24 THE QUERIST. 



many of the others named are poor; whilst many much better polari;2er3 

 ai'e omitted. 



Could some good mode of exchanging specimens among Amateurs be 

 suggested ? I have found the stock of mounted specimens in many of the 

 London shops very limited in both number and nature ; many of them very 

 poor; and many good objects omitted. Specimens for sale, from Amateurs, 

 are veiy coldly received, or declined altogether, because not mounted in 

 professional style ; although the objects themselves are, in many instances, 

 much more interesting. — T. P. F. 



May not the nest with six eggs, found by your correspondent, C. E. Smith, 

 (see vol. iv. p. 238,) have been that of the Wood- Warbler? {Curruca sihilatrix.) 

 C. H. Dashwood, Thornage, November 11th, 1854. 



The nest and eggs found last spring, by Mr. C. E. Smith, were doubtless 

 those of the Sedge-Warbler.— E. K. B. 



Can any of the readers of The Natuealist inform me of any mode of 

 ridding my house of mice, with which it is infested, other than hy keeping 

 a cat, and by the ordinary mouse-traps ? all of which I have tried, but can- 

 not induce mice to enter them. — Idem. 



I believe there is no list of the Swanneries in the United Kingdom, to be 

 found in any published Work on Ornithology. May I be permitted to sug- 

 gest, that your readers should furnish, through The Naturalist, notices of 

 any such with which they may be acquainted, with the view of obtaining a 

 perfect list. The only Swannery ■\^'ith which I am acquainted, is the remark- 

 ably fine one of the Earl of Ilchester, at Abbotsbury, Dorset ; which is said 

 to contain, at the present time, seven hundred Swans. I have myself 

 counted nearly four hundred at one time on the water. I have heard of 

 another at or near Bandon in Ireland, but I have not seen it. — Idem. 



In reply to the queiy of the Rev. F. O. Morris, I beg to say, that Water- 

 ton's triumphant Defence of the Ivj-^, may be found in the Second Series of 

 his Essays, p. 68; without which Essays no Naturalist's Libraiy can be said 

 to be complete. — Henry Daniel, Teignmouth, Devon, Oct. 3rd, 1854. 



Hyacintlms nonscriptus, (var. alba.) On the 9th of June, 1841, far remote 

 from cultured earth or happy cottage, I gathered the blue and white var., in 

 CotclifTe Wood, four miles distant from Northallerion ; in a situation where 

 Nature had been left to her own resources, — associated with that lovely 

 spring-flower the Wood Anemone, {Anemone nemorosa,) white and pink. In 

 the same wood, one of our most celebrated British climbing j)lants, the 

 Wood Vetch, ( Vicia sylvatica,) rears 



" lis pale and azure pencilled flower,"— Scott. 



and would invite us to visit a place so peculiarly adapted to the Naturalist, 

 in one of Nature's richest gardens. — D, Ferguson, lledcar, Oct. 5thj_J_854. 



