278 NOTES. ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



carried by insects and birds, finally alighting on other beech 

 trees, where they re-commence their work of destruction. 



These insects do much damage in some districts. Some of 

 the beech trees on Wimbledon Common had their stems thickly 

 covered with the secretion last autumn. It is probable that the 

 wounds made in the bark enable the spores of fungi and bacteria 

 to enter the delicate tissues of the plant. 



A good account of the life-history of this insect is given 

 in leaflet 140 of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries. — Henry 

 Whitehead, The Essex Museum oj Natural History. 



MISCELLANEA. 



Pottery Mounds in India. — Having lately read Mr. W '. 

 Cole's interesting article in the Essex Naturalist on the 

 " Exploration of some Red-Hills in Essex " (autepp. 170-183), 

 and having also visited some of them situated near Salcot, the 

 following remarks as regards somewhat similar mounds which I 

 have seen in India may be of interest, and perhaps tend to 

 elucidate their origin. 



Readers are doubtless aware that in the plains and villages 

 of India, where all the water required for domestic use has often 

 to be carried for considerable distances from the wells, a large 

 number of earthen pots or " gurraks " are always required, so 

 that the village potters are most important members of the 

 community, and as many breakages of course take place, they 

 are always kept busy. 



Whilst serving in Rajputana and the Punjaub I often had 

 occasion to encamp near or pass through these villages, and I 

 well remember having noticed the potters at work amongst the 

 numerous mounds of red earth found in the neighbourhood. As 

 far as I recollect, the method of burning the pots was to place them 

 in a rough kind of kiln, and simply to heap up cakes of cow-dung 

 or other fuel round about them, and then to fire the heaps. 

 This procedure supplied sufficiently well-burnt vessels, but 

 naturally a great many got broken, and their debris formed con- 

 siderable mounds in the vicinity of the villages, which I think 

 sometimes reached 10 or 15 feet in height. 



On seeing the " Red-hill » mounds of Salcot I was naturally 

 much struck by their general resemblance to those so common 

 about the villages of Rajputana and the Punjaub, and I venture 



