292 The Scottish Naturalist. 



broad Atlantic, the fact remains the same, creating wonder and 

 surprise that a bird so small and so weak, not bigger than our 

 little Golden-crested Wren, should be enabled to effect so 

 marvellous a journey. 



I might dwell much longer on this subject, were it not that 

 I fear I have taken up too much space already. In conclusion, 

 therefore, I will only say, that should the remarks which I have 

 made (and which, on my part, I feel may be very defective) in 

 any way create an interest, so as to induce others to pay atten- 

 tion to, and throw further light on, a subject so fraught with 

 wonders as that of migration, I shall feel myself more than 

 repaid. 



Dead Wood-Pigeons. — It is a very common thing in our Norfolk woods 

 to hear the remark made that a hawk has been kilHng a wood-pigeon here, and 

 to find a number of feathers, of the identity of which there can be no doubt, 

 on the ground. Many other observers, in other parts of Great Britain, would 

 say the same thing has often come under their notice in woods and forests. 

 I have sometimes found it impossible, in places where wood-pigeons were 

 abundant, to ramble a mile without coming on the remains of a dead one or 

 two ; and I have again and again, on finding such remains, heard the crime 

 assigned to a hawk. In my own mind I have always acquitted the hawks, 

 not believing that this was putting the saddle on the right horse. It has 

 always seemed to me more probable that the explanation of the mortality 

 might be found in disease. To what extent birds are subject to it we do not 

 know. Like the age to which birds in a state of nature live, it is one of 

 those questions about which there is still a great deal to be learned. I 

 would merely throw out the suggestion, and we shall see if it meets with 

 any endorsement from Scottish naturalists, that the wood-pigeon is more 

 subject to disease than other birds, and that their liability to this mortality, 

 over and above the ills that other bird-flesh is heir to, is designed by a 

 provident nature to check the too rapid increase of a bird which is becoming 

 a great nuisance in some parts of England, and which, if I mistake not, has 

 had a price set upon its head by the farmers of Scotland. — ^J. H. Gurney, 

 junr., Northrepps Hall, Norwich. 



Acherontia atropos. — Two very fine specimens' were captured in this 

 neighbourhood lately. One was obtained on the 21st of May, and the other 

 on the 3d of June. From their fresh appearance, they do not seem to have 

 been long out of the pupa state. Is this not early for these specimens to be 

 found in Scotland?— Andrew Brotherston, Kelso. 



Alternation of Generations in the Cynipidae. — At page 117 I called 

 attention to the reported discovery that dimorphism or alternation of genera- 

 tions occurred in the gall-making Cynipidic. At page 152 Mr P. Cameron 

 endeavoured to show — from negative evidence only — the improbability of such 

 being the case. Direct experiments, made by M. Lichtenstein, Mr Fletcher, 

 and Mr P. Cameron himself, have quite confirmed Dr Adler's statements. 



