black game, pointers will set them, if in the way, and stand very steadily. We have frequently witnessed disappointment from this cause. The ordinary and general food is insectivorous or moluscous ; when observed in the evening, they are rooting through the herbage like little pigs, every now and then picking out something which is not vegetable; and although animal food, such as dead animals, eggs, and the young of various animals and birds, may be seized and fed upon when met with, it is not their ordinary, or sought for food. There is a curious note in the Zoological Journal, supplied by Professor Buckland, on the food of Hedgehogs, who, suspecting that hedgehogs eat snakes, tried the experiment, which proved his suspicion to be correct. He had been experimenting upon different kinds of food, and concludes, "Here we have evidence that the hedgehog feeds on roots, fruits, insects, and snakes; in fact, that it is an omnivorous animal."

SOFT-BILLED BIRDS.-Letter XXXVI., page 120, note.

The observation in this note is quite correct; there are many members of the family muscicapide in America, though none of the OldWorld form of fly-catchers; and the Old-World form of Sylvia, or warblers, of White, is taken up by the Sylvicolince of the American forests. In America, again, we have no true motacilla; but in Guinea, and West Africa, we have both a motacilla and numerous species of drymoica, &c. In this latter country, nevertheless, the ploceine, or weaver forms, are very abundant, and being mostly of somewhat gay colours, would, as Mr. White observes, form the bulk of the collection.

THE SWALLOW.-Letter XXXIX., page 128.

The original letter concludes:- "I am pleased to see that your (Pennant's) description of the moose corresponds so well with mine." The swallow was H. rupestris, a species found, according to Degland, besides France and Switzerland, also in Sicily, Sardinia, North of Africa, and Eastern Asia.

THE FLY.-Letter XLIII., page 140, note.

There is no doubt that both the species might come under White's observation, though we have, in our former note, stated that it "probably was H. nemorum. These small coleopterous insects are widely distributed, and common almost every year; but it is chiefly when the young plant is weak from want of proper manure, or great drought, that it is very injurious. This insect has got the name of "the fly," and is the one commonly known by that appellation. But by far the most destructive insect is the larva of a tenthredinous, or saw-fly, allied to the "gooseberry caterpillar," which appears at intervals, without apparent cause, disappearing as unexplainably, and sweeping whole fields, even after they have obtained considerable size, with a locust rapidity. It has been made out to be the larva of athalia centifolia, and is well described by Mr. Yarrell, and more lately by Mr. Curtis in the

Journal of the Agricultural Society of England. It has only come once under our own observation, disappearing, except in very limited numbers, the year following.

JARDINE HALL.-Letter LII., page 157, note.

This note refers to the old mansion-house of Jardine-hall, pulled down about 1812.

BANK-SWALLOW.-Letter LVII., page 175, text.

Our observation in Scotland and the North of England has always noted the H. riparia, or bank-swallow, to be the first in arriving.

IRISH FAUNA.-Letter LXIV., page 201, note.

I forget the authority on which this note regarding Ledum palustre and Papaver nudicale was inserted. Neither are given in either Mackay's "Flora Hibernica" or in Babington's Manual; and, on writing to Mr. Mackay for information, he states that Sir Charles Gièséké had been mistaken in the plants-having seen only an imperfect specimen of Andromeda polifolia in a hut in Ennis, while the P. cambricum was found both by Mr. Mackay and Dr. Graham in the habitat given for the latter.

White's hopes have been fulfilled, and we have now a host of naturalists working out the natural history of Ireland, among whom William Thompson has long taken the lead, and in his valuable zoological papers in the annals of natural history has worked out, minutely and successfully, many of the departments. These have again assumed the form of a regular Irish Fauna in the work alluded to by the Editor. The third volume; the completion of the Birds, being finished. For the Botany, Mr. Mackay has given us a complete Flora.

FOSTER-DAMS.-Letter LXXVI., page 223, text and notes.

In White's observation we have the account of a cat having suckled young squirrels. In the "Zoological Journal," Mr. Broderip relates that he saw a cat give suck to seven young rats. In these cases the animal does not seem to be able to discriminate; and we would be almost tempted to consider that it is the relief alone to be afforded that allows the intrusion of almost any young animal. In the case of a cow, or ewe, on the contrary, it is with extreme difficulty that a strange calf or lamb can be substituted for the real offspring; and the common practice among shepherds, in the case of a dead lamb, is to apply the skin around the stranger before introduction, smell being apparently the guide to recognition or detection.

THE VULTURE.-Letter LXXXVI., page 243, notes.

Vultur (cathartes) Aura is an American species, not found in Africa. The superstition mentioned in the note continues, but there seems no foundation for it.

HONEY-BUZZARD.-Letter XCIII., page 265.

An interesting account of the capture of a specimen of this rare bird is given by Mr. Selby in the "Transactions" of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club: it had attacked a ground wasp's nest, and had scratched out the comb, with which, as a bait, it was afterwards trapped.

DOGS.-Letter CII.. page 284, note*.

See also Colonel Hamilton Smith, article, " Dog," in Griffith's Cuvier, and the same gentleman's "Dogs" in "Naturalist's Library."

THE PORTUGAL LAUREL.-Letter CVII., page 296, note.

We have never known the Portugal laurel cut by severe frost, even when accompanied with a gale. During the last thirty years, plants of from three or four years of age to thirty have been several times subjected to a cold at and below 0°, and to frosts of long duration. They have invariably stood well, and with the common rhododendron, are among our most valuable evergreens. Dryness or moisture of the climate or situation may have an influence.

END OF SIR WM. JARDINE'S NOTES.

SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES,

BY OR COMMUNICATED TO THE EDITOR.

HYBERNATION OF SWALLOWS, page 37 et passim.

Mr. White evidently experienced great pleasure at sight of the first swallow in spring Indeed every lover of nature must do so. As for myself, I love the swallow and its congeners and would (supposing I had the choice) give up any other bird we have rather than this. Independent of its wonderful intelligence, its plumage, as will be found on minute inspection, is very beautiful; its song interesting and melodious; its form graceful; and its utility in clearing the air of insects beyond, perhaps, any estimate we can form. And then who can witness the building of a martin's nest, and hear the notes of exulting satisfaction which the loving little artists utter reciprocally as the work progresses, without entering into Mr. White's feelings?

When we consider that swallows have been seen in this country every month in the year, with the exception perhaps of January, it is not to be wondered at that Mr. White and some other naturalists should have clung to the idea of their remaining in a state of torpidity during a portion of the year, instead of migrating. They have been found in December merrily hawking for flies round the tower of Windsor Castle, and again on a mild day in February. These facts may well puzzle naturalists. The grand flight of the main body of these birds, it is well known, takes place towards the end of October, and many smaller flights of six or seven soon afterwards, and lastly the stragglers. Except on the supposition of some partial hybernation, it is difficult to account for these birds being occasionally seen in the cold months of December and February. In illustration of this, a most observant naturalist writes me, that some years since, on the 28th of December, he went on horseback from Rochester to Arundel. The ground was then covered with snow, and so severe a frost set in, that he was obliged to leave his horse and proceeded on foot. On arriving at Arundel, several persons were in front of the coach-office, looking at a couple of martins playing in the sun, which then shone brightly. He left them so engaged, after watching them for about half an hour, during which time the birds often rested themselves by clinging to the wall immediately under the eaves of an old building nearly opposite, probably the place of their retreat and shelter.-ED.

THE NUTHATCH, pages 65 and 278.

The nuthatch hides nuts as crows do acorns. Magpies, ravens, and other such birds, among many other things, are prone to hide food which they cannot consume at the time. Acorns are thus hidden in the ground, and by such means the growth of oaks would necessarily be much extended were it not for the operations of agriculture. Those who have lived in wooded districts, as in Kent, can hardly have failed to observe how seedling oaks will spring up on arable land, even under circumstances which forbid the supposition that they could have found their way there by any other means. It has not, however, been duly ascertained whether birds who so hide superfluous food remember their "cache," and return to it again; or whether the hiding is an act of blind instinct, implanted in them for an eternal purpose. The nuthatch is a hider of food in the same way; for, sitting on one occasion near a window on the ground-floor, which looked into the garden bordered by an extensive shrubbery, I saw a nuthatch fly close under the window, with a hazel-nut in his bill, on which he proceeded to operate in the usual manner. I saw him endeavour to fix it in several crevices upon the dry ground where it was hard and he could obtain a purchase; but after inflicting upon it many and most vigorous and violent stabs, he was evidently fain to give it up as a hopeless case. He once more took it up, flew with it a yard or two, then alighted, and pushed it by main force into a hole in the ground near the area wall, after which he caught up two or three stray pieces of moss with which he covered it completely, and flew away. Being ill at the time, I could not examine the place until

after some days; and when I did examine it, the nut was gone, but I am unable to say whether it was removed by the bird or not. I could not be mistaken in the accuracy of my observations of the process of this hiding, because I was sitting close to the window, watching the bird uninterruptedly, within two yards of it when he buried the nut.-R. C. NORMAN.

FROGS, page 70.

Frogs are said not to croak unless under circumstances when it would appear that they croaked from motives of pleasure; but experience seems to negative this notion. I lived in a house in the country, which was surrounded by a deep area; and every spring, when the frogs began to wake up and move towards water (which they may then be observed to do instinctively), the bottom of the area was constantly covered with frogs (and a few toads), that would seem to have encountered the area in their passage. Their numbers were so great, and the area so deep and difficult of ingress and egress, that the daily removal of them, on the score of humanity, became at length too serious a task, and a man was sent down at intervals to collect them, which he did by sweeping them bodily into a corner, and then shovelling them, pell-mell, into a basket. Those who are inured to physical hardships, become hardy; a hardy body is comparatively insensible, and an insensible body will naturally have a congenial mind. The frogs were then thrown over the gardenwall into some rough ground, where there was a pond, towards which they were no doubt proceeding in such numbers when they fell into my area. I often heard these frogs croak when imprisoned in the area, and observed that many of them looked miserably thin, weak, and dry. On one occasion, when I had collected a basket-full-in the first days of this plague of frogs-and was throwing them, one by one, over the wall, a half-starved wretch erected himself at the bottom of the basket, and, like a ghastly phantom, croaked horribly at me, as if in reproach. In croaking, his throat was distended in a line down the middle of it, like that of a bird when he sings. That frogs are enabled to know when water is near, and that they are instinctively attracted towards it, I have had abundant means of certifying in localities where there was a pond on the other side of a paling or a wall. I have found frogs during the spawning season in numbers close against the impeding fence, with their heads towards it; and when I threw them over, they immediately proceeded in the direction of the water. On one occasion I watched them as they approached the edge of the pond, and was highly amused to see the vigour of the final somerset they took from the bank, and how they stretched their limbs on the soft watery couch, and seemed to rejoice in the accomplishment of their arduous pilgrimage.-R. C. N.

TOADS-BEE-CATCHING, page 70.

I have seen an old toad come forth in the evening, and place himself in front of a bee-stand, where he would watch until a weary bee, heavily laden, missed his footing on the board above, and fell upon the ground;