a hen, as the bird that I invariably put off the nest had-so far as I could make out with my glasses-the bill of not nearly so bright a colour as the other two, and the terminal spots appeared larger. I believe that this state of things, though by no means unknown, is at least of sufficient rarity to deserve a note thereon.-OXLEY GRABHAM (Flaxton, York).

The Hawfinch in Hampshire. It is quite possible that the Hawfinch has of late years (as observed p. 272) extended its range and increased in numbers amongst us, if indeed the increase in the number of observers has not something to do with it. My experience points to the fact that it is a bird of somewhat irregular occurrence, in some years being much more frequently seen than in others; not that I have ever known it to be "very common" or or "very rare," in the general acceptation of the terms, at any season, usually occurring in the winter in the greatest numbers. Some years ago it bred in several parts of the New Forest, and I took the eggs and saw the young in all stages of growth; but since then I have been unable to visit the locality, so cannot speak with certainty. Coming near the present date, however, I may state that during the severe weather of last winter small flocks of Hawfinches were seen in various parts of the forest, and numbers were killed. The past summer has been productive of both eggs and young, and several nests have been taken. I have seen a comparatively large number of young birds with the dappled breast and under parts, and the more or less yellow plumage about the throat and neck; in fact, one young bird just able to leave the nest had its whole plumage suffused with this tint. I noticed, too, that the remarkably shaped falcated primaries were developed in comparatively young birds, whilst the black throat was wanting, or only very slightly indicated by a few dots in outline, in birds that were fully grown. That the species has been commoner than usual during the past summer is certain, but whether its frequency will be maintained, the future must decide. I have known several previous years when it was as common, but afterwards almost disappeared. Its presence is generally made known to those who grow peas in their gardens, the bird often doing great havoc amongst them. One of the nests of which I had a description was somewhat similar to that mentioned, in the note at page 232, as resting ou a platform of leaves which prevented its being seen from below; but in this case the nest was situated in a small oak-tree, and the leaves had apparently been plucked from the surrounding branches.-G. B. CORBIN (Ringwood).

Migrating Birds rest upon the Water.—I have just been reading in Herr Gätke's 'Birds of Heligoland' (English translation, p. 129) his reasons for believing that migrating birds may occasionally rest upon the water. He quotes three instances which have come under his own observation. To these I may add a fourth, which closely resembles at least one of his.

While standing on the beach at Bordighera on Easter Monday last, watching the arrival of migrants, I saw a little bird descend, as it were, from the skies, aud alight on the pebbles a short distance from me. I approached it, and found it so much exhausted as to allow me to take it in my hand. I had just identified it as a female White-spotted Bluethroat, when it slipped out of my hand and flew out to sea again. It very soon alighted on the water, where it looked to me just like a Storm Petrel, and after a short while rose again without difficulty. Again, however, it sank on the waves, to rise in flight once more, after which I lost sight of it. I may add two other facts which will possibly be of interest. During the ten days I was at Bordighera, from April 13th to April 23rd, I only once saw the birds arriving in any numbers on the coast, and that was in wet and cold weather, with a wind from N.E. Yet all the time there were signs enough that they were crowding in-the olive groves being full of them, and the species changing almost from day to day. The bad weather apparently kept them low, and brought them to my notice. Secondly, I observed a remarkable migration of Swifts, Swallows, and House Martins, with a few Alpine Swifts, along the coast eastwards, on April 19th. Thousands passed over me, going at a speed which I tried to measure by noting their progress from point to point, and roughly calculated at two miles and a half per minute. This eastward migration, after the birds arrive on the south coast of France, I cannot find alluded to in books; though Herr Gätke has suggested it in his chapter on the "Direction of Migration Flight."-W. WARDE FOWLER.

Redshank breeding in Sussex.-The Redshank, says Mr. Borrer in his excellent county avifauna (p. 244), still breeds (1891) in a few places in Sussex, such as Pevensey Level, whence he has received its eggs within the last few years. During the present summer, when revisiting Pagham Harbour, or rather the site of what was once Pagham Harbour, now alas! completely destroyed by drainage and partial reclamation, I came upon two pairs of Redshanks, which were nesting in high grass in one of the least accessible spots still partially surrounded with water in the bed of the old harbour. They were very noisy, and comparatively tame, as such birds usually are in the breeding season, flying overhead in circles, often within gun-shot, had I been disposed to secure one. My only weapon, however, was a field-glass, and I was mnch entertained in watching their beautiful evolutions on the wing, as they circled round their nests, piping at intervals their wild melodious notes, so much in keeping with the dreary waste over which they hovered.-J. E. HARTING.

Little Crake in Sussex.-A Little Crake, Porzana parva (Scopoli), was caught near Battle by a dog on the 30th of June last. The bird was brought to Messrs, Bristow, taxidermists of St. Leonards, for preservation,

and was by them submitted to me for identification; it had, when killed, the red band at the base of the mandibles, one of the distinctive marks of difference between it and Baillon's Crake. Mr. Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe,' has recorded three examples of Sussex-killed specimens: one said. to have been observed near Hastings in April, 1859; one at Seaford in March, 1848; and another near Pevensey in March, 1862.-THOMAS PARKIN (Fairseat, High Wickham, Hastings).

Quails in West Sussex. I am glad to be able to report that Quails are with us again this season. On July 10th I heard the well-known note of this bird in a wheat-field about 200 yards from my house, and on the 12th I flushed one of the birds. It is three years since I saw any in this field. In former years I have come across a considerable number of Quails round about this village, and, as already mentioned, I think, in The Zoologist,' have known them to breed here. H. MARMADUKE Langdale (Compton, Petersfield).

Nesting Habits of the Common Whitethroat.-In June last a pair of Common Whitethroats built a nest in our garden, and after the nest was complete the hen bird was observed to sit in it for fifteen days before an egg was laid. This I consider very unusual. J. WHITAKER (Rainworth, Mansfield, Notts).

Nutcracker near Chichester.-Mr. John Hale, butler at the Deanery, Chichester, lately showed me a remarkable bird which was shot on the 3rd November, 1893, in Stockbridge Fields, near Chichester. Its large size (about 14 inches in length), corvine appearance, and spotted plumage made me think it must be a Nutcracker, Nucifraga caryocatactes, but, to make quite sure of this, I carried the bird in its case to the Natural History Museum, where I had the satisfaction of learning that I was right. As Mr. Borrer, in his ' Birds of Sussex,' mentions but a single example of this bird obtained in Sussex, namely, one shot at Littlington in Sept. 1844, it may be well to place on record the occurrence of a second and more recent specimen.-H. D. GORDON (Harting Vicarage, Petersfield).

REPTILIA.

Tritons devouring Newts.- In April of the present year I put a large number of Newts, together with ten Tritons, into a glass vessel containing from six to seven gallons of water, partly for the sake of observation and partly with the idea of amusing the children. From time to time it struck me that the numbers of the Newts diminished, and having made sure that none could make their escape, I watched more closely till I caught a female Triton with the tip of a male Newt's tail showing out of her mouth. Having caught the Triton, I pulled the Newt out; its length was three inches and a trifle over.-H. MARMADUKE LANGDALE (Compton, Petersfield).

Newt killed by a Bee.-One hot morning, the cover being off the aquarium, some working bees sought the water. Whether a Newt dashed at the Bee or the latter pitched on the Newt's head, I am not sure. At any rate the Bee attacked the Newt, and digging its sting in under the jaw was immediately taken under water and drowned. The Newt afterwards succumbed, owing, I think, to suffocation caused by inflammation in the throat.-H, MARMADUKE LANGDALE (Compton, Petersfield).

INSECTS.

A Flight of "Parasol Ants."

On May 25th last I had occasion to attend at the Port of Spain railway station, and proceeding thitherwards in the early morning, found the road all along the route from the Gardens to the station covered by myriads of the winged form of the "Parasol Ant" known as Atta güntheri, Forel., which is so common in the neighbourhood of the town of Port of Spain, to the exclusion of its larger relative Atta cephalotes, the woodland "Parasol Ant." Opportunity is taken of this occurrence to point out the lesson it teaches, which is, that the nest of the "Parasol Ant" should always be destroyed previous to the time of the annual flight, which occurs generally in May or June. During this annual flight it is certain that the sexes pair, and those which survive are certain to become the founders of new nests in the most suitable situations in which they happen to find themselves. If, however, the parent nests were destroyed during the early months of the year, before the winged or perfect forms are produced, the attempt to reduce their numbers in the colony would have a better chance of success.-J. H. HART (Botanic Garden, Trinidad).

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Horses, Asses, Zebras, Mules and Mule-breeding.

TEGETMEIER and C. L. SUTHERLAND.

By W. B. 8vo, pp. i-viii,

1-166. With numerous illustrations. London: Horace Cox.

1895.

THE authors of this volume have done good service in bringing together under the above heading some useful statistics from many scattered sources of information. Especially valuable are the remarks of Mr. Sutherland on Mules and Mule-breeding, on which subject he brings to bear the experience of a quarter of a century. Much of this information is new in the sense that it has not previously appeared in print, and it is curious that in the very extensive literature which exists on the subject of the Horse

and its allies, no book devoted exclusively to the Mule has hitherto been printed in England, although an English treatise by Harvey Riley was published in New York in 1867,* and another by Mr. C. L. Jones, of Columbia, Tennessee, is to be found in the last volume of the Annual Reports of the Bureau of Animal Industry, printed by order of the American Senate.

Mr. Tegetmeier, by the way, is mistaken in asserting, as he does in the very first sentence of his preface, that out of 4000 works on Horses and their utilization, about "one half" have been printed in Great Britain. We have the best of reasons for stating that "one quarter" only of these can be credited to Great Britain, having made the original calculation upon which the statement is founded (Zool. 1890, p. 121).

It is somewhat disappointing to find nothing in the volume before us on the history of the Mule and its introduction into Western Europe, for on this part of the subject a most interesting chapter might have been written.

The Mulus (Greek μúxλos), or Mule, was brought into Italy, as the name shows, from Greece. The Latin name was afterwards used by all the nations which adopted the animal. In Varro's time, just as now, carts were drawn along the high roads by Mules, which were not only strong, but pleased the eye by their handsome appearance. The Greeks were equally delighted with the animal. Pliny mentions a Jack-ass that was bought for the stud at the price of £3229 38. 4d., and states that in Celtiberia, a province of Spain, a she Ass brought foals to the same value. Varro alludes to an Ass that was sold in his time in Rome for £484 78. 6d. Plutarch in the life of Valerius Poplicola observes that the price of a Sheep was about ten oboli, or nearly 13d. of our money, and that of an Ox ten times as much, or about 10s. 10d.

Capt. Huth in his bibliography of 'Horses and Equitation' (4to, 1887) mentions no less than thirty works on Mules and Asses published between 1495 and 1883, and had Messrs. Tegetmeier and Sutherland been at the pains to look into some of these they might have extracted some curious and pertinent information.

*The Mule: a Treatise on the Breeding, Training, and Uses to which he may be put.' By Harvey Riley. 12mo. New York. 1867.

Victor Hehn, 'Wanderings of Plants and Animals from their first home.' See 'Zoologist,' 1886, pp. 258-260.