regards Cruelty to Animals. Your Committee not having 
been appointed to consider these questions, content themselves with 
remarking that both are doubtless of great importance to the com- 
munity, the one from a moral and the other from a material point of 
view, but are likewise entirely outside the duty of your Committee. 


3730 THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 


7. In order to assist the clearer view which your Committee hope 
that the public will in time take of the question of Bird-Protection, 
your Committee unanimously beg leave to submit for consideration 
the following remarks as to any future legislation :— 


(1) However much we may desire it, we cannot in practice stop the 
killing of some birds during the breeding-season: if we pass 
a law totally prohibiting it, that law will either be evaded, 
or, if enforced, will become so irksome as to be speedily 
repealed. 

(2) No law, to be effectual, should pick and choose certain kinds of 
birds, leaving out nearly-allied kinds. 

(3) An effectual law, dealing with a whole group of birds, may be 
passed, as witness the highly successful ‘Sea-Birds Preservation 
Act.’ 

(4) A law protecting birds which cannot be shown to want protection 
is a mistake. 

(5) The crucial test of whether a bird wants protection or not, 
is whether its numbers are decreasing or the contrary. 

(6) With some very few exceptions (nearly each of which can be 
satisfactorily explained), none of what are commonly known 
as ‘‘Small Birds” are decreasing throughout the United 
Kingdom generally. 

(7) Most “Small Birds” are generally increasing in numbers, some 
remarkably so, 

(8) Setting aside ‘‘Sea-Birds,” which may now be considered safe, 
no birds have so much diminished in numbers as “ Birds of 
Prey ” and ‘‘ Wild Fowl.” 

(9) No law for the protection of “ Birds of Prey,” if passed, could be 
at present carried out. 

(10) A law protecting ‘‘ Wild Fowl,” if passed, could be carried out 
effectually, provided that the penalties are in proportion to the 
inducement to break it. 

(11) “Wild Fowl” form a group subject to great persecution on 
account of their marketable value, especially as articles of 
food: they are commonly killed (many of them because then 
more easily killed) long after they have paired and have begun 
to breed ; they, besides, lie under the same disadvantage as do 
the few ‘‘ Small Birds” which are decreasing—the diminution, 
namely, through agricultural improvements, of their breeding- 
haunts: already many kinds of ‘‘ Wild Fowl,” which a few 
years ago used to breed frequently and regularly in this 
country, have ceased or nearly ceased from doing so: they are 
perfectly innocuous; consequently ‘‘ Wild Fowl” are emi- 
nently deserving of protection. 

(12) The principle of what has been called a “ Black List,” favoured 
by some persons, would be the most fatal step of all in Bird- 
Protection, since it would discourage, if not entirely check, the 


THE ZooLocist—OcrToBeER, 1873. 3731 
healthy feeling which is steadily, if not rapidly, growing in 
favour of many birds which have long been persecuted. 


8. Your Committee respectfully urge that they may be re- 
appointed. 


The Mammoth still in the Land of the Living, —The ‘New York 
World’ describes an interview between one of its correspondents and 
Cheriton Batchmatchnik, a Russian convict, lately pardoned by the Govern- 
ment in consideration of his wonderful discoveries in Siberia, to which 
territory he had been banished for smuggling. Cheriton had escaped from 
the mines of Nartchinsk, and having reached the mountains struck south- 
ward for the Amoor River, intending to get to China. Meeting Cossacks, 
he again turned north, and essayed what seemed to be a pass in the great 
Altai range. For thirty days he scrambled about seeking in vain for an 
outlet. At length he got out to the north, together with one of the branches 
of the Lena river. He then turned eastward, and was entering the gorges 
of the Aldan mountains when winter overtook him. Across the snow, how- 
ever, came vast troops of animals, all going the same way. Cheriton 
followed them, arrived at the summit of the range, and there, far below his 
feet, landlocked between great ranges of hills-on all sides, lay a valley fifty 
miles wide by one hundred and fifty long, and centred by a blue lake. 
He descended and found the valley warm and fertile, and full of animals. 
At night he made a fire and lay down beside it to sleep. During the 
night — “ Dark shadowy forms came over the water, splashing towards 
him, and seemed to seek what his fire might mean. The trampling of 
great beasts, that crushed the willow-stalks like pipe-stems, on their way to 
the water’s edge, and that came and stood over him, breathing heavily and 
slow as they seemed to gaze at the fire with stupid wonder, made him afraid 
_ each moment of being overrun. Wild eyes, reflecting the fire-light, shone 
around him out of the gloom upon all sides, and wilder cries and howls 
gave new horrors to his position. He sprang to his feet almost paralysed 
with fright, and fired off his pistol at the nearest intruder. The echo of the 
shot rang long around him, and it seemed the signal for the cries of a 
thousand new monsters to burst furth. There were mad, plunging rushes 
of frightened beasts around him that made the ground tremble; a peculiar 
long, shrill, quavering shriek sounded over the lake, and was answered by a 
harsh, full-guttural bellow near at hand. When Cheriton awoke it was 
broad day, and there were no traces of the animals that had disturbed him 
over night, except the paths they had worn going down to the water. In 
these paths he saw the deep-planted spoor of some animal larger than any- 
thing of the sort he had ever before beheld. His first care was to 
seek some place to pass the next night, where he could be free from 


3732 THE ZooLocist—OcToBeER, 1873. 


the alarms that had made the past night so terrible. He re-crossed the 
meadow, and followed the edge of the slope around in the direction in which 
he saw some rocks. Among them he found the wide and lofty entrance to 
acave. He entered with some precautions, for the rocky payement was 
worn as if by use, and within he heard a slow, measured movement as of an 
animal gently ruminating, and heavily breathing with great calm inspirations 
and expirations like the sigh of a smith’s bellows. One turn, then another, 
he heard a heavy startling snort, and there in the half light of the cave, 
standing full before him, alive, chewing the cud, and waving its proboscis 
to and fro with a slow, gentle, majestic motion, he sawv—a mammoth! ‘I 
did not know then,’ said Cheriton, ‘what I have since been told, that 

Siberia was an old habitat of these animals, and that some of the best scien- 
tific judges are uncertain whether to look upon the remains found on the 
shores of the Arctic Ocean as fossil animals or as the remnants of wandering 
herds caught and perishing in storms, individuals of which may still exist 
under favourable circumstances. Without intending it I have solved that 
doubt.’ Cheriton describes the mammoth as being a very imposing looking 
animal, covered with reddish brown wool and long black hair. During his 
stay in the valley he was close to five of them, all of which were nearly of a 
size, being about twelve feet high, eighteen feet long, with tusks projecting 
about four feet, and being eight to ten feet counting the curve. The skin, 
which was bare on the upper surface of the ears, on the knees, and rump, 
was of a mouse-colour, and seemed very thick. The animal was nocturnal 
in its habits, frequenting caves or forest depths by day, and feeding at night 
and early morning. Cheriton thinks there might be some fifteen or twenty 
of these monsters in the valley altogether, but that all these are aged, and 
that very few are born now-a-days. At any rate he saw none that had the 
least appearance of being young. They were very peaceable animals, torpid 
and sluggish as old oxen, never disturbing Cheriton, nor indeed taking 
much notice of him. * * * The lake was inhabited by a monster of 
which Cheriton was in constant dread, a sort of saurophidian, which he 
described as being thirty feet long, and armed with scales and horrible fangs. 
This monster—he never saw but the one—was master of the lake, and lived 
by devouring the animals which came by night to its brink to drink. 
Cheriton gives a graphic and exciting description of a contest which he 
witnessed one morning at early dawn between this crocodile-serpent and 
one of the mastodons. ‘The battle, which lasted more than an hour, ended 
in the discomfiture of the mammoth, which could barely limp away after 
having been constricted in the serpent’s folds.” 

- [Although fully aware of the advantages of what the late Thomas Moore 
called a “ heliacal rising,” I postponed the publication of this extraordinary 
narrative for a month for two reasons: first, because my notice of Mr. Mog- 
gridge’s volume had already been deferred for an unreasonable time; and 


THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 3733 


secondly, because I thought it possible some counter-statement about the 
mammoths might appear, showing that the narrative itself was one of those 
jeux desprits for which our transatlantic brethren are so deservedly cele- 
brated. A month, however, has elapsed, and not only have we received no 
official contradiction, but the statement has been thought worthy of repro- 
duction by Professor Feuchtwanger, before the “ American Association for 
the Advancement of Science.” The learned Professor says:—‘ The dis- 
covery of the mammoths in Siberia in the deep gorges of the mountains 
near the Lena Viner, which was lately published as having been made by a 
scientific Russian convict, who had seen five living animals, twelve feet in 
height and eighteen feet in length, with projecting tusks four feet long, 
excites some discussion in Europe. I think it worthy of inquiry whether 
the mammoth of the post-tertiary period, discovered during this century in 
Siberia, near the same river, can have any relation to the convict’s discovery. 
Thousands of these animals have been found buried in the ice, with their 
well-preserved skins, and thousands of tusks are brought to England to this 
day for the use of the turner. These are of nearly the same dimensions as 
those seen by the Russian. The convict has received an unconditional 
pardon, on the recommendation of scientific men who have investigated his 
statements and believe them to be true.” I must confess to feeling some 
hesitation in receiving as true Zoology such an astounding statement; there 
are also certain of the details, particularly that relating to chewing the cud, 
which could scarcely emanate from a “ scientific” observer, and so the learned 
Professor calls him. I would avail myself of this opportunity for inviting 
attention to a paper of my own on the Siberian mammoth, published at 
page 1 of the ‘ Zoologist,’ under date of January, 1843. From this it 
appears that M. Klaproth published a note on the same subject in the 
‘Memoirs of the Academy of St. Petersburgh’ in the early part of the 
present century (see vol. v. p. 409). In this there is abundant evidence 
of the head, tusks, legs, and even entire bodies of mammoths having been 
repeatedly found, at the beginning of the present century, in so recent a 
state that bears and dogs fed on the flesh: portions of skin and hairs are 
preserved in the Museum of the London College of Surgeons. The extract 
from the ‘ New York World’ is reprinted from the ‘ Standard’ newspaper.— 
Edward Newman.] 


Blackbird Nesting on the Ground.—I may add two other instances of 
this to the already numerous accounts which have been published: one was 
in the forest, and the nest was built at the root of an old thorn bush, 
and when found it contained two eggs. The other instance was on the 
heaths in the vicinity of Ringwood; the nest was built on the side of a hill, 
under an overhanging tuft of heather. I frequently inspected this nest 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 3E 


8734 THE ZooLocist—OcrToBER, 1873. 


from its commencement, and eventually the old birds brought off a brood of 
four.—G. B. Corbin; Ringwood, 1873. 

Dartford Warbler.—I have somewhat recently had the pleasure of making 
the acquaintance of this interesting little species, and although perhaps my 
observations are shallow, yet I trust they are not wholly devoid of interest. 
I first detected the species, upon a wide heath with here and there patches 
of furze, on the 1st of January of the present year, when I saw a single 
male, whose presence at that time of year adds another proof of the species, 
some at least, wintering with us in the South of England. LIalso sawa 
pair of the birds, at the beginning of February, not far from the place 
where I had previously seen the male, so I searched most closely on subse- 
quent occasions in the hope of finding their nest, but without success. On 
some of my visits I did not see or hear the birds at all, and seldom had a 
good view of them even when they were detected, as they are exceedingly 
restless, especially when closely watched. However, on the 4th of August 
I had the pleasure of watching two pairs for an hour or more. It was a 
somewhat difficult matter to get a good sight of them, unless great caution 
was exercised, and furze bushes are not the most agreeable neighbours at 
any time, and especially when you have to be continually changing your 
position amongst them. I noticed that these little birds almost invariably 
flew in pairs, and seemed greatly attached to each other. Their flight was 
a jerking sort of motion, somewhat similar to the longtailed tit, and the 
long tail of this warbler helped to increase the similarity. They were 
continually fluttering from one bush to another, and if one of the birds flew 
a greater distance than usual its mate was sure to follow it very soon. 
They generally, I may say invariably, entered the bush at or near the 
bottom, and on first alighting always jerked their tail up and down a few 
times, then proceeded to inspect the branches of the furze very minutely, 
seeming to capture any tiny insect that was lodging in the crevices of the 
bark, and at this time the bird appeared entirely absorbed in its work, as 
on one occasion it came so near that I could almost have touched it with my 
hand if I had chosen. In its activity and vigilance it reminds one of the 
blue tit upon a budding apple tree, or a sedge warbler amongst the pea- 
sticks in the garden, as its attitudes are often grotesque and at all times 
very pleasant to a lover of the feathered tribes, who ever loves to watch the 
quick eye and lithe movements of his tiny pets. The notes of the Dartford 
warbler are somewhat varied; it has a single note, like “cheep,” which it 
utters once or twice at intervals, and especially when one bird is calling the 
other, but when they are together searching amongst the furze branches they 
keep up a continued and pleasant sort of chatter, which is very difficult to 
describe by words; there is, however, a passage in this ditty which is pretty 
nearly expressed in the syllables “ chit-to-we,” laying particular stress upon 
the first. Its vocal powers ure not very strong, as, from its small size, we 


THE ZooLtocist—OcToBeEr, 1873. 8735 


might imagine to be the case, for in this particular ability it does not 
resemble our common wren, whose strength of song, at times, appears not 
reasonably to belong to its puny possessor. As far as I have been able to 
observe, the habits of the Dartford warbler are altogether unobtrusive and 
retiring, and, unless looked for, it is seldom seen; and, unlike its almost 
constant companion, the stonechat, it seldom perches in a conspicuous 
position, but once or twice during the summer I saw the male perched on the 
top of a furze-bush, singing its peculiar little song very sweetly. But 
although retiring in disposition and apparently shy, the bird is, I suspect, 
seldom resident near a lover of birds without being detected, for its notes 


are different from any other bird I am acquainted with; and once seen it is 


not easily overlooked, for its short wings and long tail, together with its dark 
plumage, at once separate it from any other warbler. A few weeks since a 
gamekeeper had doubtlessly seen the birds about which I have written, as 
he told me he had seen some small birds of nearly a black colour and with 
long tails amongst the furze bushes, where I had previously seen the male 
on the 1st of January; so I suspect, with some show of reason, that the 
species has bred in the locality this summer. The gamekeeper, however, 
like myself, was quite unsuccessful in discovering the nest, though at the 
end of July he told me he had seen one of the old birds with something in 
its beak, as if it had young ones in the neighbourhood. The species is 
said to be not uncommon in the New Forest in the summer time, but I am 
quite sure it is not of usual occurrence in those parts where I most often 
collect insects; and during the past summer I met two men whose precarious 
living seems to be obtained at that season by taking birds’ eggs and selling 
them, and neither of these men appeared to know the bird, or anything of 


its nidification, and I suspect they would if it was as common as it has been 


represented to be, as they had eggs of the stonechat, chiffchaff and willow 
wren, beside woodpeckers, &c., when I met them.—G. B. Corbin. 
Criticisms on Mr. Durnford’s “ Ornithological Notes.”—In the Septem- 
ber number of the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 3694) Mr. Durnford writes in reference 
to a note of mine which appeared (S. 8. 3641): “ He is right in saying that 
in more than one instance I have gained my information second-hand, 
which he appears to speak of in very disparaging terms, though almost in 
the same breath giving us a second-hand note himself.” Far be it from my 
intention to write disparagingly of second-hand information unless it is 
evidently erroneous, which it appears to be in this instance. Mr. Durnford 
has mistaken my meaning and intention when I penned the sentence to which 
he takes objection, viz. ‘In more than one instance in which this gentleman 
appears to have gained his information second-hand, I am inclined to hazard 
the opinion that he has been misinformed.” In this sentence I endeavoured 
to transfer the onus of an obvious mistake from Mr. Durnford to his in- 
formant, and attempted to cover his retreat by mentioning a communication 


8736 THE ZooLocist—OctToseER, 1873. 


I had received from a Scotch correspondent (a most accurate and careful 
observer) which bore somewhat on the subject. As Mr. Durnford states 
that he thoroughly believes in the trustworthiness of his informants, one 
of whom told him that in the end of May the young of the Sandwich 
tern had flown and left the neighbourhood with their parents, all I can say 
is, that I do not, nor would any other person who had paid attention to the 
breeding habits of this species in Great Britain.—H. W. Feilden; Wool- 
wich, September 1, 1878. 

The Flamingo Killed in the Isle of Sheppey—The fact of a flamingo 
having flown away from the Zoological Gardens only two or three days 
before the notice-of one having been killed in the Isle of Sheppey (8. 8." 
3693), renders it extremely probable that this escape was the bird in 
question. I was only aware when it was too late to correct the paragraph 
of the loss the Zoological Society had sustained.—EHdward Newman. 


Vipers in the New Forest.—This reptile has been unusually abundant 
in the forest during the summer, whilst its relation, the common snake, has 
been comparatively rare; I have not seen above half-a-dozen of the latter 
during the whole season, whilst I have killed as many vipers, and saw a 
great many more, in one day’s entomological ramble in the woods and on 
the heaths. In July, whilst with a friend, searching amongst some grass 
for specimens of the pretty little moonwort fern, the locality for which we 
had discovered the previous summer, I almost knelt upon a viper about 
twenty inches long, but it made good its escape into a large and very tangled 
bed of moss and heather, and we continued our search somewhat unsuccess- 
fully, and had almost forgotten the viper, till my attention was attracted to 
the bed of heather by a very slight but seemingly most peculiar noise, and 
as we had never heard a viper make any but a blowing or hissing noise, we 
determined to find out what it was: setting to work very cautiously we 
gently removed the moss, &c., and were not long in finding a hole, which 
led into a sort of gallery, and from which this peculiar little sound came. 
We carefully removed portions of this gallery and as we approached the 
inner end saw the viper glide away from a mouse’s nest, in which one very 
young. mouse, about the size of a ground-beetle, was left. We concluded 
that the viper had swallowed the other, probable, inmates of the nest, and 
had relished the dainty morsels, but having a wish to ramble farther just 
then he had made off, as we searched in vain to discover his whereabouts. 
Whether the viper had destroyed the parent mice, or that they were on a 
foraging expedition, Iam unable to say; we did not see them. Had we 
caught the viper we should certainly have dissected the glutton. Is it 
possible that the continued slaughter of the hawks, kestrels, &c., may 
account for the increase in numbers of the viper ?—G. B. Corbin. 


TuHE ZooLtocist—OcrToseER, 1873. 3737 


A few Notes on Flying Fish. 
By Gervase F, Matuew, R.N., F.L.S. 


Durine long voyages in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans I have 
had opportunities of closely observing the habits of flying fish, so 
perhaps a few remarks about them may not be devoid of interest. 

The first point to be considered is whether these fish make use 
of their pectoral fins, after they have once sprung from the sea, to 
aid them in prolonging their flight. Now, in many books I have 
read it has been stated that these fins are never so used, but kept 
rigidly expanded until the fish drops into the sea; and, again, 
somewhere else I have seen it just as confidently asserted that they 
always make use of them. As far as my experience goes neither 
of these statements is correct, for I have frequently seen the 
pectorals used, though not perhaps as a rule, as it entirely depends 
on the length of flight the fish is desirous of making and the force 
of the wind at the time. In the Atlantic Ocean during our long 
passage from Plymouth to Magellan’s Straits I never saw a fish 
flutter its pectorals in any way, but they were by no means so 
abundant in the Atlantic as in the Pacific Ocean, where these 
observations were chiefly made, while on a voyage in the tropics 
from Payta in Peru to Honolulu in the Sandwich Islands. There 
is no doubt, although, as I have said before, it has been questioned, 
that these fish when taking long flights have the power to use, and 
constantly do use, their pectorals to assist them in prolonging their 
course, for I have observed that those fish which usually take the 
longest flights invariably on leaving the sea vibrate their fins 
rapidly several times in succession, and after proceeding for a 
hundred yards or so descend with a gliding motion to a wave- 
crest, strike the water smartly with their tails* and ricocheting 
proceed onwards with renewed flutterings of the pectorals and 
fresh vigour. In this way fish can sustain their flight for more than 
three hundred yards, and at no time when they strike the sea do 
they entirely submerge themselves. On one occasion a large shoal 
numbering many hundreds, frightened by the passing ship, sprang 
from the sea close alongside; at the time I was standing in the 
stern walk, and my attention was drawn to them by the noise 
caused by the fluttering of their numerous fins, and this shoal 


* The lower lobe of the caudal fin is twice the size and double the strength and 
thickness of the upper portion, 


3738 TuE ZooLocist—OcrToBER, 1873. 


proceeded to a considerable distance before falling into the sea. 
When these fish merely take a short flight they leap from the 
water, spread their fins, proceed a little distance and fall into the 
sea again with a splash; and, indeed, they all do this, for they do 
not seem to have the power of diving gracefully beneath their native 
element. 

The distance they are able to traverse at one time has been 
variously estimated. Asa rule I should consider fifty yards the 
ordinary extent of their flight, although this of course depends on 
the force of the wind and the direction the fish may be taking. 
Two hundred yards would be an unusually long flight, but I have 
occasionally seen individuals go at least a huudred yards further, 
and I believe if hard pressed they could even exceed that. The 
distance a fish travels through the air after ricocheting from a 
wave-top before it again touches the sea, is often much greater 
than its original flight, and besides gaining fresh impetus from this 
contact they also re-moisten their gills and refresh themselves. 
Were they not to do this they would be unable to proceed far, for 
the tropical sun striking down on them would soon dry up the 
delicate filaments composing their breathing apparatus. With 
regard to their position when leaving the sea, and their power to 
turn to the right or left of their original course of flight, I feel sure, 
from the observations I have made, that they nearly always rise 
head to wind, but can turn to the right or left at pleasure. Some- 
times indeed they will turn completely round and go away rapidly 
to leeward. What struck me as a most peculiar characteristic is 
their power, when in the air, of rising and falling with each swell, 
for during moderate weather I have often observed them spring 
from the sea, glide above a wave, fall into the succeeding hollow, 
rise to the next wave, and so continue to the end of their flight 
without once touching the sea. Occasionally when alarmed they 
rise anyhow, and proceed towards all the points of the compass. 
When in mid-flight I do not believe they can suddenly divert their 
course, for one afternoon, as we were steering for the anchorage off 
Arica, a fish emerged from the sea within ten yards of the ship and 
flew directly towards her, coming so violently into contact with the 
ship’s side that it fell stunned, and floated astern on the surface of 
the sea with its pectoral fins rigidly expanded. 

. In somé book, a long while ago, I remember having seen a 
pretty picture representing a shoal of flying fish hotly pursued by 


THE ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 3739 


dolphins ; some of the poor fish were seeking safety in the air, but 
even here they were being pounced upon by a number of birds, so 
that they seemed to have no chance of escaping whatever. Now 
the dolphin part of the picture is correct enough, for these beautiful 
fish (Coryphene) are the direst enemies flying fish have, being 
endued with wonderful powers of speed, and indeed often leaping 
from the sea in pursuit of their prey; and, added to this species, 
I have no doubt boneta, albicore and various other predacious 
creatures are constantly chasing them, and to escape these they 
seek shelter in another element, but I have never yet seen a bird of 
any description attempt to seize them while in the air, nor am I 
acquainted with anyone who has witnessed such a thing. As far 
as my experience goes (in the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans) I know 
of no bird that could manage to catch them; the various species 
of albatross, petrels, gulls, skuas and shearwaters are either too 
slow on the wing or too small. Frigate birds are said to stoop at 
them, but I have not seen them do so; gannets and pelicans might 
strike at them from aloft when they are zm the sea, but these fish 
do not come in any numbers close to the land, nor do gannets or 
pelicans proceed far to sea. I have seen tropic birds wheeling 
round and round above the sea while flying fish have been leaping 
below, but they never took any notice of them; there may, how- 
ever, be birds in the Indian or Chinese Seas that are in the habit 
of seizing them. 

I do not imagine that these fish spring into the air only when 
pursued by their natural enemies; on the contrary, I feel satisfied 
they do so much more frequently of their own accord, out of pure 
pleasure and enjoyment. There is no prettier sight than a number 
of these fish in the air, with the bright sun shining on them and 
making them glitter like burnished silver. Sometimes they rise 
singly, sometimes two or three together, and often in shoals of 
hundreds; in the latter case, as they nearly all fall into the sea 
again together, the effect is striking and peculiar, as each fish 
throws up his individual jet of white spray, making it appear as if 
a charge of canister had been fired over the surface of the water. 

Is it known where these fish deposit their spawn? Iam inclined 
to fancy in mid-ocean, for I have seen them not an inch long more 
than a thousand miles from the nearest land, and these minute 
specimens when in the air bear a strong resemblance to locusts on 
the wing. 


3740 Tue ZooLocist—OcToBER, 1873. 


There are several species of flying fish in the Pacific, and the 
largest possesses a conspicuous oval purple spot at the base of the 
pectorals. 

From the above observations I have come to the following con- 
clusions :— 

Ist. These fish frequently vibrate, or flutter, their pectoral fins 
during flight. 

2nd. They gain fresh impetus by striking and ricocheting from | 
the crest of a wave. 

8rd. They are able to turn to the right or left of their original 
course of flight. 

4th. The average distance of flight is about fifty yards, although 
they are able, according to circumstances, to prolong it to a greater 
distance. 

5th. They do not merely spring from the sea to avoid enemies, 
but just as often for their own pleasure. 

6th. While in the air they are seldom seized by birds. 

The Hawaaians catch great quantities of these fish and bring 
them to the market for sale. They average a pound and a half 
each, are rather dry and tasteless, but acceptable to anyone who 
has been without fish for a length of time. 


GeERvASE F, MATHEW. 
H.M.S. ‘ Repulse,’ Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, 
June 25, 1873. 


King Crab off the Dutch Coast.—I have examined a fine specimen of 
Limulus Polyphemus, taken in July last, by the Yarmouth trawl-boats, 
about eleven miles off the Schelling light on the Dutch coast, in about ten 
fathoms. water. Dr. Norman, of Yarmouth, tells me certainly four have 
been taken, perhaps five, two of which are recorded in ‘ Land and Water’ as 
L. longispina. I have not seen these specimens, but doubtless they are the 
same species as the one which I have examined. A king crab is also 
recorded in ‘ Land and Water’ of 26th April last, as having béen taken on 
the coast of North Wales; an editorial note appended says it is a North 
American species, and could not have been caught in North Wales: there 
can be no doubt, however, as to the locality of those brought in by the 
Yarmouth fishermen. Dr. Norman informs me he has also obtained, from 
the same source, a fine specimen of the northern stone-crab (Lithodes Maia). 
—T. Southwell ; Norwich, September 12, 1873. 


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PLAN OF CRYSTAL PALACE AQUARIUM. 


A Staircase from Palace. 
BB. Staircase to Palace. 


CC Storerooms below Staircases. 


D Communication with Palace Grounds (public) 
E Turnstiles. 

F_ Screen at north end of Saloon. 

GG Saloon, containing Marine Tanks 1 to 18A. 
H_ North Room, containing Marine Tanks 19 to 27. 
| South Room, containing Marine Tanks 28 to 38 

Attendants’ Gallery, 


Tanks 39 to 60, 


containing reserved Marine 


(Private.) 


KEY TO PLAN. 


Room, containing as follows :—» 
Two Steam Boilers, and 
Two Steam Engines, and 
Two Steam Pumps. ) 
Junction, with Conservatory, to contain 
Fresh-water Tanks, A” B’ 
Part of Conservatory (upper end) 
Workroom. 
Slab for preparing Food for Animals. 
Store Cupboard. 
Slab. 
Sink. 
Flue. 


Office. 

Communication with Palace Grounds (private). 
Heating Apparatus room. 

Heating Pipes. 

A2 Sea-water Pipes supplying Tanks 1 to 18, 

B2  Sea-water Pipe supplying Tanks 19 to 27. 

C2 Sea-water Pipe supplying Tanks 28 to 38. 

D2 Point of issue of Sea-water from Reservoir to circu- 


lating system. 


E2 F2 G2 Three points of entrance of Sea-water from 


circulating system to Reservoir. 


H2- Float showing height of Sea-water in Reservoir. 


The direction of flow of Seawater in the Tanks is shown by arrows, which for want of space are omitted in Tanks 19 to 38, 41 fo 43, 45, 46, 48, 50, 52 fo 54, 56, 57, and’ 59. 


=—_—- 


THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 3741 


Hrotices of Hetw Books, 


Official Handbook to the Marine Aquarium of the Crystal 
Palace Aquarium Company (Limited). By W. A. Luioyo, 
Superintendent of the Aquarium. Fifth Edition, revised and 
enlarged. 1873. 

(Continued from §. S, 3711.) 


Era I1].—ComMMeERrctaL AND AMBITIOUS. 
From the preceding pages it must, I think, be evident that nearly 


‘all the conclusions at which we arrived during the First and Second 


Eras require careful reconsideration. I cannot say that what has 
been termed the balance of nature—so much water, so much air, 
so many animals, so many plants—is altogether a mistake; but 
I do without hesitation say that we made too much a rule-of-three 
sum of the affair, and that the formula we were in the habit of laying 
down was framed under the idea that by the aid of experience we 
could define what laws ought to govern Nature, rather than leave 
Nature entirely unfettered, and humbly ask her to show us how she 
governs herself; for, as a sea-cave in full flower with anemones is 
far more beautiful than anything we can achieve by our own 
management, so are the concomitant conditions which have pro- 
duced that result infinitely more subtle than any arrangements we 


have in our power to devise. As for sea-weeds in a state of nature, 


I deny none of the properties which have been attributed to them, 
but I maintain that in our clumsy attempts to introduce sea-weeds 
into our fictitious seas, we frustrate rather than promote the object 
we have in view; and it is not a little curious that when Nature 
was actually sowing broadcast her Alge and Conferve in our 
aquariums we deliberately laid our unwise heads together for the 
express purpose of defeating her beneficent intentions. We wrote 
instructions how to get rid of the green growth that was such a 
nuisance in our otherwise successful aquariums: it is as though a 
man writing on breeding poultry were to recommend the destruction 


of all the chickens. Nature should be her own marine gardener. 


There should be a bottom and sides to an aquarium—this seems an 
absolute necessity, whether that aquarium be an ocean or a tank ; 
and Nature, unassisted and uninvited, will clothe the bottom and 
sides with a drapery of vegetation wherever the light can penetrate, 
SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 3 F 


3742 THE ZooLoGist—NovEMBER, 1873. 


The seeds of sea-weeds are ever floating in the water, and ever 
ready to find anchorage where they meet with a stable surface. So 
universal is this sporadieal growth of aquatic vegetation, that 
I believe it impossible for a stone to be immersed in water under 
the influence of light, without attracting the seeds of aquatic plants, 
and these will assuredly vegetate on its surface; and it is also a 
most indubitable fact—a fact that loses none of its importance 
by frequent repetition—that this humble vegetation emits, in a 
powerful light, a series of ascending bubbles of oxygen. 

But there is another necessity, a necessity which aquarians of 
the first and second eras, as we have seen, not merely refused to 
acknowledge, but took the utmost pains to condemn. [I think it 
probable that every naturalist who trusts himself on the ocean, 
even for a dozen hours, and from the deck of a steamer snuffs the 
invigorating breeze as it passes over the agitated surface of the 
water, will after a while admit that some other principle is at work 
beside the maintenance of an exact balance between the breathings 
of sea-weeds and the breathings of sea anemones or fishes; and 
will perhaps also admit that motion is such a principle. It has 
been asserted by voyagers over and over again that the sea itself 
becomes foul during a long calm, and that its life-supporting 
powers seem absolutely to have departed; fishes and pelagic crabs 
die by myriads and float on the surface, and, together with dead 
sea-birds and detached sea-weeds, constitute a putrid, foetid, fever- 
generating scum, more dreadful, more fatal to man, than when 
the great deep is in its wildest and stormiest moods. The intro- 
duction of sea-bang, sea-lettuce, sea-endive, sea-whistle, sloke, 
dulse or carrigeen will not remedy this. Whatever quantity of 
these life-restoratives be cast upon the waters, they will do harm 
rather than good; they will float on the surface, decay, and add 
to the seething and putrefying mass. A more powerful agent is 
required, and Nature kindly supplies it. A breeze springs up; a 
change comes o’er the spirit of the scene; motion sets in, and all 
is restored. We read that in a space of time incredibly short, the 
water resumes its life-sustaining power, and every trace of impurity 
has vanished as by a miracle. These narratives must, I think, con- 
vincingly establish to those who read them, the fact that there is no 
necessity for changing the water. When the life-sustaining power 
of the sea has been exhausted, Nature herself restores it, and the 
restoring element is motion. She has no power to change the 


THE ZooLocist—NoveMBER, 1878. 3743 


water; the same sea must be used again and again; the same water 
must be encompassed by the same land. However clearly the 
theory of change in relative position may have been established— 
however manifest it may be that the ocean now rolls over what was 
once dry land, and that what is now dry land was once covered by 
the sea—still there is nothing new, nothing added, nothing sub- 
tracted; the same materials remain, fluid and solid, and will remain 
‘for ever. Motion continually exposes a fresh surface to the atmo- 
sphere, and this contact of air and water, called aération, is in 
continual operation. 

“The great want felt,” says Mr. Lloyd, “ was constant motion like that of 
Nature, by which the water may be continually turned over and over, 
presenting successive and multitudinous surfaces to the surrounding atmo- 
sphere, and may by contact with it incessantly absorb large quantities of 
oxygen necessary for the sufficiently rapid decomposition of organic matter 
given off by the animals.”—‘ Handbook,’ p. 18. 

Twenty years before this the absolute necessity for motion 
and aération was, I believe, first pointed out by Mr. E. W. H. 
Holdsworth, in his ‘ Handbook to the Fish House in the Gardens 
of the Zoological Society of London.’ This excellent little pam- 
phlet is not only useful as a companion to the aquarium, but is a 
philosophical exponent of the only principles and arrangements on 
which marine aquariums can be established so as to become per- 
manently successful. Mr. Holdsworth has shown himself perfectly 
acquainted with his subject, and thoroughly competent to explain 
it to others. The ‘Handbook’ is now so exceedingly rare that I 
need make no apology for the rather long quotation given below. 

“The main difficulties at present met with in the satisfactory maintenance 
of the aquarium are unquestionably due to our ordinary inability to imitate 
that most important condition of the sea—its continual motion. The 
advantages derived from that movement are incalculably great to its 
inhabitants; so much so as to mask, in a great measure, the principle of 
compensation on which plants and animals are largely dependent for the 
supply of the gases necessary for their respiration. In a small tank the 
presence of decaying animal or vegetable matter, even in inconsiderable 
quantities, is often sufficient to destroy the purity of the water, and so to 
cause the death of the animals in it; for the poisonous gas, carburetted 
hydrogen, arising from putrefaction, is there confined within a small space, 
and the stagnant condition of the water prevents its rapid combination with 
the oxygen, which, uniting with the hydrogen, produces water, and with 
the carbon results in carbonic acid. But, in the sea, any dead matter not 


3744 THE ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1873. 


consumed by crabs or other scavengers is distributed in every direction as 
fast as it becomes decomposed and assumes the gaseous form, and a supply 
of pure water immediately takes its place, so that the plants and animals in 
the neighbourhood are not exposed to any hurtful influence arising from it, 
as is the case when the decaying matter gives off its deleterious gases in the 
motionless water of the aquarium. In large establishments this movement 
of the water may be produced without much difficulty by the aid of gutta- 
percha pipes and a small reservoir or supply tank from which the water may 
flow into the aquarium and the waste be pumped back to continue the 
circulation ; for it is not necessary that the water should be renewed. Any 
loss that may take place by evaporation should be made good by the addition 
of pure fresh water ; but the great bulk of the sea-water will last for years if 
it is kept well aérated ; indeed, there is no reason for its ever being unfit for 
use. The salts held in solution retain their properties for an indefinite time, 
as far as is known; and as the pure water is all that is lost by evaporation, 
that alone requires replenishing in order to preserve the proper specific 
gravity or density of the whole. In small tanks the water may be tem- 
porarily agitated by the use of a convenient kind of force-pump, adopted by 
Mr. W. A. Lloyd; but unless there is a special supply tank placed on a 
higher level than the aquarium, so as to ensure a continuous stream, the 
movement of the water cannot be easily maintained. Prawns and fishes are 
also useful, to a certain extent, in causing a motion of the water, but they 
have too little power to produce anything like the continued washing of the 
sea which the Actinie are accustomed to; for it will be remembered that 
these animals, being attached, are exposed to the recoil of the water from the 
resistance of the rock as well as to the influence of the tidal current; and 
this double motion of the water produces the wash which gives such a life- 
like appearance to everything growing within its reach. Animals subjected 
to this peculiar movement of the sea display a vigour almost unknown in the 
usually quiet waters of the aquarium. The Actiniz attach themselves 
firmly in sheltered crevices and expand their flower-like disks to the ever- 
changing water around them, every wave brings a fresh supply of food 
within their reach, and their bodies are kept clean by the motion of the 
water. Fishes, and other swimming animals, also seem to enjoy the con- 
tinual struggle necessary to prevent their being carried away by the stream, 
and thus all their vital powers being called into action, everything presents 
the appearance of health and animation. Such are the results we must 
endeavour to produce in the aquarium, and we can only do so effectually by 
imitating, as far as possible, the means employed by Nature. In cases 
where it is inconvenient or difficult to establish a constant change of water, 
as in small tanks, great advantage may be derived by occasionally drawing 
off the water,-and in this manner placing the animals in the condition to 
which they are accustomed when the tide is out. Of course this treatment 


Tue ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1878. 3745 


is oly applicable to those animals and plants naturally living between tide- 
marks; for, except in the case of some of the blennies, and a few other 
small fishes, this exposure to the atmosphere is unsuited to the habits of 
free-swimming animals. The appearance of the Actinie, and other soft- 
bodied creatures, when left thus exposed, is often so unlike their condition, 
when immersed, as to give rise to the suspicion of their being in an 
unnatural state; but experience tells us that these animals thrive best 
when subjected to this periodical exposure, and they show renewed vigour 
on the subsequent rising of the artificial tide. A great advantage is also 
gained by returning the water in a small stream to its place in the tank ; 
by this means the whole of it undergoes purification in its passage through 
the air, and becomes better fitted to support life. We need only take a 
glance at the rocks at low water to satisfy ourselves that periodical exposure 
to the atmosphere is almost one of the necessary conditions of life with 
many species of marine animals. Some of the sea anemones are found so 
high up in the range of tide that they must necessarily be out of the water 
for at least six hours of the twelve occupied by its ebb and flow; and if we 
go lower down and look under the large boulders, and into the dark 
crevices of the rocks, we shall find a multitude of creatures, and many of 
them of the most delicate structure, which, for an hour or two in every tide, 
are quite out of reach of the water. Marine animals can bear this exposure 
better than the inhabitants of fresh water; the salts held in solution in 
sea-water retain a moist atmosphere around the bodies of the various 
animals which have been bathed with it, and evaporation consequently does 
not take place very rapidly, so that we need not fear imitating Nature even 
in what, at first sight, appears to be a hazardous proceeding.” —‘ Handbook 
to the Fish House,’ p. 10. 


Here we have the principle of the salt-water aquarium clearly 
explained; and I have, as in one or two previous instances, 
italicised a passage to which I wish particularly to invite attention. 
Nothing can be more truthful than the entire extract, and it is diffi- 
cult to conceive anything more neatly expressed than the sentence 
I have printed in italics; Mr. Holdsworth’s method of returning 
the water into the aquarium is perhaps somewhat superseded by 
the more energetic operation of the steam-engine, but the idea is 
the same, and is perfectly in accordance with present practice. 

I believe it was during the year following the successful opening 
at Regent’s Park, that the late Dr. Robert Ball introduced a novel 
mole of aération at Dublin: this is spoken of as “a method of 
keeping the sea-water in occasional motion by passing bubbles of 
air through it from a pair of bellows worked by visitors.” J cannot 
find at this moment any categorical description of the experiment, 


3746 THE ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1878. 


or any statement of its success or otherwise; but it is due to the 
memory of this enthusiastic and kind-hearted naturalist, with whom 
I had the honour to be personally acquainted, to preserve the 
record of an ingenious invention. 

Again, two years subsequently, in 1856, the Baron Cloquet, 
whose ingenuity is well known to all the savans who took part in 
establishing the Jardin d’Acclimatation at Paris, revived the use of 
bellows for the purpose of aération. His instrument had a gutta- 
percha pipe fitted to its nozzle, and at the extremity of this a 
leaden tube, which extended to the bottom of the aquarium; the 
aperture of the tube was covered with wire-gauze, which pulverized 
in the most complete manner the air forced through it by the 
bellows; the emission of the air at the bottom of the aquarium 
would doubtless partially effect the desired object, but not so tho- 
roughly as Mr. Lloyd’s; for on his plan, presently to be described, 
the air comes in contact with the water, both in its rapid descent 
and its deliberate ascent, whereas in the baron’s method it could 
only do this in its ascent. 

Still subsequently, M. Milne-Edwards the younger, son of the 
great naturalist of that name, invented an apparatus for aérating an 
aquarium, the peculiar advantage of which was said to be that it 
required neither manual labour nor any attention; it is described 
as working “automatically,” thus reminding one of that grand 
desideratum in mechanics, perpelual motion: its figure was that 
of our old hour-glass, consisting of two chambers connected by 
what may be called a narrow waist. The upper chamber was full 
of water, the lower full of air; the water descended by its own 
gravity from the upper chamber into the lower, expelling the air 
and driving it into the water of the aquarium, which thus became 
saturated with air: the operation of emptying the upper chamber 
took a long time on account of its large size and the smallness of 
the waist; but when once this was accomplished the entire 
apparatus swung and reversed itself, in which operation it closed 
one valve and opened another, and the chamber which now con- 
tained water being uppermost, the same result took place as before: 
without seeing the machine I am unable to understand this, so 
I feel my inability to explain it to others: we all know that under 
any circumstances the heavy or water-filled chamber would, like a 
modest gentleman, evince an invincible repugnance to take the 
uppermost place. 


THE ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1873. 3747 


In 1859 Mr. George Hurwood, of Ipswich, contrived an arrange- 
ment whereby the pressure of a stream of fresh water, such as exists 
in the pipes of water-works in towns, or such as can be got from a 
high cistern already existing in a dwelling-house, may be employed 
to compress. air, which compressed air in turn forces a current of 
sea-water into an aquarium. This arrangement was adopted by 
Mr. Lloyd in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, and was eminently 
successful: it has continued in operation for thirteen years. 

The necessity of aération and motion having been generally 
admitted, after their introduction in the Zoological Gardens in 
Regent’s Park, other aquariums, more or less fully adopting the 
principle, were established in the Surrey Zoological Gardens in 
London, in the Zoological Gardens in Dublin, in Belfast, Galway, 
Edinburgh, Scarborough, Weymouth, Vienna, and the Crystal 
Palace; the last named, under the management of Mr. Bartlett, 
the present invaluable Superintendent of the Zoological Gardens: 
this was remarkable for the ugliness of its exterior and the ex- 
treme beauty and temporary success of its internal arrangement. 
Others were established in America, and those at Bostonand New 
York became somewhat celebrated—a result, at the latter city, 
probably due in great measure to the matchless advertising talent 
of Mr.Barnum. Mr. Lloyd, however, tells us that all these exhibited 
two faults: the stock of animals was invariably excessive in 
number, and the animals themselves excessive in size, faults which 
carried their own punishment, for from this very excess the creatures 
dwindled and died. 


Witu1am AtrorD Lioyp, the projector of the Crystal Palace 
Aquarium, and now the Superintendent, and the author of the 
‘Official Handbook,’ was born on the 8th of August, 1828, at 
No. 6, Bush-lane, Cannon-street, in the City of London, the site 
now occupied by the premises of Messrs. Barron, Squire and Co., 
wholesale druggists. He was a weak and sickly child, and at five 
years of age was sent into Wales for the invigoration of his body 
and improvement of his mind: he was put to a hedge-school at 
Llwynlleia, in Merionethshire: the spot thus honoured is equi- 
distant from three villages rejoicing in names which I am totally 
unable to pronounce, and therefore gladly take refuge in letter- 
press: these villages are Bettwsygwerfilgoch, Cerrigydruidion and 
Llanfihangel—names a familiarity with which, Mr. Lloyd tells us, 


3748 THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 

in his pleasant autobiography, largely assisted his speedy acquisi- 
tion of the German language in after years. Would that they had 
the same effect on me! Mr. Lloyd’s “school days” might possibly 
have furnished matter for a narrative as interesting as those of Tom 
Brown, but he has only given us a very small instalment of such a 
narrative, and I believe even ¢hat would have been withheld had it 
not been for the accidental finding a crab, a circumstance that 
incidentally leads us to an introduction to his school and school- 
master in the year 1833. 


’ 


“T smuggled the crab into the school-room,” says Mr. Lloyd, “in order 
to get the schoolmaster, Humphrey, the learned man of the place, to tell me 
all about it. He was a little thin old man, with a yellow, shrunken face, 
yellow teeth, and yellow finger-nails, was dressed in a black velvet coat, 
waistcoat, and knee-breeches, with black stockings and huge shoes. He 
knew no English; and at intervals throughout the day smoked very coarse 
tobacco from a short black pipe in the school-room, which was also the 
dissenting chapel of the place. There were no writing-desks or tables of 
any kind, but the scholars knelt on the rubble-floor, and used as desks the deal 
forms on which the congregation sat on Sundays. Humphrey’s scholastic 
fees were all paid in kind: some of the lads brought corn, or oatmeal, or 
flour, or wool, or bacon, and I remember once trying to carry on my head 
my payment, a big square lump of coal; but it was too heavy, and another 
boy kindly let me carry his payment of a lump of butter, and he, being 
stronger, conveyed my coal. Cheese was a luxury known only to the 
rich: money was seldom seen in the form of coin, and farthings never. 
I did not take my crab to school as a matter of payment, nor yet for play 
or idle curiosity, but really and truly to learn something about it from the 
only person whom I thought could give me help, and his reply was, ‘ Ah, 
William Bach! only learned men in London can give information on such 
things,’ and he smoked his pipe vigorously, and gave me permission to put 
the crab away during school-time in the chapel pulpit, to be out of the 
reach of the boys.” 


In 1837 Mr. Lloyd returned to London, and visited the 
Zoological Gardens, which proved a constant source of amusement 
and interest to him whenever he obtained a holiday: this continued 
for many years, during which his reading and learning, equally 
sources of instruction and amusement, seemed incessant and most 
miscellaneous. 

In 1838 he obtained the exalted post of errand boy at Messrs. 
Pontifex and Wood, engineers, of Shoe-lane, and stayed in this 
place for three years. Unlike any other errand boys whom | have 


THE ZooLocist—NoveMEER, 1873. 3749 


known, his constant study was to acquire a knowledge of the various 
mechanical contrivances and combinations which he saw around 
him. We next find him apprenticed to Messrs. Remnant and 
Edmonds, the bookbinders, in Lovell’s-court: but he was far less 
assiduous in gaining a knowledge of that branch of trade. He was 
out of his time in 1847, and then, and before, seems to have found 
opportunity for a most extensive and varied course of reading, and 
just such reading—deeply instructive reading—as a lad usually 
pronounces to be “slow” and “ dry”; however, he now had reading 
to his heart’s content. The first book he ever bought with his own 
money was, in 1840, Craik’s ‘ Pursuit of Knowledge under Diffi- 
culties.’ “No written or spoken words,” says Mr. Lloyd, “can 
express the avidity with which I read Craik’s book over and over 
again, or can tell the encouragement I gained from it.” At the 
same time he met with a memoir of John Hunter, and was absorbed 
in admiration of the great anatomist. 

“ By my reading I was constantly, as it were, brought into contact with 
him, and learned how he kept at Brompton many living animals in a small 
menagerie, observing their habits and forms when alive, and dissecting 
their bodies when dead, and doing so amidst many difficulties. Reaumur 
and Hiiber were two other naturalists of whom I read with mentally 
wondering eyes.” 

But at this time Mr. Lloyd got involved in figures, and the 
works of Thomas Simpson and James Ferguson, mathematicians, 
engrossed a principal share of his time, and, stranger still, Augustus 


de Morgan’s ‘Elements of Arithmetic’; thus his attention was 


diverted for a time from facts to figures; from truths to the 
expression of truths. 

In 1851 he obtained a place in Old-street, at Mr. W. Brown’s 
second-hand book shop, and here, of course, he had an oppor- 
tunity of indulging his taste for books, and of making his store 
of knowledge still more extensive: from the ‘Penny Magazine,’ 
that great source of miscellaneous knowledge, he learned a little of 
everything. ‘ 

The 18th of November, 1852, was a public holiday, the funeral 
of the Duke of Wellington: this memorable day Mr. Lloyd spent 
in the Zoological Gardens, and here he met with an incident that 
gave an aquarian tendency to the whole course of his future life. 

“On arriving there, near the side entrance, was a building I had never 
seen before, and which had risen since my last visit—a conservatory-looking 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 8G 


3750 THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 


glass erection of not large dimensions, standing on a low wall. The door 
was fastened, and I could see no one inside, and on my asking of a passing 
attendant what the place was for, he said it was a ‘ Fish House,’ though 
some people called it an ‘ Aquarium,’ and that it was destined to contain 
fish and other such things, even sea-fishes and lobsters, and that it was 
intended to be opened in the following spring. He added his disbelief in 
its success and an expression of his sense of eG impropriety of its intro- 
duction into a zoological garden. * * ** * * * re 
I went back to the ‘fish house,’ and passed round to its rear, and there to 
my great astonishment, I saw through the glass side of the tank containing 
perfectly clear water, and wonder of wonders, a living pike! I wish I could 
write what I then felt; I wish I could now feel as I then felt, but such 
freshness of wonder comes to one not more than half-a-dozen times in a life. 
T could not get away from the place—it was at the extreme north-east 
corner of the building, and the tank has been for years converted into a 
marine one—but I went to it again, and remained there till it began to 
grow dusk, and it was time to get home. * ** * During the last 
eighteen years in London and Hamburg I have never been without a pet 
jack in an aquarium.” 

This seems to have been Mr. Lloyd’s first introduction to fresh- 
water captives. I will now introduce both him and my readers to 
the denizens of the sea: he says that although now (1873) in the 
Crystal Palace, with all possible means and appliances at his 
command, he can look back on a time, twenty years ago, when his 
pence and half-pence had to be laid out with rigid economy, and 
I am thus introduced to one of the most interesting passages in his 
life—the search for sea anemones in the streets of London! He 
had already set up small aquariums in wide-mouthed glass bottles 
filled with artificial sea-water, but these miniature establishments 
were without living inhabitants: his modus operandi for supplying 
this want is thus described :— 

“T used to sally forth at dead of night, where heaps of oyster-shells were 
thrown by day from street oyster-stalls, in Smithfield and St. John’s-street, 
and bring them home. The oysters devoured in such poor neighbourhoods 
are not the genteel little smooth ‘ natives’ eaten at luncheon-bars, but big, 
rough commoners with bold foliations on the upper shell, and deeply ribbed 
on the lower one; and in and below these hiding-places I could find many 
little sea anemones of several species, some hopelessly smashed, but others 
quite perfect, having been protected by the strong projections of the oyster- 
shell and unharmed by rain or other fresh water. The species I found 
thus were Actinoloba Dianthus, Sagartia viduata, 8. Troglodytes, S. Bellis, 
S. elegans, and, but very seldom, Actinia Mesembryanthemum. All these 


THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 3751 


I used to pick off the shells with never-wearying patience and care, and 
drop them into the fictitious sea-water and transfer them to my bottle, to 
which they adhered and made themselves happy. I used to feed them with 
little morsels of oyster-flesh which I found adhering to the inside of the 
shells, and when the water would become offensive from the effects of the 
food, because the quantity of fluid was too small to hold enough oxygen in 
solution to decompose the dead animal matter fast enough, I poured the 
water from the little bottles into a great earthenware foot-pan covered with 
a sheet of glass to keep out dust, and standing in a dark corner of the room. 
The foot-pan was so very large in comparison with my small bottles that 
the emptying of them periodically into the pan did not interfere with the 
water in the latter, so that from it I immediately refilled the bottles, one at 
a time on successive days. The water in the foot-pan on the floor thus 
effectually counteracted all tendency at going wrong in the bottles on the 
window-sill above.” 

Two years after this, namely, in 1854, Mr. Lloyd sent me two 
short papers for the ‘ Zoologist,’ which show that his love for sea 
things continued in all its force. These exhibit beyond all question 
the deep, and I may almost say, the devout attention, with which 
he studied Nature at this period: his “Note on the Habits of 
Limnea stagnalis” (Zool. 4248) is a master-piece of descriptive 
writing. Of course I was anxious to know such a man, and in 
March, 1855, I found him located at 164, St. John-street-road, in 
company with poverty and sea anemones, sacrificing all worldly 
considerations to a love of Science. Other papers soon followed, 
intituled severally “ Occurrence of Edwardsia vestita in Britain” 
(Zool. 5180) and “ Note on a Sea-Cucumber in Confinement” (Zool. 
5181). These exhibit in an especial degree three great qualifica- 
tions of a naturalist—1st, the knowledge which leads to the instant 
selection of what is peculiarly worthy of observation; 2ndly, the 
faculty of observing systematically, or in the words of De la Beche, 
the knowledge “ how to observe”; and 3rdly, the power of defining 
the observations: these qualities Mr. Lloyd possessed and possesses 
in an eminent degree. I have never forgotten, and hope never to 
forget, that first visit to the great aquarian and the appearance of 
his little aquariums; glass bottles or cylindrical vessels, some on 
the table, some on the window-sill, some in the dark, some in the 
light,—all contributing to his already large stock of knowledge, all 
revealing secrets previously hidden. 

In 1856 he removed to Portland-road, and embarked in business ; 
as a matter of course, the aquarium business,—and almost also as 


3752 THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 


a matter of course, unsuccessfully ; he was not cut out for business 
on his own account; he had no skill in buying and selling; but 
his reputation as an aquarian was established, and in 1859 he was 
summoned to Paris, and undertook the management of the aquarium 
in the Jardin d’Acclimatation. 

In 1862 I find Mr. Lloyd again in London, exhibiting an 
aquarium, worked by compressed air, at the International of 1862, 
and accompanying the exhibition by the publication of a very clear 
and compendious account of the principle and construction of 
aquariums in general and of the Exhibition aquarium in particular. 

While thus occupied he was visited by Dr. H. A. Meyer, 
who was desirous of establishing an aquarium at Hamburg, and 
this finally led to an arrangement with Baron Merck for Mr. Lloyd’s 
removal to that city and the construction of an aquarium in the 
Zoological Gardens there, under his sole superintendence: this 
was opened in the spring of 1864, and soon became eminently 
popular as well as successful in a pecuniary point of view; the 
names of the late Dr. Meyer, Professor Mobius, Chief-Justice 
Schwartz, and the late Baron Ernst von Merck must always be 
associated with that of Mr. Lloyd in this admirably managed esta- 
blishment. The sea-water is circulated partly by a water-pressure 
engine set in motion by the town water-works, which drive a pair 
of water-pumps (instead of compressing air as was done in Paris), 
and partly by a steam engine which drives two other pumps. 


“The great pecuniary success of the Hamburg Aquarium caused other 
aquariums to be erected in various parts of the Continent, namely, in 
Hanover and at Boulogne-sur-Mer, in 1866 ; in the Boulevard Montmartre 
in Paris, in 1867; in the Reserved Park of the Paris International Ex- 
hibition, in the same year, in two places; twice at Havre in 1867 and 
1869; in the Zoological Gardens at Brussels, in 1868; in the Flora 
Gardens at Boulogne, in 1869; ; and in Berlin, in 1869.”"—‘ Official Hand- 
book,’ p. 20. 


I do not mention these dozen aquariums as tnder Mr. Lloyd’s 
superintendence, but as called into existence by his successful 
management at Hamburg and elsewhere. In 1870 he returned to 
London, at the summons of the “ Crystal Palace Aquarium Com- 
pany,” and there he is located at present, and I trust bids fair to 
become a fixture. And here it is indispensable that I mention that 
since the Crystal Palace Aquarium was opened two others (at 
Copenhagen and Brighton) have been completed; five more (at 


THE ZooLoGist—NovEMBER, 1873. 3753 


Vienna, Manchester, Southport, San Francisco and Naples) have 
been commenced ; and still three others (at Frankfort, Birkenhead 
and Rothesay) are partially erected. 


We will now enter the Crystal Palace Aquarium, Guide-book 
in hand, or rather ‘ Zoologist’ in hand, for I am indebted to the 
courtesy of the Crystal Palace Company for the use of their stereo- 
type plan of the aquarium, which explains the details. I fear I have 
been a long time in reaching this point, but I hope I have spent 
that time pleasantly and advantageously ; and thus between fear 
and hope, the two great ingredients of human life, I also enter a 
restricted passage, which is not without its dangers: 


* Contra, jussa monent Heleni, Scyllam atque Charybdim 
Intra utramque viam, leti discrimine parvo, 


Ni teneant cursus.” 
4Eneid, book iii. line 684, 


The prosy style is my Scylla, the florid my Charybdis; I will 
try to steer between them. 

The plan of the aquarium is shown by the plate: in round 
numbers, it is 400 feet long and 70 feet broad. It is only one 
story high, and this ground-plan exhibits everything that requires 
explanation, except a reservoir, which is under ground, and con- 
tains 100,000 gallons of sea-water, kept in the dark. On the subject 
of keeping a very large proportion of the water in the dark a great 
deal has been said by Mr. EK. Edwards, formerly of Menai and now 
of Chester, Mr. Warington, of London, and Mr. Lloyd. Various 
contrivances have been tried for keeping a portion of the water of 
aquariums thus in the dark, on the plea that but little light can 
penetrate the ocean, a fact strongly supported by the fact that the 
deep-sea animals are frequently without eyes, or at least without 
eyes that we are accustomed to consider as such, thus showing that 
vision is neither required nor possessed at great depths below the 
surface: on this subject I cannot forbear to quote Mr. Warington. 

“When the rays of light strike the glassy surface of the water, the 
greater part of them are reflected, and those which penetrate are refracted 
and twisted in various directions by currents of the water; and when the 
depths are considerable it would be few rays that would penetrate to the 
bottom; but let the surface become ruffled by the passing wind, and it is 
little light that can be transmitted; and when the same disturbing cause 
lashes into waves and foam, not a ray can pass, and all below must be dark 
as night.”—Zool. 5702. 


3754 THE ZooLoGist—NoveEMBER, 1873. 


The great bulk of water in the ocean being then in its “ dark 
unfathomed caves,” the plan of keeping it dark in an aquarium is 
obviously little more than a direct obedience to the teachings of 
Nature, and there is little necessity for explaining the principles 
which require, or the circumstances which accompany, profound 
darkness. Sea-water constantly exposed to light is apt to become 
opaque and of a greenish brown colour—a very serious evil in a 
public aquarium. The darkened tank extends under the floor of 
the aquarium from end to end (?. e. beneath G, G, F, &c., in the plan) 
and also under the compartments marked 9 and 10, It is no part 
of Mr. Lloyd’s design to change or renew this vast bulk of water, 
but it will become necessary to add from time to time a portion of 
distilled fresh water to compensate for the waste which must in- 
evitably result from evaporation, leakage of pipes, or breakage of 
glass, this last being a calamity to which all such establishments 
are unfortunately subject. 

Keeping the plan still in hand, the compartments or pigeon-holes, 
representing tanks, are numbered 39 to 60, 1 to 18 A, 38 to 28, and 
27 to 19, are also filled with water, and contain altogether no less 
than 20,000 gallons, in which the living objects of the aquarium 
constantly reside, and all of which are lighted from above, nineteen 
of them having in addition one side (that fronting the area, G G) of 
plate-glass, by which means additional light can penetrate the 
water and illuminate the objects living therein. Thus the entire 
quantity of water is 120,000 gallons, of which five-sixths is in the 
dark and one-sixth in the light. This large quantity of water is 
kept in constant circulation; a steam engine of three-horse power 
(m) and one of Forbes’ patent vulcanite pumps (N) work day and 
night to raise water from the dark reservoir (G G F) and discharge it 
into the light reservoirs 9 and 10, at the rate of from 5000 to 7000 
gallons per hour. r 

This engine and pump are necessarily in duplicate, because if 
either should break down through any unforeseen casualty, the 
motion of the water would be arrested and the lives of the prisoners 
jeopardized ; indeed, so dependent are these on this sea-like move- 
ment of the water, that the stoppage of a pump for a single hour has 
produced visible effects on their health and spirits. These pumps 
and engines necessitate the employment of three engine-men, and 
these relieve each other every eight hours, so that one is always 
on duty. The exigencies of the animals also necessitate the 


THE ZooLoGist—NovemBER, 1873. 8755 


employment of three other attendants, and I can bear my willing 
testimony to the great intelligence and unvarying civility of those 
now employed. 

The pumped-up water flows, as I have said, into tanks 9 and 10, 
half into each; the stream pumped into tank 10 passes to the 
right,— an aperture having been purposely left in each party 
wall, as these divisions might be called,—into No. 11, thence 
into No. 12, and so on until it reaches No. 184; here it passes 
beneath the corridor or pathway (535), called the “ Attendant’s 
Gallery” in the “ Key to Plan,” and flows into tank 60; thence it 
turns to the left, through an earthenware pipe, into tank 59, and 
so on through tanks 58, 57, 56, 55, 54, 53, 52, 51 and 50, into 
tank 49, where it falls through a cylinder into the dark tank below. 
A second stream, also pumped up from below, falls into tank 9, 
and thence passes to the left into tank 8, and thence into tanks 7, 
6, 5, 4, 38, 2 and 1, whence it crosses under the corridor (J) into 
tank 39, and then turning to the right through tanks 40, 41, 42, 48, 
44, 45, 46, 47 and 48, finally plunges into the cylinder in tank 49, 
and there, uniting with the stream I have traced from the right 
hand, returns to the great abyss below, thence again to be pumped 
up, when its turn shall arrive, into tanks 9 and 10, and pursue the 
same course as before. The arrows in the plan show the direction 
which the stream is continually taking. The animals in the tanks 
numbered 1 to 184 are intended to be viewed laterally from the 
saloon (6GF). I have already explained that the sides of these 
tanks facing the saloon are of plate-glass, and therefore the animals 
can be seen as perfectly as if yon were in the sea in a transparent 
diving-bell: the other row of tanks 39 to 60, is intended for reserves, 
not open to public inspection: this reserve is very necessary, as 
casualties by death must of necessity occur now and then: all these 
forty tanks are on the left or west side of the saloon which is 
entirely devoted to the public. On the east of the saloon are two 
apartments (H and 1) containing respectively nine and eleven tanks ; 
the whole of these tanks, numbered 19 to 38 inclusive, are very 
shallow, open at the top, and of a convenient height for viewing 
the animals vertically, or dorsally, for that is a better term, since 
we look down on their backs. The water is here circulated much 
in the manner I have described in those on the west side of the 
saloon, but the stream is smaller and less rapid: it passes under 
the floor of the saloon in both instances, into apartment H by means 


3756 THE ZOOLOGIST—NOVEMBER, 1873. 


of an invisible pipe B2, and into apartment I by means of an 
invisible pipe c2. The flow of the water after being pumped into 
tanks 9 and 10 is caused simply by gravitation, there being a fall 
of from three to six inches from tank to tank; thus in tanks 9 and 
10 the water stands at a height of six feet, while in tanks 1 and 184 
it is only three feet. Yet this constant flow Mr. Lloyd considers 
still insufficient for the supply of oxygen to all the inmates; he 
has therefore arranged a number of small pipes, one for each tank, 
with a nipple nearly touching the surface of the water, and through 
each of these water is forced in a small but powerful stream: in its 
short passage between the nipple and the surface of the water each 
of these streams entangles and incorporates a great quantity of air, 
so that myriads of bubbles of air are driven with great force, but 
in a state of subdivision so fine as to resemble steam or falling 
sand, almost or quite to the bottom of each tank, whence they 
return and reascend to the surface with a gentle and deliberate 
movement strangely contrasting with the violence of the descent. 
This forcing in of the air corresponds as nearly as possible with 
what takes place in the ocean when lashed into foam by the violence 
of the winds; the waves tumbling tumultuously one over another 
entangle and carry with them by their proverbial violence a vast 
quantity of air, which, after being dashed downwards, again rises 
to the surface, having discharged its office of communicating purity 
to the water and life-supporting breath to its inhabitants. 


It appears from a paragraph at page 9 of Mr. Lloyd’s ‘ Hand- 
book,’ that he places more reliance on the effects of vegetation 
than his admirable arrangements for aération and circulation, just 
described and explained, would have led us to suppose; neverthe- 
less “if all the necessary vegetation of the Crystal Palace Aquarium 
could be gathered together, it would, when deprived of water, 
probably not weigh one ounce”: these are Mr. Lloyd’s own 
words; but the passage to which I desire to invite attention is the 
following :— 

“Towards the close of the [last] century, namely in 1790, the late 
Sir John Graham Dalyell began to keep living marine animals for observa- 
tion, in his house in Edinburgh; and continued this practice till his death, 
about 1850; but he changed the sea-water two or three times a week, 
though some of the animals lived for eight or ten years; rand one sea 
anemone (Actinia Mesembryanthemum), taken by him from the sea in 


THE ZooLocist—NovEMEER, 1873. 3757 


August, 1828, is still alive and well. But Sir John knew nothing of 
employing plants to evolve oxygen, and therefore to preserve a balance of 
life with unchanged water, though Dr. Joseph Priestley (1733—1804), the 
discoverer of oxygen gas, and the first observer of the fact that that gas is 
emitted by plants under the influence of light, and therefore the earliest 
enunciator of the main principle on which the maintenance of aquariums 
depends, had published this discovery and observations. Ingenhousz also 
had shown that plants evolved this gas. Therefore if Dalyell knew this, he 
did not apply the principle.”—‘ Handbook,’ p. 9. 


However, I have a widely different object in introducing this 
notice of Sir John’s aquariums and their success. Mr. Lloyd, who 
never leaves a stone unturned if there be a chance of finding a 
particle of information beneath it, obtained access to Sir John’s 
quartos,* with a view of ascertaining his practice, his experience, 
and his views, at a period when this now engrossing subject was 
almost totally ignored; but in doing so he found explanations that 
required explaining. Miss Dalyell, a sister of the Baronet, was then 
still living in Edinburgh, and, although at the advanced age of 
nearly a hundred years, was in full possession of her faculties and 
her memory: he therefore conceived the idea of framing a series of 
questions on those points which appeared obscure, and of respect- 
fully soliciting information. It was indeed a bold step, but a suc- 
cessful one. To these questions Miss Dalyell most obligingly sent 
the following categorical replies, which cannot fail to be read with 
the deepest interest. My sincere thanks are due to Mr. Lloyd for 
having, unsolicited and unreservedly, placed these letters in my 
hands for the express purpose of illustrating this notice of his 
‘Handbook.’ Miss Dalyell’s replies evince a wonderful retention 
of faculties to extreme old age, but also prove what an observant 
and intelligent interest she must have taken, during very many 
years, in her brother’s scientific pursuits. 


Letter I. 
Miss E. Dalyell to Mr. W. A. Lloyd. 
8, St. Colme Street, 2 January, 1860. 


Srr,—In answer to your enquiries regarding the way Sir John Graham 
Dalyell kept his marine animals, I will certainly give you all the information 


* ¢ Rare and Remarkable Animals of Scotland,’ By Sir John Graham Dalyell, Bart. 
2 vols. 4to, 1847—8. And ‘The Powers of the Creator displayed in the Creation.’ 
Same author. 3 vols. 4to, 1851—8. 


SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 3H 


3758 THE ZooLoGist—NovEMBER, 1873. 


I possibly can, by in the first place telling you the vessels containing them 
were all made of the very finest, clearest glass, wide at the top, just the 
same width as at the bottom: they were invariably round, and all sizes, 
some short, some long, some wider, some not so wide. 

I cannot remember ever seeing more than one fine specimen in one glass ; 
no marine plant whatever was in the water where the animals dwelt. Sir 
John fed them himself; what he gave them I do not exactly know, but raw 
mussel I know was one thing: he kept many of his subjects eight and ten 
years alive. He was most particular in giving them sea-water always out of 
the sea, when it was flowing: he changed the water every morning, often 
twice a day, if he perceived the smallest fragment amongst it, wiping and 
washing the glasses very clean. He got sea-water always twice a week, and 
sometimes three times; it was carried in an earthenware jar holding about 
three or four gallons of water: a person was specially employed for the 
purpose. 

Sir John’s subjects were always kept on a shelf under the window of his 
study; it was situated in the north out-look; whether they were put there 
for any purpose I don’t know, but I think it was just to put them anywhere 
out of the way; sometimes he had a fire in his study and sometimes none. 
He understood nothing of Marine Botany; his chief aim was water fresh 
from the sea, when it was flowing and full of animalcule, and particularly 
clean vessels. If I can give you any more information upon the subject 
I will be happy to do it. 


I remain your obt Serv’ 
E. Datyz.. 


Lerrer Il. 
Miss E. Dalyell to Mr. W. A. Lloyd. 


8, St. Colme Street, 4 February, 1860. 
Sir,—Your letter of the 18th of January reached me, but it being 
a difficult task for me to perform furnishing you with dates, I am sorry 
to say I am unable to perform it further than to mention, the first 
aquatic subject I found was dated in the year 1790, and as a curiosity 
I desired it to be engraved upon one of the copper-plates. It is the river 
worm which forms into a little fly. As you have the work, you will 
observe a little fly and beside it a black little worm; the worm ought to 
have been of the most brilliant scarlet colour. I know as to the Hydra 
tuba, Sir John was busily engaged about experimenting upon it in the 
years 1800 and 1808. This is all the information I can give you. I know 
very well once every subject was dated, but where these dates are now 
I cannot tell. 
I am, Sir, 
Your ob! Serv™ 
EK. DaLye.t. 


THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 8759 


Here then I conclude my observations on aquariums and arrange- 
ments for their maintenance. I have in reserve sundry notes as to 
their inhabitants, which are perhaps rather more in my way. 
I confess to feeling a greater interest in living beings than in the 
mechanical arrangements for their benefit. Still I shall do my best 
to explain should explanation be required at my hands, and shall 
only be too happy to receive questions that I can answer. 

I should also like to add that although I have mentioned only 
one ‘Handbook,’ it is because I knew of only one when I com- 
menced this notice. Since then I have received a second, the 
‘Official Guide Book to the Brighton Aquarium, by W. Saville 
Kent, F.L.S., F.Z.S. It is a pleasant and readable account of that 
magnificent building, and I hope to return to it again and again. 
In the mean time I would impress on the compilers of these books 
the value of simplicity. They themselves luxuriate, aye revel, in 
technicalities and what is called the language of Science; but they 
must not on this account hope to inspire the general public with 
the same refined taste. Visitors to these aquariums are for the 
most part, like myself, “out for a holiday.” On such occasions we. 
do not absolutely abjure the idea of receiving instruction from 
books, but neither are we disposed to expend much labour in the 


pursuit of knowledge. 
Epwarp NEWMAN. 


Natural-History Notes from Honolulu. 
By GervasE F, Matuew, Esq., R.N., F.L.S.* 


Birps of all descriptions are very scarce here. We have now 
been a fortnight at anchor, and during that period I have not seen 
a single example of any kind of gull or tern, and only two petrels— 
a small black fork-tailed species and a large gray white-browed 
fellow; also one or two tropic birds flying high overhead. On 
shore I have noticed three kinds of thick-billed finches, a large 
gray night heron, and a species of long-tailed dove. The latter is 
common in gardens and shrubberies in the town itself, and is said 
to have been introduced; but I am not certain on this point, ‘as 
the bird is common throughout the country. The nest is a very 
loose, open affair, composed of twigs, and one I found contained 
two young. Minah birds, imported from India, have increased 


* Kindly communicated by his brother, the Rey. Murray A. Mathew. 


3760 THE ZooLoGisT—NOVEMBER, 1873. 


rapidly, and are now plentiful: they are most impudent birds, 
possessing the habits of the starling. I have on several occasions 
seen them feeding together in flocks, and at such times they 
fight and squabble most vociferously: usually they feed in pairs, 
or at least they do so at this time of the year. These birds are 
dark plumaged, with a large white patch on the wings, yellowish 
legs and beaks, and bare skin round the eyes. I was offered a 
nest of young one day by a native: the nest appeared to be loose 
and composed of dry bents. Ducks are numerous; I shot several 
one morning early: they are a trifle larger than our wigeon; 
plumage something like female common duck, but the feathers of 
breast are deeply bordered with cinnamon-red; the beak is some- 
what broad and soft. I found them breeding, or should have 
shot more. 

Inland, among the mountains, there are numbers of wild turkeys, 
pea-fowl, fowls and Californian quail, the produce of birds that 
have been turned down. One day I was out I saw an Australian 
piping crow; it passed close to me, and there was no mistaking it: 
I suppose it had escaped or been let loose. In the winter season, 
I am told, there are many visitors to these islands, such as the 
“northern duck,’—whatever that may be,—and two sorts of 
plover, probably a golden and gray, similar to those I may have 
seen on the coast of Peru. 

With reference to Mr. Howard Saunders’ notes you enclosed, 
the blackheaded gull he mentions as being similar to our Larus 
ridibundus is a much more interesting species when in full plumage, 
as they were when last I saw them. Their legs were then bright 
coral-red; beak the same, shaded with black towards the tip; 
head intensely black, with a broad white ring round the eyes. 

At Callao, in April, I noticed a brown-, or nearly black-, headed 
gull as large as our common gull, with flesh-coloured legs and 
orange and black beak, ‘but none were in good plumage. I am 
sorry to say I skinned but one bird at Callao, and that is an 
almost black skua, without any long tail-feathers. I was so much 
occupied with butterflies, I had but little time for birds ; moreover, 
you cannot imagine what obstacles there are in the way of skinning 
on board a man-of-war, especially in the tropics, where a bird 
begins to smell almost as soon as shot. There were at least four 
or five different kinds of skuas at Callao, and they were continually 
harassing the poor gulls, 


i i a i i ee i i ee 


THE ZooLoGist—NovEMBER, 1873. 3761 


I saw on the coasts of Chili and Peru four kinds of terns, 
possibly more. The most common occurred at Coquimbo, and 
was a very long-winged species, with a black crown; a large 
species, too, was pretty numerous. 

Scissors-bills were abundant at Callao, and fly chiefly at dusk 
and in flocks: I killed five at a shot one evening. 

I will keep a look out for the “deeply forked-tailed gull” at 
Vancouver; if it is an arctic species it may turn up there. 
I observed a very pretty gull at Payta, and only at that place: 
it was of a beautiful pale blue on upper surface and pure white 
beneath, with deep orange-red legs and beak: I should certainly 
have obtained one if I had not been so seedy, for it was a 
peculiarly interesting and delicate species. 

I wish you could see this island; it is a perfect paradise, it is 
so beautiful. It is all alike, and almost impossible to describe; 
at least, with my poor powers of description, I could never do 


justice to it. The island is split up, as it were, into a succession 
-of deep ravines, running east and west. The sides of these rise 


to mountain peaks, clothed to their summits with the greenest 
verdure of strange and unknown trees. Here and there, in the 
valleys, the trees disappear, and are replaced by park-land of the 
richest turf, with occasional clumps of flowering shrubs to add 
beauty to the scenery. In some places cascades rush foaming 
down the sides of these gorges, their track being marked by a 
margin of lovely ferns. * * * It is a magnificent sight going 
on shore watching the huge rollers galloping towards the reefs, 
and breaking with a thundering noise as they tumble over into 
the smooth water beyond. I took a walk one afternoon on the 
beach, in hopes of getting some shells, but 1 saw nothing worth 
picking up. The only interesting things were the crabs, which 
were very long-legged and amusing, and ran at a tremendous 
pace. 2 

Some of the little black-headed gulls on the coast of Peru have 
the breast tinged with salmon-colour, like the roseate tern: these 
are, I expect, the old birds, and this charming colour is probably 
lost after death. 


GervasE F, Matuew. 
H.M.S. ‘ Repulse,’ Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, p 
June 25, 1873. 


8762 THE ZooLoGIst—NOovVEMBER, 1873. 


Notes on the Fauna of Spitsbergen. 
By the Rev. A. E. Eaton, M.A., Memb. Ent. Soc. Lond. 


In arranging for his third voyage to the Arctic Regions, Mr. B. 
Leigh Smith invited three of his friends to accompany him in the 
steam yacht ‘ Diana,'-—Mr. T. B. Potter, Lieut. H. C. Chermside, 
R.E., and myself. It was his intention to carry relief to the 
Swedish Expedition on board the ‘ Polhen’ (H.S.M.8.), which, as 
he conjectured, had been beset last fall in Mossel Bay, and then to 
continue his explorations. We arranged the conduct of the business 
of the expedition in the following manner. Mr. Chermside made the 
surveys, and kept such meteorological observations as he deemed 
expedient: he also superintended the photography, in which he 
was assisted by Mr. Smith and Mr. Potter. All three of them 
zealously devoted themselves to the culius of our mythological 
patroness, and left to my care the miscellany of Natural History. 
My best opportunities for collecting on shore occurred when the 
others were away deer-stalking. On these occasions I usually 
went unarmed, preferring the chance of being able to drive off 
with stones any bear that might attempt to make a friendly 
advance upon me, to the certainty of being overloaded through the 
addition of a gun and ammunition to the tins, hammers, chisels, 
bottles, bag, boxes and alpenstock, which had to be disposed 
somewhere about me. Sometimes, however, in very bearish 
localities, one of the hands would be sent with a rifle to guard 
me; and dull work it must have been to him to be kept loitering 
about while such numbers of stones were being turned over, for 
not a bear was forthcoming. An alpenstock, I may observe, is a 
most serviceable implement to an arctic or alpine collector; for, in 
addition to its utility in cliff-climbing and on snow slopes, its 
spike is an excellent substitute for a trowel for rooting up plants, 
and serves admirably as a fitting for the socket of an ordinary ring- 
net. Fora long time I have used no other stick than an alpenstock 
for my net in Switzerland. 

At the recommendation of Mr. J. G. Jeffreys, I provided two 
naturalist’s dredges of the usual make and size (7. e. about twenty- 
four and thirty-two pounds weight a-piece); and Mr. Jeffreys very 
kindly lent me a proper net for the smaller of them. But as no 
less than a whale-line and all hands were required for the working 


a a te et i ee ee, nt le 


THE ZooLocist—NovemBER, 1878. 3763 


of the smaller dredge, no pulley being employed in hauling it up, 
these dredges were voted too heavy, and recourse was had to a 
large-meshed oyster-dredge and a swab. It will be seen that 
we did get a few of the peculiarly arctic shells, even with this 
apparatus. 

We left Dundee on the 10th of May, and re-entered the docks 
on the morning of the 27th of September. As a moderately 
accurate account of our voyage is given in ‘The Times’ of the 
29th September, I shall not here reiterate our course, but shall 
merely note a few incidents connected with it which do not relate 
to Spitsbergen, and therefore cannot be touched upon in the 
systematic portion of this paper. 

On the 25th of May, when we were about lat. 74° 12’ Ny long. 
1° 45’ W.., a flight of snow buntings passed us flying westwards, 
the surface wind being N.E. Not far from the same neighbourhood, 
in lat. 74° 28' N., long. 2° 8’ W., I procured some pieces of decayed 


ice discoloured by diatoms: these plants grew on the surface of 


the ice-crystals in the interstices of the honeycombed part, and 
there formed a coloured layer between the newer snow and the 
hard ice from four inches to two feet in depth. A piece of clearer 
ice contained one or two fragments of comminuted pine-bark about 
a sixteenth of an inch in length, and a bird-louse, which afforded 
much amusement to the sailors when viewed through a Coddington 
lens. I also picked up a short piece of Fucus vesiculosus, in 
very fair condition. The day after (27th May) a male redpoll 


alighted on the ship when we were in lat. 75° 13’ N., 2° 30’ W. 


It was seen by several of the crew, but while attempts were being 
made to secure it, resuming its course it flew far away out of 
sight. Three flights of snow buntings, eleven birds in all, flew 
past us westward the next day. On 29th May we saw the first 
narwhal, in lat. 76° 39’ N. I had obtained from the master, Capt. 
Fairweather, a few days before, the following account of the occur- 
rence of a female narwhal, with a tusk nine feet and a half long, 
which had come under his own observation. He described the 
circumstances of its capture nearly in the following words:—“ In 
June month, 1863, a unicorn was struck in Melville’s Bay, by the 
‘Wildfire, comrhanded by Captain Walker. The harpoon drew 


_ and they lost the fish; but it was afterwards picked up dead by the 


‘Day,’ of which I was mate. When they were flensing it my 
attention was attracted by something unusual in its appearance, so 


3764 THE ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1873. 


I ripped it up, and discovered what the Swedes would call a 
‘foster’ This was eaten by the men with great relish. The she 
unicorn had a horn nine and a half feet long.” Our first mate, 
Mr. James Cumming, of Dundee, was mate of the ‘ Wildfire’ that 
same year. He recollects the circumstances perfectly, and fully 
corroborated Capt. Fairweather’s statements; so also does Capt. 
Walker. All applications for further testimony should be addressed 
to the men who participated in the feast; if they cannot recollect 
it, they ought to. 

In the night of 30th May a small patch of seals was descried on 
an ice-point ahead of us. The batiwe was postponed until the 
morning, it being found that seals are less inclined to take to the 
water in the forenoon than they are at other times of the day. It 
was nearly eight o’clock when the boats put off from the ship. 
From the crow’s nest the seals could be seen upon a strip of distant 
ice, a body about two miles long and a few hundred yards wide. 
They were not distributed over all this area evenly, but were in 
very irregular order, like a flock of sheep grouped loosely along a 
road beneath the shade of straggling trees. All of them were lifting 
up their heads at intervals to sniff the air, seal-fashion, and when 
the boats, mistaking the direction, bore down upon them from the 
windward, they began to get uneasy. Most of them, however, 
satisfied themselves with an occasional glance at the ship, and 
having reassured themselves that she was still two or three miles 
off, determined not to budge just yet for anybody. The boats, 
however, were getting almost within range, and the nearer seals at 
last began to think that matters were getting serious, so one or two 
hundred of them shuffled off the ice and plunged into the water, 
like boys foundered in a sack race. The rest remained upon the 
ice until the men got within fifly or sixty yards of them, and, taking 
the groups in detail, shgt one or two out of every patch. At the 
first shot the nearest unwounded wriggled rapidly off the hammocks 
into the water, and not unfrequently the dead would perversely 
follow their lead and sink before they could be secured. If they 
did not, they were flensed at once where they lay, the skins were 
thrown into the boat, and then the men made for another patch. 
When the boats returned we stood away to the next point, where 
we again fell in with the old saddle-backs (Pagophilus green- 
landicus), and they were in larger numbers than before. There 
must have been many thousands of them, for they covered a strip 


THE ZooLocist—Novemper, 1873. 8765 


of ice over two miles in length as thickly as a flock of rooks a 
pasture. But the men had less sport, because a “ Dutchman” 
came up and hurried our movements. All foreign vessels are 
called Dutchmen in whaler’s parlance; this was a Norwegian 
smack. It is said that some of our bullets screamed over the 
heads of her boat’s crew when they got among the seals, and 
I partly believe it, for our men were not very particular as to what 
might be beyond the mark they fired at, as some of us can per- 
sonally vouch for; besides which the Norwegians were a good 
way off, and not in sight, for nobody can see far over hummocky 
ice. The sea in this neighbourhood was discoloured with a dark 
bottle-green Algal, which afforded food to myriads of a Cetochilus, 
and had an unpleasant smell. The little entomostracan could be 
obtained in any quantity by sinking a towing-net a few fathoms 
below the surface when the ship was hove to. 

On the 2nd July we reached Treurenberg Bay with Mr. Smith’s 
yacht, the ‘Samson,’ in tow. We had met her between Low Island 
and the Seven Islands, near the ice edge, the day before. Amongst 
the pitch-pine and spruce drift-wood on the shore of this bay one 
of her men picked up a fisherman’s glass net-float, which the 
officers of the Swedish expedition were of opinion could only have 
got there by being drifted from the Loffoden Islands. The ‘ Polhen’ 
unexpectedly arrived in the night of the 3rd July, and we had the 
pleasure of receiving a midnight visit from Prof. Nordenskidld and 
Capt. Pallander, R.S.N. When we returned their visit the next 
day, they gave us an account of their adventures during their two 
months’ absence from the ship. Leaving Mossel Bay early in 
April, they had crossed over to the other side of Hinlopen’s Straits, 
near Shoal Point. Here one of their men, soon after their landing, 
went a little distance along the shore to search for drift-wood for a 
fire, was lost in the fog, and was never seen again. This was the 
only death amongst the men belonging to the Swedish expedition 
during the whole of their voyage. They proceeded to Phipps’s 
Island, intending to sledge northwards from it, the Swedish expe- 
dition in 1863 having reported the ice to have been in very good 
condition for sledging that season. This year it was hummocky 
instead of level, and altogether unfit for sledging, so they left their 
boat on the island, and took with them a sledge to carry their 
provisions on. From Phipps’s Island they crossed over to Cape 
Platen, and thence proceeded along the coast of North-East Land 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VII. 31 


3766 THE ZooLoGIsT—NovEMBER, 1873. 


to within a few miles of Cape Leigh Smith. They then turned 
inland southwards, and endeavoured to reach Cape Moen over an 
elevated tract of undulating table-land. Soon after their start one 
of the men was almost lost in a crevasse, being kept up by only one 
arm passed through his rueraddy (sledge-trace); so they provided 
all hands with two rueraddies apiece, and these sufficed to keep 
them from falling through the snow. But as they advanced towards 
the opposite coast, the glaciers became so much broken up that at 
last they determined to turn westward and leave Cape Mven alone. 
For very many days they were unable to see anything but an un- 
varied expanse of snow so similar to the floes that the first glimpse 
of a bare mountain peak protruding above it caused the man 
who viewed it to call out “I see land!” On fifty days out of the 
sixty of their absence from the ship it snowed. They returned in 
safety to Mossel Bay two or three days after our first visit there. 

Having disposed of all that is foreign to the title of my paper, 
I will proceed to make some observations on the Vertebrates. of 
Spitsbergen. 


MAMMALS. 


Man.—There must be many hundreds, if not thousands, of men 
buried in Spitsbergen. The graves are usually situated on a knoll 
or a low ridge near a harbour; and it sometimes happens that they 
are found in good order. Here and there along the coast a solitary 
grave may be met with close to the beach; but, as a rule, they are 
on higher ground. ‘Their positions are various, not always by any 
means east and west. A large proportion of them have collapsed, 
either through the subsidence of the stones piled up over the 
corpse, or in consequence of foxes having burrowed into them; 
and portions of skeletons are disclosed in the gaping coffin, pro- 
trude between the rocks, and are pleutifully scattered over the 
surrounding soil. Sometimes the wood of the coffin has been used 
for fuel, and the rarity of anything resembling a wooden cross from 
graves dug (as many of them must have been) by Catholics of the 
Eastern Church is perhaps to be accounted for on the same grounds. 
On the 8th of September I was returning to the ship along the 
southern side of Green Harbour with our second engineer, James 
Kidd. The object of our walk had been fossils and plants, and 
we had met with moderate success. While we were looking 
after a patch of Nardosmia alpina, which we had found a 


THE ZooLoGist—NovEMBER, 1873. 3767 


few hours before, a round white object on the ground a hun- 
dred yards away attracted our notice. As it could not well 
be a quartz boulder on that slope, I went back to see what it 
might be. It was a human skull. Beside it was a scapula and 
part of a rib, together with the lower jaw and some loose teeth. 
Where the breast had been were scattered leaves of metallic tablets 
impressed with effigies of saints and some words in Russian, and 
there were remnants of the rosary to which it had apparently been 
attached. An empty powder-horn was close at hand, marked with 
a small cross cut out with a knife: these articles I preserved. The 
bones I carefully gathered together, and committed to the ground 
with such words of the English Office for the Burial of the Dead as 
time permitted me to use; and then we left the grave and returned 
to the ship. 

Ursus maritimus.—We had several opportunities of watching 
bears on the ice. They were in most cases too distant from the 
ship to be molested, and so we could observe them through tele- 
scopes at our leisure, and learn something of their natural habits. 
They can rarely be detected when they are not moving. Dirty 
pieces of ice attract little notice; so do the bears, which resemble 
them in colour, so long as they keep still; but when they start 
upon their travels they become conspicuous objects. They stride 
along leisurely, with so even a gait that the eye, deceived by the 
ease of their movements, can hardly realize the rapidity of their 
progress over the floe. We could see them catch seals sometimes. 
One bear, sauntering along, walked up to his seal and took hold of 
it without any formality whatever; another caught his dinner by 
suddenly pouncing upon it; another dragged himself over the ice 
with his fore paws, like a dog scraping itself along the ground, and 
executed a regular stalk. Off Low Island a bear sat down upon 
its hams to admire the ship and give itself a thorough scratching 
with its fore paws, like a lively Esquimaux. I did not find ticks 
upon the skins of any of those which were shot. It is the fashion 
in the Greenland Sea to believe nothing which anyone of another 
ship than your own may please to tell you: our men observed this 
custom pretty strictly; and there were some things in which we 
began to be disposed to adopt a similar principle. One of these 
things was arctic literature. Whenever the tedium of a foggy day 
had to be relieved, the sufferer had recourse to some work on 
arctic exploration. Talk of the effect of “extractum carnis” on a 


3768 Tue ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 


starving man, it is nothing beside the effects which such extracts 
from books as “ Terrific Encounter with a Polar Bear,” or “The 
unparalleled Ferocity of the Lion of the North,” have when skil- 
fully administered to a sufferer from ennui in Spitsbergen latitudes. 
Instead of raging monsters capable of receiving with pleasure some 
dozens of bullets and lance-thrusts, and coming up again for more, 
modern polar bears are quite ready to die if they get only one. 
The last thirty years must have worked a wonderful change in 
their constitution. The first that was killed by us tried to escape 
when she saw the boat approaching. Lieut. Chermside had shot a 
walrus on his way to Table Island, and in returning the bear was 
seen beside the krang. When the boat came near she seemed 
undetermined whether to make a stand or to retreat; deciding at 
length upon the latter course, and seeing that the water offered the 
safest route, she deliberately stepped backwards, and carefully let 
herself down into it: she had not gone far, however, before she 
returned to the ice she had left. Clambering up again, she 
crouched down at the water’s edge facing the boat: one bullet 
through the ribs from Mr. Chermside’s rifle, and the ferocious beast 
“went off as quiet as a lamb.” Ha uno disce omnes. I can speak 
without prejudice on this subject, for I have never fired at a bear 
in my life. 

Canis lupus.—On the morning of the 29th of June we were made 
fast to the floe between Walden and Parry’s Islands, when an 
animal was seen ranging over the hummocks at some little distance 
from the ship. Our skieman, Jeffreys, went up to the crow’s nest 
and watched it for a long time through the ship’s glass. He 
described it as being as large as a Newfoundland dog, and in colour 
black with white spots. He has no doubt of its being a wolf. As 
he kept a wolf last year on a ship in the Straits, his opinion as to 
the identity of the animal before him on this occasion carries some 
weight with it. The Swedes told me after this that they also saw 
at the Seven Islands what they took to be a wolf. Again, in August, 
Lieut. Chermside and I came across a track in the snow on Phipps’s 
Island, one of the best-marked footprints in which measured five 
inches by three. Capt. Walker, of the ‘Samson,’ also, both in May 
and in August, found in a valley at the head of Magdalena Bay, 
some very large foot-prints in the snow; and he says that nobody 
could persuade him that they were not wolf-tracks. He tried to 
trap the animal, but the burgomasters persisted in getting caught 


THE ZooLoGist—NovEMBER, 1878. 8769 


instead. Neither he nor the skieman were aware before I told them 
that no wolf has ever been killed in Spitsbergen. 

Canis lagopus.—We met with black foxes in several localities ; 
one at Fair Haven, another in Wiide Bay (which was chasing a hen 
ptarmigan), a few in Lomme Bay, and several in Magdalena Bay. 
A cub, from Lomme Bay, was given to Mr. Smith by the master of 
a Norwegian smack, who succeeded in smoking four out of an 
earth: of these two were brownish, the other black. We found in 
Wiide Bay that foxes are fond of gnawing at the tips of velvet- 
covered antlers of dead deer. I believe they sometimes gnaw off 
the points of cast antlers; for I saw many which were defective, 
and whose points seemed to have been nibbled away. We were 
led to suspect, with Prof. Newton, that these foxes lay up in the 
autumn a store of birds for the winter: unless they do so, it is hard 
to imagine how they can subsist until the return of the birds in May. 
Ptarmigan, it is true, are not uncommon, and remain in the country 
throughout the year; but foxes are plentiful in places where ptar- 
migan are never found. If they do lay by a stock of provisions, it 
is no doubt composed largely of sandpipers, snow buntings and 
skuas, as well as ptarmigan, all these birds being more addicted 
than any others in Spitsbergen to flapping on the ground as if they 
were disabled whenever they have the least excuse for doing so. 
Whilst they are intent upon engaging the fox’s attention by their 
violent struggles, he suddenly springs upon them, and if they rise, 
jumps after them into the air, and they cannot always get out of 
his reach in time. In the case alluded to at the commencement of 
this paragraph, the ptarmigan kept within a yard or two of the 
fox, barely evading his repeated sallies for several minutes. We 
hastened to the spot, but he disappeared with her before we could 
get there. 

Phocide.—There is little to be said about the four species of 
seals which inhabit Spitsbergen. Some of each kind were killed 
by our party. The crew applied names at haphazard to young 
examples. Very small ones of any sort were termed “ floe rats,” 
provided that they were not evidently “ whitey-coats” (Pagophilus 
grenlandicus, first year). Seals of a slightly larger size, but not 
full grown, if they were dark above and whitish beneath, gave 
occasion to a fair amount of controversy: some of the hands would 
maintain that these were young “ saddle-backs” (P. graenlandicus); 
others would be positive that they were nothing but young “ ground 


3770 THE ZooLoGistT—NovEMBER, 1878. 


seals” (Phoca barbata), sometimes correctly ; sometimes the sub- 
ject all the while would really be a young “ ringed seal” (Pagomys 
fetidus), When the young of this last kind was prettily marked 
with ringed spots, none of them questioned its identity with the 
“freshwater seal” of the Straits—a northern fur seal, with whose 
mere skin Il am acquainted. The term “ Dorothy seal” was equally 
vague in its application. It was only in the determination of adult 
seals that the men were-usually correct. Besides this I need only 
remark that the stomach of a ground seal killed in lat. 79° 40’ N., 
long. 5° E., contained a frond of Laminaria saccharina bitten into 
little bits; and that Lieut. Chermside found on the south side of 
Moffen Island a large number of krangs of walrus which had been 
killed at a distance of more than one hundred yards from the sea. 
Capt. Walker got me some ticks (Hematopinus Trichechi) from a 
walrus he killed in Lomme Bay. On Sunday, 18th June, 1871, our 
fireman, Nicholas White, then of the‘ Polynia, saw a walrus catch 
a loom in Lancaster Sound: the bird was swimming, and the sea- 
horse seized it from below. 

Rangifer tarandus.—Traces of reindeer can be found all round 
Spitsbergen wherever the ground is free from snow, and on most 
of the islands. Judging from cast antlers, we were led to think it 
not unlikely that the comparative robustness or slightness of the 
beam may be dependent on the nature of the soil prevailing in the 
district over which a deer is accustomed to range; for we noticed 
that where limestone was predominant the antlers we picked up 
were far stouter and more heavy than any we could find in places 
where hyperite, granite or other durable rock formed the basis of 
the soil. The reindeer’s favourite food in Spitsbergen appears to 
be the dwarf willow (Salix polaris); for out of over sixty shot in 
Wiide Bay, only one or two had been feeding upon anything else. 
They seem to be indifferent to the sight of men standing still or 
lying down. A fawn one day, after it had looked at me, passed 
within two paces of me as I lay upon the ground, without being 
frightened; but they generally trot off if they see you move. 
Some, however, were so tame that they continued to graze whilst 
I was climbing about a cliff within a hundred yards of them, and 
the stones dislodged by my feet bounded past them. They saw 
me, but I did not disturb them in the least. Mr. Smith and Capt. 
Fairweather shot a doe and fawn on Phipps’s Island the day before 
we left the Seven Islands the last time. They came upon them 


THE ZooLocist—NoveMBER, 1873. 3771 


unexpectedly, fired at them ata distance of about eighty yards, 
and missed them cleanly. Startled by the report, the deer began 
to trot away from them, but she soon turned and advanced towards 
them; when she was within fifty yards of them they fired again, 
and this time with effect: they did not see the fawn at all until 
they found it dead beside its mother, killed by the same bullet. Up 
to that time we had accounted for the existence of deers’ traces on 
the Seven Islands in the following way. Deer, it is said, can 
manage to live comfortably without food for six days: they can 
find something to eat on Walden Island, if they cannot on any of 
the others. Starting, therefore, from Walden Island, they could 
well afford to make the grand tour, spending a day upon each of 
the others, without being actually reduced to extreme starvation. 
Naturally they would gladly cast their antlers by the way to save 
the trouble of carriage, and people finding them upon the rocks 
would at first suppose that deer really could pick up plenty of food 
where they could see nothing but stones. 

Balena mysticetus.—In various places along the coast we found 
many whales’ bones of great age at considerable heights above the 
sea. These evidences of upheaval having taken place within the 
last few centuries have attracted the notice of all geologists who 
have visited the Spitsbergen Archipelago. Amongst localities from 
which these bones have not been reported before, I may mention 
Carl's Island, at the lower entrance of Hinlopen’s Straits. There 
we found a large jaw-bone, much decayed, partly embedded in 
drift-shingle at an elevation of eighty or a hundred feet above high- 
water mark. At a lower level, but yet far beyond the present 
influence of ice or sea were jaws and some broken vertebra in 
Augusta Bay. The only living right whale that we saw was at 
the Western Ice; its blast was just like a puff of steam from the 
escape-pipe of a brewery engine; but it does not do to use such 
untechnical language in Greenland, unless you are talking to an 
old salt: he no doubt will overlook the offence for the sake of the 
associations which it may recall to his mind. 


A. E. Eaton. 
(To be continued.) 


Norr.—I have had before me a paper by my friend Prof. A. Newton, of 
Magdalen College, Cambridge, “Notes on the Zoology of Spitsbergen” 
(Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., November, 1864). In it will be found numerous 
references to other authors. On many points upon which we haye touched 


3772 Tue ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1873. 


in common it will be found that we concur; where we do not, our dis- 
crepancies may be accounted for by our obseivations having been made in 
different districts. The knowledge that my hares have been previously 
coursed by Prof. Newton will make intelligible how I came to follow so 
closely in his track. With respect to the birds the same will hold good, my 
remarks having a direct bearing upon his “ Notes on the Birds of Spits- 
bergen,” in the ‘Ibis’ for April, 1865.—A. E. E. 


The Cirl Bunting an Autumnal Songster.—The fact that the cirl bunting 
is equally an autumnal songster with the congenerous yellow species has 
not, so far as I am aware, been noticed by ornithologists, at least I can find 
no mention of it in some of the leading works on British birds; consequently, 
on hearing one in full song on the 4th of the present month, I thought it 
might be worth while to send a short note for the ‘ Zoologist ’ on the sub- 
ject. About Plymouth the cirl bunting is quite a common bird, and in 
August I have repeatedly heard its song, which the cock delights to deliver 
from the lower branches of an elm, or may be only a bush in a hedgerow 
bounding some grassy enclosure, manifesting less partiality for spots about 
corn land or other arable fields than the yellow bunting, and appearing to 
prefer low-lying situations, though the well-nigh universal distribution of the 
latter bird causes the two to be often met with together. It may be worth 
while for me to add that in the neighbourhood of Plymouth the so-called 
common bunting is less common and ‘more of a local species than is the 
cirl—T. R. Archer Briggs; 4, Portland Villas, Plymouth, Sept. 12, 1873. 

Hawfinch Breeding in the New Forest.—It will perhaps be remembered 
that in a recent number of the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 8491) I expressed an 
opinion that the hawfinch does occasionally breed in the forest; and this 
summer the fact has in several instances been proved, although no nest or 
eggs have come under my own observation. A man informed me that he 
had discovered several nests of this species in the south-western portion of 
the forest in May; still as he failed to supply me with eggs I somewhat 
doubted his assertion; but about the middle of June I had several young 
hawfinches scarcely fledged, strange-looking little creatures, sent me from 
near the locality he had indicated, so I at once concluded they must have 
come from one of the nests he had found. Again on the 3rd of June I had 
two more sent me from another locality, but these were better feathered, 
although I suspect they could not have flown much, as the peculiar shaped 
feathers of the wings were in a very undeveloped state. Only two of the 
birds I have received were worth preservation, but I dissected the stomachs 
of all (seven in number), and in each case they were literally crammed with 
peas, in fact the older birds were shot whilst in the act of splitting open the 
pods, amongst which they did considerable damage. Peas seem to be the 


+ 


THE ZooLtocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 3773 


principal food of the species in this neighbourhood, as specimens of the bird 
were killed in February whilst pulling up the young pea-plants as soon as 
they appeared above-ground.—G. B. Corbin ; Ringwood, Hants, Sept. 1873. 

Nesting of the Sandwich Tern on Walney Island.—In the September 
number of the ‘ Zoologist’ I promised to make enquiries concerning the 
time of nesting of the Sandwich tern on Walney Island, and to let Captain 
Feilden know the result. As I only received an answer to my letter the 
other day I have hitherto been unable to fulfil that promise. Capt. Feilden 
was right in his supposition that I had been misinformed concerning these 
birds: the son of the proprietor of the land on which they nest now tells me 
that there were, if he remembers rightly, a few of the large sea swallows 
about when I visited the island (31st May), and that they remained, he 
thinks, about a fortnight after I left. I can only suppose that the watcher, 
who accompanied me to the nesting-ground of the blackheaded gulls, told 
me the Sandwich terns had then left the island because he did not wish me 
to disturb them; and I can the more readily believe this, as he was very 
anxious I should not remain a minute near the gulls to blow the eggs I had 
taken; and indeed he watched over them as jealously as a gamekeeper 
guards his pheasants. I am sorry I made the mistake I did, and, but for 
the delay in receiving a reply to my letter, I should have corrected it 
sooner.—H. Durnford ; October 18, 1873. 


Ommastrephes sagittatus off Hastings.— On the 26th of September a 
remarkably large and fine specimen of Ommastrephes sagittatus of Lamarck 
was brought to Hastings, and was purchased by Messrs. Gibson and Allen, 
the fishmongers. It was said to have been taken by the fishermen in one 
of their mackerel-nets. The dimensions of the creature are as follows :— 


Length from the front of the head to the point of the tail - 1 ft. 94 in. 
Circumference ofbody - - - - - ee 52) ass 
Greatest breadth oftail-fing - - - - - -* = Ly, 2 
ienetnvof head! e--/0 Ma = PT eR 4} ,, 
Length of each tentacular arm - - - - : 25, 3f5 
Length of spread from tip to tip of the extended ation 

arms Se Oe EE ie eS Rosle aa em: Gere! Warr 
Length of rows of suckers on each tentacular arm - - - 93, 
Length of the largest of the tentacles - - - - - 104 5, 


According to the accounts given in Forbes and Hanley’s ‘ History of 
British Mollusca,’ it would appear to be rare as a British species, and that 
it is by far the largest specimen that has been recorded as taken on our 
coast. I have salted the specimen, and have sent it to my friend Mr. Henry 
Lee, who has given us such interesting anecdotes of the habits and manners 
of the Octopods in the tanks of the Brighton Aquarium.—J. S. Bowerbank ; 
2, Hast Ascent, St. Leonards-on-Sea. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 3K 


8774 Tue ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1873. 


[The genus Ommastrephes of D'Orbigny comprises those animals so 
familiar to fishermen, and indeed to all “ toilers of the sea,” or visitors of 
the sea, by the popular names of “squids,” “ flying squids,” “ cuttles” or 
“arrows”; every one also knows their single bone or “ pen,” a semipellucid 
flattened object dilated at its attenuated and almost membranous margin, 
and altogether resembling horn rather than bone. These squids are 
distributed over the entire world of waters, and the work of D’Orbigny 
shows us how they and their allies the Ammonites and Nautilites swarmed 
in the oceans of bygone times. Several of my sea-going friends seem to 
regard them as flying fish, but naturalists well know that they are cephalopod 
mollusks, and belong to a different division of the animal kingdom to that 
which includes the fishes. Their flight is curious. I know no better term 
than that vague and hackneyed one: the terms “sagitta,” “ sagittatus,” 
given not only to the present but to several other species, sufficiently 
indicate the habit, although these terms have been supposed to have 
reference to the feather or pen concealed, rather than to their arrow-like 
flight. It is probably when pursued by the porpoise, the tunny, albacore or 
bonito that this flight takes place; but some believe that the flight of fishes 
(Exocetus) and squids (Loligo, Teuthis and Ommastrephes) is merely an act 
indicative of exuberant spirits and animal enjoyment. I will not speculate 
on this, but try to give some slight idea of a seeming anomalous mode of 
locomotion. All the mollusks consist of a body, head, mouth, funnel and 
foot; in these larger and more highly organized, or, as some call them, 
typical mollusks, this foot is divided into eight long and almost linear strips 
furnished with sucking disks, which thus become prehensile organs: technical 
naturalists call these divisions, legs, arms, fingers, tentacles, tentacular arms, 
&e., with praiseworthy indifference. When a rapid act of progression has to be 
performed, the animal assumes what we should consider a reversed position, 
and drives itself backwards by the sudden and violent expulsion of water 
through the funnel: the body then takes the lead; and the divisions of the 
foot collapse, and fold together much after the fashion of a closed umbrella: 
if you can imagine an umbrella flashing through the water point foremost 
with the velocity of lightning, you obtain a very good idea of the locomotive 
powers of these mollusks : ‘they not only cleave the water in this arrow-like 
flight, but, leaving the water, enter on the realms of air, continuing their 
course in the same direction: their powers of flight are of course limited, 
as the air furnishes them with no fulcrum for taking a second flight when 
the impetus gained by the first is exhausted; so they fall into the ocean, 
and then regain their powers of flight; or, as occasionally happens, get 
stranded on the deck of a ship, and there, after exciting much wonder 
and some fear, perish miserably by the hands of the sailors. A friend of 
mine who passes most of his nights on tropical seas, insists that these squids 
are luminous, that, as they shoot through the water and produce the effect 


THE ZooLocist—NoveEMBER, 1873. 3775 


of splendid aquatic fireworks, the light proceeds from their own bodies. 
I attribute this glorious illumination of the ocean to its smaller inhabitants, 
whose pyrotechnic properties have been investigated and ascertained.— 
Edward Newman.]} 


Memoir of the late Thomas Dix. 


SinckE the brief notice in the ‘ Zoologist’ for January last (S. S. 
3380) of the death of this well-informed but most unassuming 
naturalist, I have been desirous to embody in a brief memoir such 
facts respecting his ornithological pursuits as our personal friend- 
ship and the communications of his family have placed at my 
disposal. 

Mr. Dix was a native of Norfolk, having been born in 1830 at 
Dickleburgh, near Harleston; but his earliest associations were 
connected with the “ Breck” district to the south and west of the 


county, his father having removed shortly after his son’s birth to 


Sturston, near Thetford, where, amongst other rural sounds that 
attracted his notice as a child, the nocturnal cry of the stone curlew 
(Gdicnemus crepitans) was indelibly impressed upon his mind, 
from a something of dread connected with its melancholy wailings. 
From Sturston, whilst he was still a boy, his family moved into 
Kssex, and though it would seem that his special taste for Orni- 
thology did not develope itself till later in life, yet an acquaintance 
formed thus early with Mr. Henry Doubleday, of Epping, and 
subsequently with Mr. Edward Newman, the Editor of this journal, 
proved unquestionably the first incentive to those studies which 
had so great a charm for him in after years. To the influence, in 
this respect, of his friend Mr. Doubleday he was ever ready to 
testify, both how much he owed to and how highly he valued a 
friendship that to the end of his short life was counted one of his 
greatest privileges. With his tastes thus fostered, and directed 
more particularly to one branch of Natural History, his out-door 
occupations — always more or less connected with agricultural 
operations—afforded every facility for studying the forms and 
habits of his feathered favourites ; and with a power of observation 
possessed by few, he thus acquired the store of ornithological. facts 
to which I have myself been so frequently indebted; yet which 
none but his most intimate friends gave him credit for possessing, 
through the reserve and diffidence that formed so marked a 
characteristic of the man, 


3776 THE ZooLoGistT—NovVEMBER, 1873. 


The same hesitation to advance his own opinions or subject 
himself to criticism in public print was the cause of his literary 
efforts, with one exception, being limited to a few brief notes on 
ornithological occurrences, contributed from time to time to the 
pages of this journal. 

That thoroughness, however, and earnest love of truth, which 
won for him, whether in business transactions or in private life, the 
respect and esteem of all, was not less indelibly stamped upon the 
pursuits of his leisure hours. To take nothing for granted upon which 
a doubt might exist, and to deem no amount of time or trouble too 
great to establish a fact, however trivial, were the golden rules that 
guided him in his Natural-History researches, and gave a double 
value to the result of his investigations. I could cite many cases 
in which his extreme good nature, apart from the general interest 
that he felt in such enquiries, led him to take infinite pains in 
collecting authentic information for friends and correspondents ; 
memorably so, during the great sand grouse immigration of 1863, at 
which time, by his careful sifting of evidence in different localities, 
I was materially assisted in drawing up a paper on the distribution 
of that species in Norfolk and Suffolk. 

For some time prior to our first meeting, the name of Thomas 
Dix had been familiar to me through the pages of the ‘ Zoologist,’ 
in connection with Ornithology in the Eastern Counties, and if 
I cannot now recall the exact date, I well remember it occurred in 
the Norwich Museum, and that an hour spent together in the 
“ British Bird” room commenced at once, through the freemasonry 
of kindred tastes, a friendship warm as it was mutual. An 
acquaintance thus formed led naturally enough to a correspondence 
on kindred subjects, which continued uninterruptedly till within a 
few months of his death; yet I can but regret that, although his 
occupations at that time laid chiefly in the adjoining county of 
Suffolk, our opportunities of personal intercourse should have been 
limited to his visits, at long intervals, to Norwich and West Harling. 
There was one occasion, however, when he returned for some weeks 
to Norfolk, the recollection of which will always be a source of 
peculiar gratification. It was in the early summer of 1864, just 
previous to his entering upon an appointment in Wales, that I paid 
a long-promised visit to him, at the house of a relative, Mr. John 
Ringer, of West Harling; and it was there, in our daily rambles 
and hourly conversations on the one absorbing topic of Natural 


THE ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1878, 3777 


History, that I was able to appreciate the full extent of his out-door 
experience and accurate knowledge of the notes and habits of even 
our Jeast familiar British birds. 

By daybreak of the morning after my arrival we were off to a 
large beech plantation, the only haunt in that neighbourhood of 
the wood warbler (Sylvia.sylvicola), so local in its habits, and for 
the first time, from the topmost branches of the trees, I heard the 
peculiar and unmistakeable note of this species. Later in the day 
we listened to the song of the wood lark by the covert side, whose 
every haunt seemed familiar to him; or on the open “ brecks,” with 
the aid of a good glass, watched the actions of the stone curlew, so 
difficult of approach, and examined such nests, both of the lapwing 
and curlew, as had been previously found by the shepherds. The 
rich meadows and sedgy banks of the stream had other nests to be 
visited, which led to many an anecdote worthy of record; and, like 
a true naturalist, his observations were by no means confined to 
birds alone, but extended as well to botanical objects and the habits 
of insects and our smaller Mammalia. In the dusk of the evening 
we again skirted the heath and plantations where 

d “High in air and poised upon his wings 

Unseen, the soft, enamoured wood lark sings,” 

and watched the amorous play of the nightjars, striking their wings 
over their backs, with a clearly perceptible sound, or uttering their 
jarring notes as they flitted past. It was indeed a day to be 
remembered, in such companionship, and its chief gratification for 
him, I know, consisted in having shown me two or three species 
of birds with whose habits, owing to their very local distribution, 
I was till then but little acquainted. But even that long summer’s 
day had not exhausted our enjoyment of rural sights and sounds, 
since, long after midnight, by the open window of my room, we sat 
listening, as I have elsewhere attempted to describe it, to the 
tremulous whistling of the curlews, and the wail of the lapwings, 
from the adjacent “brecks;” whilst, in strange contrast to their 
wild clamour, the nightingale poured forth its melody from the 
garden, and as the soft night air came in upon us, laden with the 
scent of the honeysuckle, the paths, shrubs and buildings were 
bathed in the brightness of the full moon. 

It was here also that I first became aware of his skill as an 
amateur taxidermist, his thoughtful kindness having led him, during 
his stay at Harling, to procure for me certain specimens I had 


3778 Tue ZooLocist—NovEMBER, 1873. 


expressed a wish for, and which, with others in my collection, 
mounted as well as in skins, are evidences of the care and skill he 
devoted to this work. 

As an instance, however, of his extreme modesty and reticence 
in all matters connected with his own accomplishments, I may here 
state that, although he had occasionally spoken of having a few 
birds “at home,” it was not until very recently, when I paid a visit 
to his father, at Ipswich, that I became aware of the extent and 
value of his collection,* consisting of some ninety cases, nearly all 
mounted and arranged by himself. As in all good amateur work 
of the kind, the time devoted to small details is in this instance 
amply repaid by the effect produced; the freshness and beauty 
of plumage in his specimens being the result of hours spent in 
removing every blemish from their feathers, before either attitude 
or expression were attempted. This is specially noticeable in his 
gulls and sea-fowl, from the “Stack” rocks and other parts of the 
Welsh coast; but, with the exception of the latter, nearly all his 
birds were procured either in Norfolk or Suffolk, and, though not 
comprising many rarities,t the entire series fairly represents the 
orders and genera of our British list, whilst his Raptores—the most 
difficult class of birds to represent truthfully in a preserved state— 
are amongst the best evidences of his skill, being perfect models in 
form and power of expression. Perhaps the chief test, however, of 
his patience, combined with extreme delicacy of manipulation in 
the arrangement of small objects, is shown in an exquisite case of 
humming-birds, containing not less than fifty specimens, which is 
also in his father’s possession at Ipswich. 

The autumn of the year 1864 found Mr. Dix actively engaged as 
agent on a large estate at Kilwendeage, near Kenarth, Pembroke- 
shire, his field of observation being thus suddenly transferred from 
extreme east to west, where a mountainous district and a bold rocky 
coast afforded many new features. His earlier letters from this 


* Since writing the above I have ascertained that, besides his own collection, 
Mr. Dix formed a still larger one for Mr. John Ismay, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, of 
which, I believe, every specimen was mounted by himself. 

+ As British-killed specimens, perhaps the rarest in his collection were a pair of 
European whitewinged crossbills (Loxia bifasciata), the male killed near Thetford, 
in Norfolk, the female near Carlisle, presented to him by Mr. Doubleday, having 
been previously figured by Yarrell. These, with a fully adult roughlegged buz- 
zard, trapped on Thetford Warren, have, at his special request, passed into my 
possession. 


THE ZooLocist—NovemBER, 1873. 8779 


locality are full of interesting notes on ornithological subjects, 
describing such birds as had already come under his notice, and 
comparing the scarcity or abundance of certain species, in that 
portion of the principality, as contrasted with our eastern counties 
—the almost total absence of the house sparrow and the number of 
magpies striking him particularly on his first arrival. It was from 
the pleasure which the perusal of these stray notes afforded me that 
I strongly urged him, so soon as his acquaintance with that neigh- 
bourhood would permit, to prepare a list, with observations on the 
Birds of Pembrokeshire, and though, from reasons before alluded to, 
he was disinclined to attempt it, I had the satisfaction of seeing my 
suggestion carried out, in the admirable paper which he contributed 
to the ‘ Zoologist’ in 1866 (S. S. 132). This list, which, as he 
remarked at the time, contained only those birds that he had seen, 
or for which he had undoubted authority, was considerably enriched 
by a second communication to the same journal in 1869 (Zool. 
S. S. 1670), containing his own more recent observations, par- 
ticularly on the coast, with the result of visits to local collections 
and personal interviews or correspondence with the few resident 
naturalists. The whole forms undoubtedly a valuable contribution 
to the study of British Ornithology, and from a part of the kingdom 
whence reliable notes on such matters are rarely obtainable; but in 
reading his graphic description of a visit to the “Stack” rocks at, 
Flimstone, with the impressions made on his mind by the grandeur 
of the scenery and the presence, in thousands, of the sea-fowl that 
frequent those cliffs, one regrets that a doubt, on his part, of his 
descriptive powers, should have left us so little from his pen. 

In this new vocation his force of character and earnestness of 
purpose enabled him to surmount many difficulties, arising not less 
from the dialect of the country than from local prejudices; and 
I have reason to know that his name will be long remembered in 
that neighbourhood in connection with an improved system of 
farming operations, and the successful rearing of stock, for which 
his experience in the twin counties of East Anglia had well 
fitted him. He here developed also a taste for the cultivation of 
fruit and flowers in the extensive forcing-houses on the estate, and 
the success attending his earlier suggestions as to the mixture of 
soils and a more effective drainage, led to his superintendence being 
as much sought in that department as in the wider field of agri- 
culture. More magnificent fruit, in size and flavour, I never saw 


$780 THE ZooLocisT—NoVEMBER, 1873. 


than some grapes and a pine, which, on one occasion, he sent me 
as specimens of his own growing. 

With his time thus fully occupied, the only drawback in his new 
home seems to have been the total separation from old associates, 
and particularly those of kindred tastes, as, with the exception of 
the occasion of his marriage with a daughter of Mr. Pymar, of West 
Harling, and once subsequently, he did not revisit Norfolk until 
the state of his health compelled him to resign his situation and 
return to his native county. Always susceptible of cold, and 
predisposed, no doubt, to the disease which latterly developed 
itself in his system, he was constitutionally unfitted for exposure 
to the damp chilling fogs so common in Wales, and a permanent 
deafness succeeding a severe influenza, proved both a cause of 
anxiety to his friends and a sad trial to himself; for, in his letters 
at that time, he adopted almost the words of Gilbert White, of 
Selborne,* in lamenting a like affliction, “I lose all the pleasing 
notices and little intimations arising from rural sounds; and May 
is to me as silent and mute with respect to the notes of birds, &c., 
as August.” This proved, however, but the forerunner of more 
serious symptoms, and, though himself buoyed up with that strange 
hope of ultimate recovery so usual in consumptive patients, it was 
but too evident to those who saw him on his return to Norfolk in 
1871, that he would not long be with us. Still he lingered on, at 
his father-in-law’s residence at West Harling, till near the close 
of the following year, when his death took place on the 19th of 
November, in the forty-second year of his age; and thus passed 
away, in Christian reliance, on other merits than his own, “a good 
man and a just,” the moral of whose life, “magna est veritas,” 
might be worthily inscribed upon his tomb. His remains were 
interred, with other members of his family, in the cemetery at 
Ipswich. 

Mr. Dix left no childrén, and, scarcely within twelve months of 
his own death, his wife, whose health had no doubt suffered from 
her unceasing attendance upon him in his last illness, died very 
suddenly, from the same insidious malady, on the 14th of August, 


1873. 
HENRY STEVENSON. 
Norwich, September 30th, 1873. 


* Letter LXIT. (to the Hon. Daines Barrington), 


Tar Zootocist—DeEcEMBER, 1873. 8781 


Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. 
By Joun Corpeaux, Esq. 


(Continued from S. S. 3687.) 


AvuGusT, SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER, 1873. 


Golden Plover.—Aug. 9th. Saw two golden plovers with a flock 
of lapwings; one of these was in full summer plumage. 

Gray Plover.— Aug. 16th. First observed in their autumnal 
migration, apparently old birds. 

Swift.—Aug. 16th. When driving homeward across the “ wolds” 
this afternoon, flocks of swifts kept passing over, at a considerable 
altitude, and flying south. A friend in this neighbourhood had 
observed the same thing during the day. 

Wryneck and Pied Flycatcher.—Aug. 25th. Mr. Richardson, of 
Beverley, informs me that he shot a wryneck at Spurn on the 25th; 
also several immature pied flycatchers. 

Gray Plover and Whimbrel.— Aug. 27th. Numerous on the 
river-flats. 

Curlew Sandpiper.— Aug. 30th to Sept. Ist. Large migratory 
flocks seen in the Great Cotes marshes. (See Zool. S. 8. 3720.) 

Green Sandpiper.—Sept. 3rd. A pair seen on the Ulceby beck. 

Common Sandpiper.— Sept. 8rd. Rather numerous in our 
marshes during the autumnal migration, although entirely absent 
during the summer months. 

Knoi.—Sept. 10th. Flocks of young knots on the foreshores. 

Starling.—Sept. 26th. This afternoon, which was very close 
and warm, there were hundreds of starlings, also peewits, rooks, 
and a flock of missel thrushes, hawking, like swallows, for insects. 
I watched them for some time, and can only conjecture their prey 
was the common cranefly, as on this day the air seemed very full 
of these insects. 

Hooded Crow.—Oct. 9th. First seen. The main body came from 
the 18th to the 21st. On the latter day I was on the sea coast, 
near Tatney, and saw for several hours small parties of “ hoodies,” at 
short intervals, come in from the sea: they flew very low, and against 
a south-west wind with driving rain: they never swerved a yard to 
avoid me, and I could have dropped many had they been worth the 
cartridge. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 3L 


$782 Tue Zootocist—DEcEMBER, 1878. 


House Martin.—Oct. 10th. In a neighbouring parish a pair 
were feeding their young, still in the nest, under the eaves of a 
dwelling-house. 

Swift.—Oct. 10th. Last swift seen, apparently a young bird. 

Chimney Swallow.—Oct. 14th. Last seen. 

Godwit.—Oct. 16th. Since the commencement of the month 
very numerous on the coast: I have heard of four killed at a shot. 
On the 21st there were many on the sands near Tatney, mainly the 
young birds of the year. 

Wild Geese.—Oct. 20th. First flight seen. 

Brent Geese.—Oct. 21st. Saw a small flock on the coast this 
morning. 

Brambling.— Oct. 21st. A friend, who was shooting with me 
to-day, killed an old male brambling on the “ fitties,” probably one 
having just arrived. 

Gray Plover.—Oct. 21st. Saw numerous young birds on the 
coast; specimens obtained were in the golden spotted ‘plumage, 
peculiar to the young only of the year. Also saw a fine old bird 
yet in full summer plumage; indeed I could not perceive the 
slightest tendency to a change; the breast was as black as ina 
late spring specimen, such as we see on our flats. 

Snow Bunting.—Oct. 22nd. Saw the first snow bunting, and on 
the following day flocks crossed the Humber into our marshes, 
coming from the direction of Spurn Point. 

Woodcock.—Oct. 27th. The first flight came on the night of the 
27th; wind E.N.E., rather thick and hazy on the sea, but clear 
above, and a very beautiful night. On the morning of the 28th 
I got two couples in this parish. The same night, judging from 
what 1 saw passing over in early morning, and in the marsh 
hedgerows during the day, came across great numbers of fieldfares, 
blackbirds and thrushes, also thousands of larks; altogether a most 
extraordinary arrival of birds. The blackbirds were principally 
young males. 


JouN CorpDEAUX. 
Great Cotes, Uleeby, Lincolnshire. 
November 5, 1873. 


in i i a it a a i ee ee 


THE ZooLocist—DEcEMBER, 1873. 3783 


Ornithological Notes from Devonshire, Cornwall, &c. 
By JoHN GatcomBE, Esq. 
(Continued from S. 8. 3720). 


SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


4th. Visited Lifton, Devon, in the neighbourhood of which 
I found sparrowhawks and kestrels plentiful; indeed the latter 
have been very numerous in both Devon and Cornwall during the 
present autumn; but I am sorry to add that I have seen many of 
these birds lately in the birdstuffers’ shops, which had been caught 
in “gins;” likewise a fine buzzard and two barn owls, which had 
shared the same fate. It is a great pity that gamekeepers and 
farmers will persist in destroying birds that do so much good, and 
the stomachs of which I generally find crammed with the remains 
of mice and beetles. A few days since I found the stomach of a 
kestrel to contain, in addition to beetles, the full-grown larva of the 
moth Hadena oleracea. At Lifton I also found swallows very 
plentiful, and observed martins still feeding their young in the 
nests. 

5th. Young herring and lesser blackbacked gulls very numerous 
in Plymouth Sound. 

8th. Went into Cornwall, and remarked curlews, godwits and 
sandpipers, of many kinds, on the mud-flats of the St. Germans 
river; also some blackheaded gulls not long returned from their 
breeding-stations. In the fields there were numbers of titlarks in 
small flocks or families. 

11th. Wind very strong. Numbers of martins were congregating 
and flying round our house early in the morning; some of them 
constantly fed their young on the wing. Examined a fine Cornish 
chough which had been killed in Cornwall, and the stomach of 
which contained Coleoptera and grain. 

14th. A very large flock of swallows flying about and con- 
stantly settling on the telegraph-wires; many of these, too, fed 
their young on the wing. I was told by a friend who has lately 
visited Yorkshire that he had observed many flocks of wild geese 
(bean geese, I suppose), in August, passing over the wolds, and 
that he did not remember ever having seen them so early before. 

15th. Blowing and raining very hard; nevertheless a large com- 
pany of swallows appeared flying round, very high, apparently 


3784 THE ZooLocisT—DEcEMBER, 1873. 


hawking for insects between the showers and squalls, though it 
seemed strange for insects to be abroad during such weather, and 
so high too. The lofty flight of the swallow family during stormy 
weather has often puzzled me. 

16th. Visited the estuary of the Laira, and observed, with a 
powerful telescope, the actions of many birds on the mud-flats ; 
among them were gulls, herons, ring dotterels, dunlins, knots, red- 
shanks and turnstones. Many of the dunlins still retained the 
black patch on the breast, and two of the knots were perfectly red 
underneath—a state of plumage rarely met with in this neighbour- 
hood. All these birds were on the soft mud-banks, and it was 
most interesting to observe their actions and different modes of 
feeding: the ring dotterels running swiftly, and then suddenly 
stopping to pick up their food; the dunlins moving quickly about, 
eagerly probing with their bills all the while; but I observed that 
the turnstones would make for any stray substance they could see, 
such as tufts of sea-weed, shells, &c., which they dexterously turned 
over, and carefully examined. I observed two cormorants and a 
heron perched side by side on a floating plank or log in the river, 
where they remained for some hours. By the way, I should 
mention that one of the cormorants had the whitest breast I ever 
saw for a bird of that species. It is not uncommon to see cor- 
morants with a tolerable amount of white on their bellies at this 
time of the year; but the one above mentioned seemed to be 
perfectly white from the gular sac to the vent, which, as the bird 
was sitting or standing bolt upright, gave it a striking resemblance 
to the great auk. I do not remember seeing this stage of plumage 
described in works on Ornithology; but I remember reading a 
discussion in the ‘ Field, some years ago, on the subject of white- 
breasted cormorants. I found kingfishers and common sandpipers 
very plentiful too; also. pied wagtails and a few of the yellow. 
Corn crakes have been very common in the Plymouth market 
lately, indeed more so than I ever remember, and golden plovers 
were there, still showing partially black breasts; also a few teal. 
A friend told me that he had bought a great northern diver, in the 
flesh; it had been killed at Weymouth on the 29th of August: 
I mention this, as it is a most unusual time for such a bird to be 
found on our coasts. From his description, it was not at all in 
summer plumage: I imagine therefore it must have been an im- 
mature bird, which perhaps had been injured in some way so as to 


—E—=— ee aa eee eee 


THE ZooLocist— DrcEMBER, 18738. 3785 


have prevented its departure at the same time as others of its 
species. 

20th. Took a ramble into the country ; found green woodpeckers 
plentiful, and wood larks singing beautifully; also observed a 
female hen-harrier, a bird very numerous with us of late years. 

23rd. Went to Laira in a boat; saw twelve herons close together 
on a mud-bank, met with some common redshanks, and killed a 
wigeon—very early for the appearance of this species on our coast. 
Common sandpipers still plentiful. 

25th. There was a great congregation of martins on the telegraph- 
wire, and many flying about; I counted above one hundred and 
twenty on a wire close together, reminding me of a string of beads. 

29th. Took a trip by rail, and on passing by the mud-flats near 
Teignmouth, I found them almost covered in many places with 
blackheaded and herring gulls, both young and old; there were 
also a few mews. Starlings exceedingly numerous in the fields 
throughout the journey: these birds are yearly increasing to a great 
extent. Saw a dunlin a few days since which had been killed by 
flying against a telegraph-wire. 


OcToBER, 1873. 


Ist. When in the neighbourhood of Tiverton I found wood 
larks plentiful, and in full song, but on again visiting the flat 
marshy moors of the adjoining county of Somerset, near Bridg- 
water, where I observed so many kestrels last autumn, to my great 
surprise I did not see one, nor could I account for their absence 
until 1 heard a farmer casually remark that all the rats and mice, 
which were swarming last year about the fields, had somehow dis- 
appeared, having perhaps been drowned by the floods of last 
winter, the flat country around for miles being for months under 
water. This to me seemed at once to account for the absence of 
the kestrels. These birds have been very numerous in Devon and 
Cornwall during the present autumn, and many have been, I am 
sorry to say, shot or trapped, and the stomachs of all examined by 
me contained only the remains of beetles and mice, with the exception 
on one occasion of the larve of a moth. There is now in the posses- 
sion of Mr. Lucraft, animal preserver, of Stonehouse, a beautiful young 
pair of living orangelegged falcons (Falco vespertinus), which were 
caught on board ship, it is said, off the coast of Siberia. They 
are in the first year’s plumage, very tame and docile, will sit on the 


3786 THE ZooLocist—DEcEMBER, 1873, 


fist and take food from the hand in the most gentle manner. Their 
plumage on the upper parts is of a very dark brownish slate, each 
feather being edged with rufous, but there is as yet no sign of. red 
on the thighs or under tail-coverts; the base of the bill and legs 
are orange; the claws the same, but lighter; and the tail much 
barred. These birds were observed to alight on the rigging or 
yard of the vessel, I believe, by day, and when it was dark one of 
the crew went aloft with a lantern, the full glare of which he threw 
for a few seconds on the poor birds eyes, and then, suddenly 
removing the light, left the bewildered creatures in such intense 
darkness that they were easily captured. After this they were kept 
in the fore cabin and fed by the sailors on bits of flesh or small 
birds, which were constantly caught at roost in the rigging, and on 
these being let go in the cabin the hawks would instantly dart 
after and catch them, much to the amusement of the men: 

4th. I was pleased to find goldfinches in large flocks, feeding in 
elegant attitudes, on the thistles at Moorland, near Bridgwater. I 
think these birds have been rather plentiful during the autumn, as 
I have observed more than usual lately in the vicinity of Plymouth, 
but I am sorry to add that birdcatchers have been numerous too. 

From Bridgwater I visited London for a few days, and on the 
8th had a peep at Leadenhall Market, where I found wild birds 
scarce, with the exception of gray plovers, many of which had still 
black feathers on their breasts, the remains of the nuptial plumage. 

At Plymouth, on the 13th, after my return, I found a few wheat- 
ears still on the coast, and some kingfishers; also many titlarks, in 
their pretty winter dress. In the Market I observed some bartailed 
godwits and a spotted rail, a species rarely met with in our neigh- 
bourhood. 

15th. I counted, with the aid of a telescope, above two hundred ~ 
gulls resting on the West, Mud, opposite Devonport Dockyard, and 
a great number flying in the harbour at the same time, and I have 
no doubt that as many more might have been found on the mud- 
banks of several other rivers and estuaries in the neighbourhood. 
This I feel assured is in a great measure the result of the Sea Birds 
Preservation Act. 

16th. A large number of golden plovers in the Plymouth Market, 
all obtained from the Devon and Cornish moors, and judging from 
the quantity killed I think great flights of these birds must have 
made their appearance in the western counties; there were many 


THE ZooLocist—DECcEMBER, 1873. 3787 


common and jack snipes in the market also. Speaking of snipes, 
I may here mention that a short time since I met a friend who had 
been shooting in Ireland, who told me that he had killed, amongst 
others, a very beautiful variety of the common snipe, of a most 
delicate buff-colour, with the usual markings, showing, as it were, 
faintly through it. This bird he carefully packed in a cardboard 
box and posted to me, but I grieve to say that it never came to 
hand. 

18th. Visited Bovisand on the coast, and remarked that cormo- 
rants were very plentiful; there were upwards of thirty perched on 
one rock, called the Little Newstone, besides many more flying and 
diving near the rocks in different directions. Several razorbills, 
too, have been seen, and some obtained, on the coast and in the 
Sound lately. Observed a solitary wheatear, on the rocks close to 
the sea, which was very tame, and I expect the last I shall see for 
the season. Found rock larks and stonechats plentiful on the 
coast, with a few wrens. <A few weeks since I remarked there was 
not a rock lark to be seen. I have not met with a phalarope 
during the autumn, but Mr. Nicholls (brother to the Kingsbridge 
taxidermist) told me that one specimen of the gray phalarope had 
been picked up at Thurlstone Ley, near Kingsbridge, at the 
beginning of the month, and that some sanderlings had been killed 
on the coast near the same place. He also told me an interesting 
anecdote of a tame young herring gull, which was taken and reared 
from a nest in the neighbourhood; having flown away during the 
breeding-season, it returned after an absence of sixteen months, in 
nearly full adult plumage, and fearlessly alighted in the small back 
court in which it was brought up, much to the amazement of the 
cottagers, who, seeing a lovely “ snow-white gull,” as they called 
it, close to their door, did not of course recognize their own dingy 
pet, until a little boy of the house, who used to feed and stroke the 
bird on the back, came quietly forward, when, much to the 
astonishment of the family, and to himself as well, he found that 
he was allowed to do so still. This bird, I understand, is living 
now, constantly going off to sea, but returns almost daily to be fed; 
yet, although it comes almost into the house, no one is allowed to 
take the liberty of strokingi ts back save its old friend the little boy. 

21st. Some tufted ducks in the market. 

24th. A few common terns in the Sound, after a severe gale. I 
have seen but one young black tern this season. 


8788 THE ZooLocist—DEcEMBER, 18738. 


29th. Many flocks of common scoters appeared on the river 
Tamar after a severe frost, and several were killed; curlews were 
also plentiful. I also saw some scoters and gray plovers in the 
market; and, on the same day, observed several swallows near 
Plymouth—rather uncommon to see swallows and wild ducks at 
the same time of the year. A speckled diver was also killed in the 
Sound on the 29th, and a northern diver seen. 

31st. Woodcocks, snipe and landrails in the Plymouth Market. 


JoHN GATCOMBE. 
8, Lower Durnford Street, Stonehouse, Plymouth, 
November 7, 1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Godalming. 
By WitutaM SrarrorbD, Esq. 


SEPTEMBER, 1873. 


Ist. At Shackleford, a partridge’s nest was found containing ten 
eggs; the old bird was wounded, but was found again on the nest 
three days afterwards. 

5th. A whitethroat’s nest was brought me, with four eggs set 
hard, 

8th. A shorteared owl was sent me, shot here; condition very fat. 

10th. Two specimens of the common ring dotterel were shot on 
the river bank between Guildford and Godalming; they were in 
good fat condition. A white owl’s nest containing six young ones 
is to be seen near here, and another at Elstead. 

11th. A Manx shearwater was brought to me, killed at Alder- 
shot, in starving condition. A common brown owl was brought- 
me, shot at Eashing; its stomach contained the remains of thir- 
teen large mice. 

12th. My son has just brought home a reed warbler’s nest, con- 
taining three eggs, taken at Ockford pond; the eggs were set hard. 

14th. Saw a nest of young bullfinches, three in number. 

Cuckoo.—14th. My young cuckoo, which has been a strong 
healthy bird ever since the lst of September, has been very rest- 
less, trying to get out of his cage. I suppose instinct tells him it 
is time to be off. 

Martin.—22nd. I have two house martin’s nests under the roof 
of my house, and I have had an opportunity of paying considerable 


THE ZooLoGist—DEcEMBER, 1873. 3789 


attention to them. Each pair of birds has had two broods. Yes- 
terday morning they were at their nests as usual, but there was 
such a fighting and spluttering I guessed there was something 
unusual going on; fora long time the old birds kept driving the young 
ones away from the nests. About eight o’clock in the morning 
most of the chimney-pots in this part were covered with both 
martins and swallows; I watched with a glass from the top of my 
building, and messengers seemed to be sent from each department 
all round, holding a short conversation with each company: but 
they did not leave for good, as the morning was foggy, and it did 
not clear up nicely, but the fog hung about all day, with a slight sun- 
shine occasionally. The next morning came bright and clear, witha 
north wind, rather inclining to the east; both martins and swallows 
were early at work paying hasty visits all round: I got on the top 
of the house with my glass, and I could clearly see about fifty 
chimney-pots with martins and swallows on them, and also a great 
number on the telegraph-wires. By eleven o’clock in the day not 
a martin or swallow was to be seen, and I have only seen two 
straggling house martins since, and they appeared weak and sickly. 
I must remark one thing in particular, not a sand martin could I 
see among the lot, although there are so many breed in the neigh- 
bourhood, but it is and has been my opinion that this species 
leaves earlier. I took rather particular notice of the departure of 
the swifts, and the sand martins left soon after; I wished them all 
a safe journey and a happy return. 


OcToBER, 1873. 


9th. This morning was very mild and muggy, with a westerly 
wind, no sun. About a quarter before seven o’clock I observed 
close to the church, on the telegraph-wires, two old swallows and 
five young ones; they appeared to be very comfortable. I noticed 
that the tails of the young ones were very short, which showed they 
had not long been out of the nest. 

13th. This morning at seven o’clock, the weather being tolerably 
warm, although the wind was nearly north, I saw, in just the same 
spot as the above twenty-four house martins, all perched on the 
telegraph-wires, pluming themselves, ready for a start I supposed : 
T went by the same spot half an hour after, and they were still 
there, but getting very noisy, as the sun was just breaking through 
the clouds. 

SECOND SERIES—VOL, VIII. 3M 


8790 TuE ZooLoGist— DECEMBER, 1873. 


14th. This morning at seven o’clock the sun was shining beauti- 
fully, and I saw eleven or twelve house martins flying round about 
the church steeple; all appeared to be in pursuit of insects, some 
as high up as the weathercock, which I should think is eighty or 
a hundred feet high; I have not seen one since. The wind was 
north-west when I saw the martins, which was about favourable for 
leaving. 

29th. The first fieldfare was seen this day on the Pease Marsh, 


between Godalming and Guildford. 


WILLIAM STAFFORD. 
Godalming, October 29, 1878, 


The Relation between the Colour and Geographical Distribution 
of Birds. By Ropert Ripeway.* 


Tue July number of the ‘ Naturalist’ contains a criticism of my 
paper on the relation between colour and geographical distribution 
of birds,+ which is doubtless by this time familiar to the readers of 
this journal. The tone of this criticism renders it necessary for 
me to reply to it: but in doing so I shall endeavour to use as little 
space as possible, and limit my defence to the statement of a few 
simple truths, which I hope will answer the purpose as well as a 
lengthy discussion. 

The specific charges made against me are two in number: (1) I 
am accused of “ appropriating Mr. Allen’s work without acknow- 
ledgment” to the latter author; and (2) of dishonestly claiming 
originality in the conception of certain laws and of cases illus- 
trating them. These charges are preferred severally in the 
following words :—“ He writes as if his views were both novel and 
original, which is not the case. To speak plainly, the paper is 
based entirely upon Mr. Allen’s views, without the slightest allusion 
to this author; and is illustrated chiefly by cases already published, 
yet without proper references.” 

* Reprinted from the ‘ American Naturalist,’ September, 1873. 

+ “On the relation between Colour and Geographical Distribution in Birds, as 
exhibited in Melanism and Hyperchromism.” Art. Journ. Sci. iv. Dec., 1872, p. 454; 
y. Jan., 1873, p.39. [I trust that the references to this and other papers cited in the 
course of Mr. Ridgway’s reply, as well as the critique to which it especially refers, 
will induce my readers to obtain a sight of all these productions: although the sub- 
ject is one of such great interest, it is impossible to make room for their reproduction 


in the ‘ Zoologist.’ The tendency of all these papers is indicated in the Reply here 
reprinted. Edward Newman.) 


Tue ZooLocist—DeEcrMBER, 1873. $791 


As regards Mr, Allen’s work, I am not only willing, but desirous, 
that he should receive all the credit due to him for his well-accom- 
plished task of elucidating the laws of climatic colour-variation, and 
geographical distribution. This gentleman’s writings place him 
in the foremost rank of the philosophical ornithologists of the 
present day, their high merit and great importance being recog- 
nized by all to whom they are familiar. I have the highest 
respect for Mr. Allen’s works; they show careful study, deep 
thought, persevering search for facts, and thorough, analytical 
mode of treatment. About their only fault consists in the too 
frequent evidence of conclusions “jumped at,” or based upon 
insufficient evidence. 

But as justly as Mr. Allen deserves his high position among the 
most thorough and advanced ornithologists of the day, we must 
not lose sight of the fact that he is not the only one who has 
written upon the subject of climatic colour-variation and geogra- 
phical distribution. Professor Baird, the pioneer in this subject, so 
far as America is concerned, first made known the main governing 
laws, and thus opened the way to later researches. But even he is 
preceded by Dr. Gloger, who anticipates al/ American writers in 
many generalizations of this kind, published as long ago as 1833.* 

A few of Dr. Gloger’s generalizations, which bear more directly 
upon the province of this paper, are the following :— 

“ The variation in colour of birds from one country to those from 
another, is influenced not only by the mean temperature of the 
year, but also by that of single months (those about the time of the 
most rapid growth or moult) and by the relative time and quantity 
of the falling snow and rain.” “ Light also has influence ”—in the 
change of colour. “ Heat has influence by drying out the moisture, 
whereby the action producing a change is a mechanical one.” 
“The fact that in some summers there are more cuckoos of a 
reddish brown colour, or with reddish brown spots, may probably 
be owing to the general or periodical atmospheric constitution of 
the year in question.” 

In 1866, before the appearance of any of Mr. Allen’s writings, 
Professor Baird published a paper entitled “ The Distribution and 
Migrations of North American Birds,” ¢ in which much was said 


* “Das Abindern der Vogel dursch Einflufs des Klimas.” By Dr. Constantin 


Lambert Gloger, Breslaw, 1833. 
+ ‘American Journal of Science and Arts,’ Vol. xli., Jan. and March, 1866, 


3792 THE ZooLtocist—DEcEMBER, 1873. 


regarding climatic variations in colour and proportions. The 
generalizations advanced in this paper are the following :— 

1. Latitudinal and altitudinal variation in size of resident 
species; northern bred individuals, and those born at high eleva- 
tion, being larger than those born further south or in the low lands. 

2. Absolute increase of the size of the bill, even with diminution 
in general bulk, in Florida birds, as compared with individuals of 
the same species born north of that peninsula: the same rule 
applying, to a less extent, to birds from Cape St. Lucas. 

3. Longer tails of western birds than of eastern examples of the 
same species. 

4. Darker colour of birds from the Pacific coast than of speci- 
mens of the same species from the interior, “the latter frequently 
exhibiting a bleached or weather-beaten appearance, possibly the 
result of greater exposure to the elements, and less protection by 
dense forests.” 

Here then are three laws of climatic or regional variation in size 
and proportions, and two of colour, in which Mr. Allen is antici- 
pated by Professor Baird. But without going farther into the 
literature of the subject, I will proceed at once to discuss Mr. 
Allen’s celebrated work published in 1871,* in order to show 
wherein he has anticipated me in the announcement of generaliza- 
tions, in cases illustrating them, or in reducing specific names to 
the rank of race, or “variety,” names. On p. 235, the law of 
increased intensity of colour to the southward is announced, this 
not having been especially noted by previous writers (though 
Gloger says something indefinite in relation to it in his work above 
cited). This law, then, originates with Mr. Allen. The cases 
which he cites in illustration are the following :—Quiscalus pur- 
pureus, Agelaius pheniceus, Ortyx Virginianus, Sturuella “ Ludo- 
vieiana” (= magna), Galeoscoptes Carolinensis, Harporhynchus 
rufus, Centurus Carolinus, Picus pubescens, P. Gairdneri, Colaptes 
auratus, Thryothorus Ludovicianus, Troglodytes 2don, Geothlypis 
trichas, Pipilo erythropthalmus, Buteo lineatus and Bucephala 
Americana (!). The idea of “the so-called Bucephbala Islandica 
being the larger northern type of B. Americana, in which the white 
markings on the head and wings occupy a somewhat larger area,” 


* «Bulletin Mus. Comp. Zool.,’ Cambridge, Mass., ii. 1871. Part III. “On 
Individual and Geographical Variation among Birds, considered in respect to its 
bearing upon the Value of certain assumed Specific Characters,” pp. 186250, 


TuE ZooLocist—DecremBer, 1873. 3793 


is entirely erroneous, as every one acquainted with these very 
different species will admit. The other cases cited show only slight 
(sometimes inappreciable) manifestations of this law within the terri- 
tory of the United States. Thus none of my cases were “ already 
published,” and, besides, all were in a new geographical field. 

The Jaws of variation with longitude, which Mr. Allen lays 
down, are the following :— 

1. Brighter colours of the birds from the interior, than of those 
from the Atlantic States; with a tendency to more ferruginous 
tints in some species and to melanism in others. 

2. Brighter or darker colours of the birds from the Pacific coast 
(especially north of the 40th parallel) than of those from the 
interior. 

3. Lighter colours of birds from the arid, sterile plains than of 
those from either the eastward or the westward. 

By referring to this paper, it will be seen that all the above laws 
are substantially the same as in the generalizations made by Pro- 
fessor Baird in 1866, so that they were at the time of the publication 
already “the common property of ornithologists;” while the 
proposition that red areas “spread,” or enlarge their field in pro- 
portion as we trace certain species towards the Pacific coast, and 
that in the same proportion yellow often intensifies in tint, is a law 
of which Mr. Allen makes no mention, and which is, so far as he 
is concerned, original with me; at the same time I claim originality 
for the cases illustrating both this and the foregoing laws, though 
I have never thought before of claiming either the generalizations 
or the examples as discoveries of my own. 

Having given my defence as far as Mr. Allen is concerned, I 
shall now attend to the cases in which I reduced previously recog- 
nized “species” to the rank of geographical races, or “ varieties,” 
“the implication being, that such nomenclature, and the views 
sustaining it, are novel.” Dr. Coues professes to have anticipated 
me in several of these cases by using the same nomenclature in his 
“ Key,” and other previous works. How far he is justified in this 
it is my purpose to show. 

The case of Chrysomitris, Dr. Coues claims to have “ first 
worked out, in 1866 (Proc. Phil. Acad., 81), exactly as it is here 
presented, although C. psaltria was not there formally brought into 
this connection, as it has since been by us (Key, Oct., 1872, 132, 
133).”. How much Dr. Coues is entitled to make this assertion 


8794 Tue ZooLocist—DeEcEMBER, 1878. 


may be judged from the following summary of his views, as 
expressed in the first work to which he calls attention :— 


138.+ Chrysomitris (Pseudomitris) psaltria (Say) Bonap. 

139. Chrysomitris (Pseudomitris) mexicanus (Swains.) Bonap. 
[A. Var. mexicanus, Swains. 
B. Var. columbianus, Lafr. 
C. Var. Arizone, Coues.] 


Dr. Coues’ reasons for keeping Psaltria apart from Mexicanus 
and its varieties are explained by his own words, which we quote 
from p. 83 of the first paper cited:— . . . “the typical Psaltria 
is so very diverse from Mexicanus proper, and the doubtful speci- 
mens” (meaning var. Arizone) “incline so very decidedly toward 
the latter, that, in the impossibility of uniting Psaltria with Mexi- 
canus” (!!!) “we must consider them” (the doubtful specimens 
—var. Arizone) “as varieties of the latter, unless, indeed, they be 
hybrids between the two.” Thus it is very plain that C. psaltria 
was not then formally brought into the connection in which I 
placed it. My arrangement of these forms was as follows :— 


Chrysomitris psaltria, Say. 
a. Var. psaltria, Say. Rocky Mts. of the U.S. 
b. Var. Arizone, Cowes. U.S. and Mexican boundary. 
c. Var. mexicana, Swains. Mexico and Central America. 
d. Var. columbiana, Lafr. Isthmus of Panama and adjacent localities. 


In discussing the relationship of these forms to one another, Dr. 
Coues does not even note the progressive increase of black from 
Psaltria to Columbiana—much less does he appear to consider the 
manifestations of any climatic law affecting colour as applicable 
in this case—but merely gives the comparative characters of the 
several races, and remarks, incidentally that there is a gradual 
transition between the two extremes (Columbiana and Arizonex— 
Psaltria being positively separated from the series, as a distinct 
species, in the manner shown above). As regards “ bringing it 
into the connection” of a race along with mexicanus in the “ Key,”. 
Dr. Coues may, perhaps, remember the occasion upon which I 
explained the case to him, illustrated it by a series of specimens, 
and discussed the matter with him without hesitation. 

In the treatment of the races of Myiarchus Lawrencii, I certainly 
cannot be justly charged with “scientific plagiarism,” since I 


* The current number of his catalogue. 


THE ZooLoGist—DEcEMBER, 1873. 8795 


present the case in an entirely different light from Dr. Coues, as 
the following schemes of arrangement will show :— 


(Coues’ arrangement). (Ridgway’s arrangement). 
6. Myiarchus Lawrencii. 1. Myiarchus Lawrencii, (Giraud), 
Tyrannus Lawrencii, Giraud. S a. var. Lawrencii, Giraud—N. Mexico. * 
Myiarehus nigricapillus, Cabanis. y- b, var. nigricapillus, Caban.—S. Mexico 
7. Myiarchus nigriceps. and Central America. 
Myiarchus nigriceps, Sclater. \s - c. var. nigriceps, Sclater— Panama to 
‘ brunneiceps, Lawr. ve Ecuador. 


Each of the three races which I recognize is characterized by 
perfectly tangible distinctive features; var. nigricapillus is well 
marked by conspicuous characters which distinguish it from both 
the others, notwithstanding that Dr. Coues “ cannot make out that 
it is even a “recognizable variety.” The simple fact that in the 
series I recognize but one species, with three geographical races, 
and apply scientific principles in showing the gradual transition 
from one extreme to the other, and at the same time show the 
direct relation between this progression and a certain climatic law 
of colour-variation, while he recognizes, in effect, two species, 
without any varieties, and does not discuss any law or generaliza- 
tion at all, shows how unjust are his pretensions to have anticipated 
me in this case. These pretensions may, perhaps, be considered 
the more unjust from the fact that the material upon which Dr. 
Coues based his monograph of this genus had been previously 
overhauled by me, thus giving him the benefit of my unpublished 
determinations, which were in many cases indicated upon the 
labels—though it is but due to Dr. Coues to say that he acknow- 
ledged in one case the source of his information. 

I do not claim originality for calling Picus Harrisii “ Villosus 
var. Harrisii,’” but merely—as any one can see—cite it as an 
instance illustrating increased melanism toward the Pacific coast. 
For calling Sphyropicus ruber, “ Varius var. ruber,” however, I do 
claim originality, notwithstanding the fact that this way of “ putting 
it” was first done in the “ Key.” I well remember, though perhaps 
Dr. Coues may not, the occasion upon which I unhesitatingly told 
him of my discovery, and satisfied him of its merit by laying out a 
series of specimens to illustrate my theory. At that time he cer- 
tainly had not thought of combining S. ruber with S. varius, as a 
geographical race, along with S. nuchalis, but the length of time 
elapsing before the publication of the “ Key” (perhaps a year) no 
doubt justifies his lack of recollection as to how he got the idea. 


3796 THE ZooLOGIst—DECEMBER, 1873. 


The statement in regard to Cardinalis is erroneous in several 
respects: first, I did not make “a new Mexican variety, carneus, 
of Cardinalis virginianus,” but gave the synonymy of that pre- 
viously named race, citing Lesson first, and Bonaparte’s Conspectus 
next, as authorities for the name, which I merely reduced to the 
rank of arace. The new race which I characterized was Coccineus 
Ridgway, from eastern Mexico, while Carneus, Lesson, was from 
the western coast. In reducing C. igneus, of Baird, to a variety, I 
did not follow “a previous writer” (Key, p. 151 cited) since, as 
explained further on, I had not seen the “Key” until after the 
printing of my paper. 

In the case of the western forms of Cyanura I am perfectly 
willing to renounce all claims to originality ; for if my method of 
treating them contributes to the better understanding of the relation 
which they bear to each other, my aim is accomplished. 

So far as Dr. Coues’ “Key” is concerned in the matter of no- 
menclature, it must in this instance be ignored, as the following 
facts justify :—though the “ Key ” was published in October (1872) 
and my papers not until December and January following, yet I 
never saw the pages of that work until after the issuing of my 
papers, which were written and forwarded to the publishers the 
preceding July or August, at which time I had not seen the “ Key” 
at all. Even had I seen and been perfectly familiar with its pages, 
I could still claim with perfect right, for reasons stated farther on, 
originality for the nomenclature which I used. 

And now, having justified myself in regard to the relation which 
my paper held to previous publications in specific points, let me 
say a few words in its defence on general principles. From the. 
time when its preparation was first discussed in my mind to the 
time of its publication, the question never once occurred to me 
whether the laws which I endeavoured to explain were my own 
discoveries, or whether their discovery was the property of others. 
I took it for granted that the subject and its general principles 
were so familiar that a preliminary review of its literature would 
be a superfluous addition to a paper already overburdened with 
references—of which, very singularly, my reviewer complains of 
a meagreness. My only view was to begin at once with these laws, 
state as precisely and briefly as possible what their principles 
were, and iliustrate them, purely in the interest of science, by 
novel cases, and, when possible, by the cumulative evidence of 


THE ZooLoaist—Decemper, 1873. 3797 


familiar cases. If I have succeeded in contributing a few unfamiliar 
facts to the store of science (and the hope that I have is encourage 
by the fact that my reviewer has had the courtesy to approve of 
the treatment of some cases, and to acknowledge the merit of an 
occasional novelty) I am much gratified, and consider myself well 
paid for my labours. To be charged with literary theft must be 
unpleasant even when it is merited; but to be falsely branded with 
“scientific plagiarism,” without any provocation, is an accusation 
which cannot be borne in silence. In this case, the charge bears 
with it so much arrogance, that a simple defence against it is not 
sufficient; and I should consider myself very selfish and uncour- 
teous did I not make some return for the marked attention which 
I have received. I therefore deem it my duty to state here, that 
the several examples alluded to above are but a fraction of the 
number of cases in which I have suffered from my indiscretion of 
being too trustingly communicative, and from Dr. Coues having 
taken advantage of earlier means of publication. 

Should my reviewer realize the truth of his preliminary remark, 
that “the critic’s office is not seldom ungracious,” I am sure that 
I feel very sorry that he made up his mind not to “shirk the 
responsibility” in which the tone, more than the matter, of his 
criticism involved him. 


Otter in the Thames,—When fishing near Parkhill Lock, a mile above 
Eynsham Bridge, an otter rose in the middle of the stream; at first we 
mistook it for a large fish feeding, but two days later it was again seen at 
the same spot. It came up close to a man’s float. It is supposed to have 
come down the river from Ark Island, having been disturbed by some 
people who had been moorhen-shooting.—A. H. Smee. 

Rats eating Pigs.—A farmer in this neighbourhood (Longparish, Hants) 
lost eight pigs last winter, about six months old, from rats ; during the cold 
weather, when food was scarce, they nibbled the edges of the pigs’ ears whilst 
they slept, in some cases gnawing them close down to their heads, so that 
they gradually wasted away and bled to death—H. Durnford; October, 
1873. 


Ornithological Notes from Suffolk during August, 1873.— 

Kestrel— 20th. This afternoon I winged a redshank on “the flats” up 
the Blythe, from behind the river wall, which fell close to the river; whilst 
waiting for the boatmen to come down and pick it up, I observed a kestrel 

SECOND SERIES—VOL. VIII. 3.N 


3798 THE ZooLoGist—NovEMBER, 1873. 


beating over the muds in the direction of my wounded bird; getting nearer 
he quickly espied it, and was on it in a moment, and I had the mortification 
of seeing it carried off in his claws to the other side of the river. Only an 
hour or so previously I had met with a half-eaten redshank on the wall, 
which had no doubt shared the same fate as mine, and I subsequently 
observed a kestrel hawking over the muds evidently searching for wounded 
dunlins, &c., which being numerous here, doubtless formed a great portion 
of his diet. 

Reeve.—12th. Immature bird on Thorpe Mere to-day. 

Green Sandpiper.—11th. Numerous along the ditches at the back of the 
wall by the river Blythe, generally occurring singly, but I occasionally 
observed a small party of four or five birds. 13th. Observed several in the 
ditches by the banks of the river Alde, near Orford; they are more nume- 
rous here than at Southwold. 21st. Counted fourteen birds up the Blythe 
about five o'clock this morning. 

Curlew and Whimbrel.—18th. Large flocks on the pasture lands about 
Orford Ness; they are, I believe, all birds of the year. 

Dunlin.—20th. Two birds shot at Southwold to-day have commenced 
their autumnal moult. 21st. To-day my brother shot a dunlin, which is 
referable to the small race of that species. It was with a large flock, but 
the others were apparently of the usual size. Mr. Stevenson has kindly 
compared this bird with those in his own collection, and finds it quite 
agrees with them, but he tells me they vary in the length of their beaks, 
inter se, in the same way as those of the larger race do. The measurements 
of my bird are: beak, fifteen-sixteenths of an inch; tarsus, three-quarters of 
an inch; carpal joint to end of first quill-feather, three inches. The beak of 
the smallest ordinary dunlin in my collection is fully one inch in length. 

Razorbill.—13th. Shot a bird of the year to-day swimming in the Alde, 
about five miles from the mouth of the river; it seemed exhausted, and made 
no attempt to escape on our approach, though it was not in such bad condition 
as might have been expected from meeting with it in such a locality. 

Cormorant.—20th. Two birds in Eastern Broad, near Southwold. 

Little Grebe.—19th. To-day we caught two young birds, about ten days 
old, in a ditch at the back of the river wall, near Southwold: they swam 
both above and under water with the greatest ease. Are not these very late 
birds ? 

- Common and Lesser Tern.—11th. Observed several birds, chiefly imma- 
ture, of the latter species frequently alight in the mud-flats up the river, 
amongst the ringed plovers. 18th. Visited the extensive tract of shingle at 
Orford Ness, where the common tern breeds numerously: many birds were 
still in a partially downy state, and unable to fly strongly; the head and 
neck is the last part to assume feathers. After careful examination here on 
this and some subsequent days I was unable to detect any arctic terns 
amongst the common species. 


Tue Zootocist—Decemerr, 1873. 3799 


Richardson's Skua.—17th. An immature bird on the beach near Dunwich 
to-day. 

Nocturnal Migrants.—On the 13th of September a great flight of waders 
of some sort took place over Southwold at about half-past seven o'clock in the 
evening; they were near enough for people who happened to be out at the 
time to hear the flapping of wings and whistling; it lasted for about ten 
minutes.—H. Durnford. 

Notes from Aldeburgh, Suffolki—August 11th—I shot a wood sand- 
piper to-day in the mere; I had for some days noticed several about, and 
repeatedly heard their note at night. This is the ninth specimen which 
has come into my possession in the flesh, every one of which has occurred 
in the month of August. During the last few days of August considerable 
flocks of waders have made their appearance about the meres and river. I 
have obtained curlew sandpipers, knots, little stints, immature ruffs, and one 
adult specimen of the smaller race of ringed plover. Aug. 28th.—Out of 
five curlew sandpipers which I shot to-day three were adult birds, still 
retaining a good deal of the summer plumage. Kingfishers are now plentiful 
about the river, as they always are at this season; I have very little doubt 
that they are toa certain extent migratory. September 10.—One of my 
friends shot an adult swift to-day; alate appearance. Sept. 11—When 
walking on the promenade to-day between Slaughden Quay and the Brude- 
nell Hotel, a flock of common terns passed me close along shore, and 
following them I observed a small skua. The following day I walked some 
miles along shore in search of it, and met with it off Thorpe, under exactly 
similar circumstances. I got a long shot at it and killed it: it proved to bé 
an immature Richardson’s skua. I saw another bird, apparently of the 
same species, but it kept out of gunshot. A few skuas, both Richardson's 
and pomarine, are generally met with in the fall of the year, and both are 
well known among the gunners by a sobriquet which is a literal translation 
of ‘‘Stercorarius.” Mr. Hele’s collection contains a mature Buffon’s skua, 
which was shot some years ago from a bathing-machine as it was passing 
along shore. I have had some conversation with the gunners relative to 
the new Wild Birds Protection Act: the general opinion on the matter 
seems to be that while they fully agree with the protection of peewits, wild 
ducks, redshanks, &c., while breeding, they will sustain a loss by being 
unable to shoot migratory birds (sanderlings, turnstones, gray plovers, &c.). 
I find that the idea prevails everywhere that eggs are protected, both by 
this Act and the Sea Fowl Act.—Julian G. Tuck; Tostock House, near 
Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk. 

Notes from Longparish, Hants.—— 

Wood Pigeon eating Snails.—On the 9th of August last my brother took 
ten small fresh-water snails from the crop of a freshly killed wood pigeon. 
On the 23rd I took a dozen from another bird, and on the 26th two more 


3800 THE ZooLocist— DECEMBER, 1873. 


from another. These were all of the same species of mollusk, and were 
amongst quantities of wheat and peas; the birds were all shot near the 
river Test. 

[The rock dove (Columba livia) feeds on snails (Helia Ericetorum), but 1 
do not recollect a similar record of the wood pigeon.—Edward Newman.] 

Stone Curlews Feeding at Night.—September 18. Three stone curlews 
fly regularly every evening about dusk from the higher chalk lands above 
the river to the water meadows bordering the Test; they are very clamorous. 

Green Sandpiper.—August 28. Two birds at the bottom of Barnsbury 
Common: I observed these birds here on several subsequent occasions ; they 
seemed very partial to a small patch of peaty soil bordering the river. 

Rooks eating Acorns.—September 30. The oak trees are full of rooks, 
which feed upon the acorns; they do not eat them off the ground, but only 
pick those that are growing on the tree. 

Variety of the Sky Lark.—September 6. This evening I shot avery small 
cream-coloured variety of this species; it is about the size of a small 
meadow pipit. 

Hobby.—August 23. My brother shot an adult male to-day.—H. Durn- 
ford; October, 1873. 

Ornithological Notes from Lancashire (continued from S. S. 3613),— 

Ringed Plover.—These birds must have several broods in the year. A 
nest containing eggs was found near here on the 19th of April; on the 19th 
of May I found a young bird about a fortnight old; on the 21st of June I 
found two nests with eggs, and on the 9th of August last year I found 
young birds still unable to fly. 

Common Tern.—June 11. This species has now commenced to lay in 
numbers about Formby; the birds lay on the tops of the most naked sand- 
hills, choosing those on which the vegetation is most scanty, and from 
which they can readily see any approaching danger. The full complement 
of eggs appears to be three, rarely two; they are laid in a slight hollow in 
the sand, with no nest whatever. 

Lesser Tern.—June 7. Found six nests on a bank of fine shingle and 
gravel, at the Point of Air, Flintshire, containing in most cases two eggs, 
which seems the full complement, as in no instance did I find more; two 
of the nests were carefully paved with fine pieces of broken shells, the con- 
cave sides inwards. I observed about a dozen birds resting on a pool of 
water left by the receding tide; I noticed some lesser terns swimming in 
almost exactly the same place about this time last year. Yarrell records 
this habit of the lesser tern, and I am glad to be a witness to his accuracy, 
especially as I have seen his statement doubted. 

Shieldrake-—On the 7th of June I disturbed a pair of old birds and five 
young ones which were resting on the shore under a bank of shingle; the 
female feigned lameness immediately on seeing me, whilst the young ones, 


> 


THE ZooLocist—DECEMBER, 1873. 8801 


certainly not more than ten days old, plunged boldly into the sea, although 
it was anything but smooth at the time, and they had great difficulty in 
getting beyond the break of the waves. Both old birds subsequently settled 
on the water close to them, and I watched the family party swimming along 
* shore with the tide till out of sight. A young bird I caught was a beautiful 
little ball of down: head above dark brown, with a line of that colour 
running down the back of the neck; sides of head, throat, neck, chest and 
stomach snowy white; back dark brown and white, evenly distributed in 
patches. When I handled it, it uttered shrill piping notes, resembling a 
good deal the cry of the oystercatcher when its nest is threatened with 
danger. 

Dunlin.—July 16. Observed several small parties, chiefly young birds, in 
the sandy flats near the mouth of the Mersey, mostly very tame. By the 
28th they had returned from their breeding quarters in force, and now asso- 
ciate with the ringed plovers. 

Sanderlings.—July 81. Very numerous on our flats, occurring in even 
larger flocks than the dunlins; they like drier situations than those birds, 
frequenting the sand-banks rather than the mud-flats. 

Lesser Tern.—July 1. Again visited the Point of Air, and found there 
had been a large arrival of lesser terns since my visit on the 7th of June. 
I found nine nests in about half-an-hour, which in nearly all cases were 
paved with pieces of broken shells. Eggs generally two; in some few 
cases there was a single one, which was considerably incubated. I think it 
probable that from the frequent robbing of nests here the birds get so 
exhausted that they are unable at last to lay more than a single egg. They 
were extremely bold and fearless, returning to their nests almost as soon as 
my back was turned.—H. Durnford; Waterloo, Liverpool, September 18, 
1873. 

Ornithological Notes from Tamworth.— 

Wheatear.—This year we have had many more wheatears than usual. 

Pallas’ Sand Grouse.—A friend of mine has a Pallas’ sand grouse which 
was shot at Swinfen, near here, in 1866, three years after the great flight 
recorded in the ‘ Zoologist.’ 

Late breeding of Martins.—A pair of house martins here are just bringing 
off a nest of young ones; they left the nest for the first time on the 10th 
of October. A hen house sparrow seems to take as lively an interest in 
their welfare as I do, for on most mornings she pays the nest a visit, flying 
up against it and peeping in.—Egbert D. Hamel ; Tamworth, Oct. 18, 1878. 

Birds observed at St. Michael’s-on-the-Wyre.—At St. Michael’s-on-the- 
Wyre, North Lancashire, during the past month or two, snipes visited us 
in some abundance, though not nearly so plentiful as last year. The 
heaviest we killed weighed four ounces and three-quarters, on the 8th of 
September, a redder-plumaged specimen than usual, though I think a real 


3802 Tue ZooLocist—DrcemBeEr, 1873. 


Scolopax gallinago. On the 22nd of September we killed on the snipe- 
ground—a mile from us, and thirteen miles from the coast—a blacktailed 
godwit (Limosa egocephala). Total length, sixteen inches; tarsus, three 
inches; bare portion of the tibia, one inch and three-quarters; Dill, three 
inches; weight, ten ounces. A day or two later my brother wounded a 
solitary snipe (Scolopax major), which after a long hunt we found, having 
marked it down some hundred and fifty yards off; it weighed only six 
ounces. Length, eleven inches; bill, two inches and a quarter. It lay very 
close, and uttered a note not unlike that of the common snipe on rising, 
when we immediately saw that it was a stranger to us, owing to its entirely 
different flight,—heavy, slow, and straight away. The first Scolopax gallinula 
was shot on the 29th of September. A scaup (Fuligula marila) we secured 
on the Wyre on the 10th of October, about nine miles from the sea. It 
was by itself, and easily approached, but on being winged astonished us by 
its diving powers. Three of apparently the same species regularly haunted 
some flooded meadows in our neighbourhood for a week or ten days. On 
the 11th of October we shot our first golden plover, in winter plumage. A 
few quails (Coturnix vulgaris) annually breed with us, and are always to be 
found within a few yards of the same field. Rather more plentiful this 
season than of late years. They rarely rise in bevies, but singly; on the 
12th of October, however, our retriever flushed a bevy, containing about ten 
birds. The spotted crake (Crea porzana) again was in our part-of the 
country: a young bird was accidentally shot in September, and on the 15tli 
of October I and my retriever caught two, one a young and the other an old 
bird, alive, but set free again. They show great repugnance to flying, 
preferring to trust to their legs, running very quickly and low, and looking 
more like rats than birds. Even when liberated in open ground, the two I 
caught refused to fly, though quite free from injury. On being placed in 
some shallow, clear water, they immediately dive, staying below the surface 
a considerable time, occasionally using their wings until a rushy patch be 
found, in which they creep, and remain as long as possible, when they raise 
their heads, but no more out of the water.—Hugh P. Hornby; 35, Norfolk 
Street, Strand. 

Note on Rare Birds obtained near Flamborough Head.—tI have seen a 
beautiful specimen of the Sabine’s gull, apparently a bird of this year, which 
was killed near Flamborough Head on the 15th of October by Mr. Matthew 
Bailey, who I am informed also obtained three little gulls and saw a greater 
shearwater all about the same date and in the same locality.—J. H. 
Gurney ; October 24, 1873. 

Peregrine near Scarborough.—On the 30th of September a young specimen 
of the peregrine falcon was shot at Cayton Waterworks, near Scarborough. 
The bird has been sent for preservation to Mr. Alfred Roberts; it had just 
been feeding on a rock pigeon.—T. Beck ; Scarborough. 


THE ZooLocist—Drcremser, 1873. 3803 


Note on the Cirl Bunting.—The cirl bunting is a common bird generally 
in Cornwall, and particularly so in the neighbourhood of Penzance. Its 
nest has often been found, and I think that the localities chosen are pretty 
similar to its congener, the yellow bunting. The markings of the eggs are 
very similar in character to the other bird, but the colour of the markings 
is very different; those in the yellowhammer are always, as far as I have 
observed, purplish red, but in the cirl buntings they are almost, if not quite, 
black. The cirl bunting, in the late summer and early autumnal months, 
remains concealed in the large trees, amidst the foliage; there its song may 
be constantly heard. In fact, its habits generally are far more recluse than 
those of the yellowhammer, but it every now and then may be seen on the open 
sprays. Its most usual song is the jabber of the yellowhammer, but without 
the prolonged note at the end; when concealed in the foliage of trees its 
song is often more sibilous and rapid in delivery, and at a distance sounds 
not unlike that of the wood wren (S. sibilatrix), but stronger in expression.— 
Edward Hearle Rodd. 

Curlew Sandpiper, Ruffs and Reeves, &c.—Noticing Mr. Cordeaux’s 
account of the curlew sandpiper and its habits on the Great Cotes marshes 
in the last number of the ‘ Zoologist,’ I may mention that that species has 
appeared here also (on the shores of the Firth of Forth) in unusual numbers 
this autumn. So also have ruffs and reeves, both adult and young, which 
are generally scarce here at the time of the autumn migration. Little 
stints have also been procured, though not in any number, and we hear of 
Tringa Temminckii having been obtained at Don mouth, in Aberdeenshire ; 
also specimens of green and wood sandpipers.—J. A. Harvie Brown; 
Dunipace House, Falkirk, October 1, 1873. 

Greenshank and Common Tern in Oxfordshire.—On the 15th of August, 
when rowing up the Thames from Oxford to Eynsham, I put up a green- 
shank which was feeding with eight or nine common sandpipers in a 
shallow. The same afternoon I flushed a couple of snipe, and on the 
following Sunday I saw a young tern fishing and dashing itself into the 
river.—A. H. Smee. 


Large Sturgeon in the Ouse.—It may interest some of your readers to 
know that a fine sturgeon was caught on the 10th of September in the 
river Ouse, which runs through this parish. It had been known to have 
taken up its abode in a deep pool in one of the back-waters for some time 
before any attempt was made to net it. Captain Douglas, the Lord of the 
Manor, gave orders for its capture, and after two attempts it was secured; the 
first time it succeeded in jumping over the net. Its extreme length was seven 
feet two inches and a half; length, from tip of snout to fork of tail, six feet 
five inches and a half; greatest girth, twenty-six inches. Weight, ninety- 


8804 THE ZooLocist— DECEMBER, 18738. 


eight pounds. According to its length it ought to have weighed heavier, 
but it was rather out of condition, though its flesh ate well,—something of a 
mixture of eels, veal and chicken. This makes the third sturgeon which 
has been caught in the same pool; the largest, caught some five years ago, 
weighed one hundred and twelve pounds.—J. H. White; Hemingford Grey, 
St. Ives, September 21, 1873. 

Death of the Porpoise in the Brighton Aquarium.—lI regret to state that 
the last surviving porpoise at Brighton is dead. This is not merely to be 
lamented as a loss to the aquarium, but as proving how difficult it is to keep 
the Cetacea in confinement, for we cannot doubt that every care has been 
taken with these most interesting prisoners.—Edward Newman, 


The Supposed Sea Serpent.—On Tuesday afternoon last, Lady Florence 
Leveson Gower and the Hon. Mrs. Coke, driving near the sea, about eight 
miles east from Dunrobin, saw what seemed to them a large and long 
marine animal. On Wednesday morning Dr. Soutar, of Golspie, saw a 
large creature rushing about in the sea, about fifty yards from shore: it 
frequently raised what seemed a neck, seven feet out of the water, and from 
the length of troubled water behind it appeared to be fifty or sixty feet 
long. He said to his family on meeting them at breakfast, “If I believed 
in sea serpents, I should say I had seen one this morning.” I may mention 
that this gentleman is a most trustworthy observer and cautious man. On 
Thursday I saw what seemed some drift sea-weed. When your report was 
published Dr. Tayler, the author of ‘ Thanatophidia of India’ was atthe castle; 
I asked him what he thought of the matter, and he said he was quite 
prepared to believe in such a monster. Mr. Vernon Harcourt told me that 
he was in a small yacht off Glenelg on the evening of the day mentioned in 
your report, and about six miles from the locality, and that he and his crew 
saw what seemed a great moving mass, which, but for some engagement or 
the lateness of the hour, they would have examined.—E tract from a letter 
from Mr. Joass, of Golspie, to the Rev. John Macrae, of Glenelg. 

[Mr. Joass, an eye-witness, writing in the ‘Times’ of November 20, 
says, “the ears seemed to be diaphanous and nearly semi-circular flaps or 
valves over-arching the nostrils, which were in front. The cavity of the 
eye appeared to be considerably further back, and a peculiar glimmer in it, 
along with the sudden disappearance of the creature, presented, indeed, the 
only signs of its vitality, so far as I could see, while I watched it for half- 
an-hour, apparently drifting with the rising tide, but always keeping about 
the same distance off shore. * * * Dr. Soutar and I are more or less 
familiar with the forms of the porpoise, seal, halibut, conger, and even 
shark, both in and out of the water.”—Kdward Newman. ] 


E. NEWMAN, PRINTER, DEVONSHIRE STREET, BISHOPSGATE. 


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