24 NOTES — ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 



The country in which it produces its young is not decidedly ascertained." This 

 i?, according to Christy ("Birds of Essex"), a rare and irregular winter visitor, 

 although sometimes occurring in considerable numbers, as in the years 1835, 

 1849-50, 1866, etc. He gives ratiny records in addition to those quoted above. 

 The writer in the " Essex County Chronicle " is in error in stating that the 

 breeding-place is not known. It extends, as was discovered some years ago by 

 Mr. Wolley, across Behring Strait to Alaska and the Rocky Mountains. The 

 first nests and eggs were found in 1856 in Russian Lapland, since which a great 

 many have been taken ; and the breeding range is now known to extend westward 

 to the north-eastern portion of Norway, and southward to about 65^? N. lat., on 

 the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. 



Since the above was written the " Essex County Chronicle " records that 

 on the 28th of February " a beautiful male specimen of this rare bird was shot by 

 Mr. H. Heywood, at ' Greenwoods,' in the parish of Stock. The bird bus been 

 carefully preserved by Mr. C. Cable, naturalist, of Stock." 



Robin Nesting in the Winter. — " A robin's nest, with five young ones, 

 exists in an unused milk churn, placed close to the fire in one of the cow-houses 

 at Terling Hall. A nest has been built there for five successive years, and each 

 year there have been five young ones at Christmas time. It is a strange occur- 

 rence that a robin should build her nest in the dead of winter and have young 

 ones. The birds are quite healthy, and thrive as well as other birds." — " Essex 

 County Chronicle," February loth, 1893. 



Effect of Want of Light (?) on Colour o a Frog.— Early last year 

 a friend of mine, living at Wanstead, found a frog beneath a flower-pot which had 

 been standing right way up and full of earth in the same place for two or three 

 months. The body of the frog was shrunken and the skin transparent, so that 

 the internal organs could be seen. The head, however, which was outside the 

 pot, had not changed colour to any appreciable extent, but the eyes were unusu- 

 ally protruding. My friend released the frog, and fed it upon worms for seven or 

 eight days, by which time it had recovered its colour, and it then escaped. Some 

 of our members may be able to mention other instances which would show 

 whether the alteration in colour was due to the pressure of the flower-pot, or the 

 want of light. Perhaps the Ethiopian could change his skin by dwelling in the 

 dark.— F. W. ELLIOTT, Woodford Green. 



Hydrobia (Paludestrina) Jenkinsi. — Supplementing the information 

 respecting this estuarine mollusc, which was given in volumes iv. and v. of The 

 Essex Naturalist (vol. iv., p. 212, etc. ; vol. v., p. 220, etc.) by Messrs. Smith, 

 Crouch, and Jenkins, it may be useful to refer to a paper by Mr. Lionel E. 

 x^dams, in the " Journal of Conchology," for January last (vol. vii., p. 148), 

 giving a theory as to the possible introduction of the species into this country. 

 Mr. Adams states that he found H. jenkinsi at Countess Weir, halfway between 

 Exeter and Topsham, in August last. Noticing that the habitat was similar to 

 those at Plumstead and Sandwich, where this very local species had previously 

 been found, it occurred to him that this similarity might throw some light upon 

 the manner of its introduction into Britain — provided, of course, that the 

 mollusc is not really indigenous. Mr. Adams remarks how greatly Topsham 

 reminded him of the old-world, sleepy, and decayed Cinq Port of Sandwich, 

 and both towns were of considerable importance as trading ports 200 years 

 ago. Mr. MacMurdo, of Topsham, informed Mr. Adams that in the reign of 



