45^ Zoology, 



the town, in winter it is sometimes very much swollen, but in the summer 

 almost dry. On visiting the cage, he found a strange bird caught, which he 

 carried home and placed the cage as before ; in a few minutes he found, to 

 his great surprise, another bird like the former entangled. He put them 

 together in the cage in which I saw them, and fed them with worms, bread 

 crumbs, and hempseed ; they lived only a few days, and were then thrown 

 away. The poor little birds, by a mistake of instinct^ were probably attracted 

 to the cage by the call or even the colours of the bullfinch, which, in some 

 degree (the piping note especially), resembled that of their parent. What 

 renders it more remarkable is, that the king-fisher is a bird very rarely, if 

 ever, found in those parts. — J. Lakes. Liskeard Vicarage^ Cornwall, 

 Dec. 10. 1828. 



Sivallows remaining in this Country durijig the Winter. — If a fact which I 

 observed will be of any service to confirm the hypothesis, not assumed, but 

 rather revived, by your correspondent, the Rev. W. T. Bree, that some kinds 

 of swallows remain dormant during the winter in this country, it is at your 

 service. Walking about eight o'clock on the morning of the 15th of No- 

 vember, at Richmond, in Yorkshire, I was surprised to see the common 

 swallow (iTiriindo rustica) flitting about near the church in one direction 

 and another with their usual alacrity in summer; the main body of swallows 

 had taken their departure in the early part of October ; the morning was 

 misty, but genial and warmer than usual at that time of the year. It was 

 my intention to have communicated this, previously to the present time, in 

 the form of an essay on the arrival and departure of the ^irundines, along 

 with some other observations and facts which I have collated, but your very 

 learned correspondent, the Rev. W. T. Bree, has, I see, anticipated me. 

 Yours, — L. E. O. of Beadford 



Preservation of small Birds. — Remove the viscera, brain, eyes, and 

 tongue with a hooked wire; fill all the cavities with antiseptic paste, or 

 cotton saturated with it ; bind the bill and wings with thread, hang it up 

 by the legs, pour from one to two ounces of ardent spirits into the vent, and 

 leave it to dry in an airy place. The paste is made with 8 parts of white 

 arsenic, 4 parts of Spanish, and 1 part of soft soap, and 3 parts of camphor, 

 with a few drops of alcohol. — Id. 



New Species of British Snake. — Mr. T. M. Simmons has discovered, 

 near Dumfries, in Scotland, a species of snake, which seems to be new to 

 our naturalists, and which has been appropriately called Coluber dumfri- 

 si^nsis {^g. 109.) It differs from the common snake (Coluber iV^atrix), in 



having no ridged line on the middle of its dorsal scales, which are extremely 

 simple and smooth. The number of scales under the tail is about 80, and 

 the plates on the belly 162. The only specimen hitherto found measured 

 5 in., was of a pale colour, with pairs of reddish-brown stripes from side to 

 side over the back, somewhat zig-zag, with intervening spots on the sides 



