158 Miscellaneous. 



same month. The date when the first specimen was procured here 

 is unknown. 



The WooncocK (Scolopax rusticola) breeding in Ireland. — Within 

 the last few years these birds have bred in several of the Irish coun- 

 ties, including northern, central, and southern. The details on this 

 subject, as well as on the spotted redshank and night heron, are re- 

 served for their due place in my intended series of papers on the 

 Birds of Ireland, of which three have already appeared in the second 

 volume of the Magazine of Zoology and Botany, and one in the first 

 number of this work. — W. Thompson, Belfast, March 1838. 



FOSSIL SALAMANDER AND COPROLITE. 



In a Letter from M. de Paravey to the French Academy, the 

 writer states that he saw at Leyden, in the cabinet of M. van Breda, 

 the fossil skeleton of a salamander, about three feet long, and in a 

 more perfect state than that figured by Scheuchzer in his Homo di- 

 luvii testis. What increases the value of this specimen is that it 

 contains in the part corresponding to the abdomen several copro- 

 lites, in which we detect fragments of the bones of frogs and of eels, 

 &c, so that we have proof that the antediluvian species had the 

 same kind of food as the larger salamanders of the present day. A 

 very large salamander, brought by M. Siebold from Japan, is still 

 living at the Leyden Museum, and is fed chiefly with frogs. This 

 celebrated traveller brought to Europe the male and female, but the 

 latter was one day devoured by its companion, which no doubt had 

 been kept too long without food. — Comptes Rendus, Nov. 19, 1838. 



habits of the blue titmouse (JParus cceruleus). 



A redstart (Phccnicura ruticilla,) and a blue titmouse built nests 

 in an old wall within a few feet of my parlour window. The nests 

 were placed within three feet of each other ; that of the redstart in 

 a very open rent, while that of the titmouse was better secured by 

 having a very small entrance, as is usually the case with the situa- 

 tions chosen by this bird. My attention was at first attracted by 

 the violence with which I frequently saw the titmouse drive away 

 both the parent redstarts when approaching their own nest with food 

 for their young ; and, knowing the pugnacious disposition of the tit- 

 mouse, I at first thought that it wished to destroy its neighbours, as 

 after chasing them to a little distance it would fly into the redstart's 

 nest. As the redstart was to me the rarest bird, I began to debate 

 with myself whether I should not destroy the titmouse, that the 

 other might not be prevented from bringing up its young. In the 



