HARD WICKE' S S CIENCE- G OS SI P. 



119 



finding tlie eggs. ^Mr. Lovett seems to dismiss the 

 gulls, which form such a striking feature in the scenery 

 of the Channel Islands at nearly all times of the year, in 

 rather a summary manner. lie says : "amongst the 

 best we may notice the gull." Query, what gull? "The 

 great black-backed gull and the lesser black-backed 

 gull. The kittiwake herring and common gulls are 

 very common, and the laughing gull frequents the 

 northern coast." I am not quite certain what gull is 

 meant by this last ; if Lanes ridibundns, it is common 

 enough in all the islands, in autumn and winter ; 

 though, as far as I know, it does not remain to breed 

 in any of them. The kittiwake and common gull, 

 which are also very common in autumn and winter, 

 do not breed there. A few pairs of great black- backs 

 breed mostly on isolated rocks which are difficult of 

 access. The lesser black-back is also tolerably 

 numerous ; and breeds in several places ; but the eggs, 

 though protected by the Guernsey Bird Act, are much 

 robbed by the fishermen, indeed, so much so as almost 

 to endanger the species becoming extinct in the islands, 

 except as an autumnal and winter visitant. The 

 herring gull is by far the most numerous of all the 

 gulls in the Channel Islands at all times of the year, 

 breeding in considerable numbers in all the islands. In 

 regard to the great bustards mentioned by Mr. Lovett 

 as having been shot in Jersey on December 8th, 1879, 

 the following extract from the Bulletin de la Societe 

 Jcrsiaisc may be of interest to some of your readers, as 

 I do not think it has appeared in the pages of Science- 

 Gossip. The natural history committee of that 

 society report that ' ' two female great bustards were 

 shot on the 8th of December, 1879, during very severe 

 weather in the meadow near Samaves Manor. They 

 were first observed feeding in a field of brocoli near 

 St. Clement's Church, and were again sighted in a 

 field of swedes, the tops of which they were seen to 

 eat. They went down to the meadows, where they 

 were shot. On being opened their crops were found 

 to contain ivy leaves, pimpernel weed, and other green 

 food." Wandering flocks of great bustards appear 

 occasionally to have found their way to the Channel 

 Islands on other occasions, as they did in North Devon 

 in December, 1870 ; for J\Ir. TvIacCulloch wrote to 

 me not very long ago that M. Rougier of Les Eperons, 

 St. Andrews, Guernsey, assured him that about forty 

 years ago he had seen and shot in the fields on his estate 

 several specimens of the large bustard. He is well 

 acquainted with the small bustard, and says the 

 country people looked upon the large sort as a species 

 of wild turkey. Mr. MacCuUoch adds, " one would 

 like to know whether about that time flocks of them 

 had been seen in Brittany." It would be also interest- 

 ing to know if there is any record of the occurrence of 

 the great bustard in Jersey about that time. Perhaps 

 Mr. Lovett, or his friend Mr. Sinel, could give us some 

 information on this subject. A good many great 

 bustards occurred in various parts of England about 

 the same time as the Jersey ones mentioned by Mr. 

 Lovett, and some in France, but nowhere near the 

 N. coast. These were all recorded in the " Zoologist " 

 for iSSo. Neither the great bustard nor the little 

 bustard, which has occurred several times in the 

 Channel Islands, are mentioned in Professor Ansted's 

 list, or in M. Gallienne's remarks on some of the birds 

 in that list. I hope Mr. Lovett will excuse me for 

 these remarks on his short notes on the birds of Jersey, 

 ' especially as I have not worked the birds of Jersey as 

 much as I have those of Guernsey and the other islands, 

 but it strikes me that it would not be safe to include the 

 golden eagle (and perhaps not the kite) in a list of 

 Channel Island birds without further evidence. — 

 Will you add to my remarks on Mr. Lovett's notes 

 on the natural history of Jersey, as to the starlings 



being not entirely winter visitants, but partially resi- 

 dent, at all events in the island of Guernsey, the 

 following extract from a letter I received yesterday 

 from that island : "A large number of starlings are 

 building their nests in the neighbourhood of the 

 Woodlands. I have never seen so many before : " the 

 letter is dated March 14th, 1882. It quite bears out 

 what I have said, that the starlings are not entirely 

 winter visitants to the Channel Islands. — Cecil Smith. 



Swallows' Nests. — In your last number of 

 Science-Gossip there are two or three notices of 

 remarkable places in which swallows have built their 

 nests. Perhaps the following would be worthy a 

 place in your journal — " Last summer, when on a 

 visit to Lincolnshire, and going over my father-in- 

 law's garden (he is a large gardener), I had pointed 

 out to me a swallows' nest built amongst the works 

 of an old clock which hung up in the summer house. 

 The clock, of course, had been out of use for a con- 

 siderable time, and the swallows had taken possession 

 of it. The birds were not disturbed, and were allowed 

 to rear their young ones." As mentioned in the note 

 by Mr. Batchelor, the birds did not go in and out 

 when the door was open, but whenever one closed the 

 door, they commenced their visits to the nest as 

 if nothing had occurred to disturb them. — Wm. 

 Hampton, F.C.S. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than heretofore, we cannot 

 possibly insert in the following number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We receive so many queries 

 which do not bear the writers' names that we are forced to 

 adhere to our rule of not noticing them. 



To Dealers and others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the " exchanges " offered are fair 

 exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply 

 disguised advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost of 

 I advertising, an advantage is taken oi owx graiicitozis insertion of 

 "exchanges" which cannot be tolerated. 



E. J. Tve. — Yours was not an "exchange," but a cash 

 advertisement, and therefore we ^could not gratuitously 

 insert it. 



B. K. N. — You had best offer something good in exchange in 

 our columns, and we have no doubt some of our correspondents 

 could furnish you with the skeleton of a frog. 



A. H. Todd. — The appearance of the landrail on Easter 

 Monday is unusually early, but then we may expect most of 

 our summer migrants to put in an early appearance this year. 

 We ourselves heard the nightingale before the end of March, 

 and the wryneck in the Wye Valley on Easter Tuesday. 



J. P. Johnston. — Mr. Saville Kent's "Manual of the 

 Infusoria " has completed five out of the six parts, and the sixth 

 will be out in a week or two. When completed there will be 

 nothing of the kind to equal it. By all means secure it. 



L. Francis. — The " Micrographic Dictionary" will be com- 

 pleted in twenty-four parts ; the parts are is. (xi. each. It is a 

 complete cyclopsedia on everything relating to the microscope 

 and microscopical investigation. 



J. FiREY (New York). — " Eno's Fruit Salt" is a well-known 

 effervescent salt sold in Great Britain. It is said to be com- 

 posed chiefly of bitartrate of potash. It is sold in bottles, and 

 may be obtained of any druggist. 



F. Bates. — Get Cooke's " Ponds and Ditches," price ■2s. dd., 

 published by the Christian Knowledge Society. Slack's " Pond 

 Life" is a capital work. So is Gosse's "Evenings with the 

 Microscope " (Christian Knowledge Society). 



J. L. — The best stuff with which to make your wooden 

 aquarium watertight would be hot pitch, which should coat the 

 interior to the thickness of about one-eighth of an inch. It is 

 very easily done, and is recommended in Taylor's " Aquarium," 

 page 37. 



E. H. Smith. — You could not do better than go to the Mal- 

 verns, and study the geology of the lower and upper silurians. 

 There are dozens of quarries and outcrops of strata, full af 

 Silurian fossils, within the range of half a score of miles ; Wool- 

 hope is only about fifteen miles away, also a good fossilising 

 locality. 



