260 MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 



yard; its food consisting of shrimps, and such salt-water fish as I could 

 procure. When I returned to the country, I put it into a reedy pond, 

 abounding with fish of all sorts and sizes, but imagining the poor Gull 

 would not fish for himself, and moreover, would not relish fresh-water 

 fish, I fed him on salt-water fish; but his appetite improved so rapidly 

 by "country air," that I found it would not answer keeping such an ex- 

 pensive bird, as he made no more of a small sole than a shrimp. Con- 

 sequently I changed his diet to raw meat, which T found went down with 

 him quite as readily as the fish; by degrees I left this off, and for eight 

 months he lived in that pond, providing for himself; he had, however, a great 

 propensity for straying away into the ploughed fields, and near the road, 

 flying for refuge to his favourite old pond, whenever any appearance of dan- 

 ger alarmed him: till one ill-fated day for him, poor fellow, he got too far, 

 and a dog in the road, giving chase, he was unable to reach his haven 

 of refuge, and fell a victim to his canine enemy; his whitening, bleached 

 bones, are all of him which mark the spot where he fell. It is this 

 same species which annually visit Major Wayland's lake, at Scoulton, in 

 Norfolk, and breed on the low marshy island in the middle of the water, 

 I myself have seen the air darkened by these birds; when alarmed, they 

 rise from the water and their nests, wheeling aloft, and uttering their 

 sharp shrill cries. — T. E. W. 



Another capture of Carabus intricatus in Devonshire. — On Tuesday last, 

 the 9th. instant, Mr. J. J. Reading, of Gibbons Street, Plymouth, took a 

 very fine and perfect specimen of Carahus intricatus. This is the second 

 capture of that rare Beetle in the neighbourhood of Plymouth within the 

 last few months. — John Gatcombe, Wyndham Place, Plymouth, September 

 12th., 1856. 



