106 



THE NATURALIST. 



usual place selected for incubation is 

 the old hole of the water rat ; at the 

 end of this burrow is a little cham- 

 ber, where, without building any 

 nest, it deposits its eggs, from five to 

 seven in number, of a clean pinky 

 white. "While the work of incuba- 

 tion is going on the female is sup- 

 plied with food by her mate ; and 

 from the fact that the Kingfisher, 

 like the o\^i, recasts the indigestible 

 parts of its food, has arisen the ab- 

 surd supposition that the nest is 

 composed of the pellets of fish bones. 

 The young soon acquire the plumage 

 of the old birds, and when able to 

 leave their abode follow their pa- 

 rents, and, resting on the branch of 

 a tree in some lonely part of the 

 river, tax the industry of the parent 

 birds. — Charles Denny, Kelvedon. 

 The Pied Flycatcher (Muscicapa 

 atricapilla, Lin.) at Halifax. — This 

 bird is considered rare in this neigh- 

 bourhood. I have to record the 

 occurrence of two specimens which 

 have been shot this season, one by 

 myself in Warley Clough, the other 

 was sent me for preservation. Both 

 males. — Joseph Sutcliffe, Warley, 

 near Halifax, June 28th, 1864. 



Monstrosity of Planorbis margi- 

 Hatus. — On May ICth, I met with a 

 spiral monstrosity of Planorbis mar- 

 ginatus. It has four whorls : the two 

 first are coiled in the normal way, 

 the other two are spii-al. Length 



quarter of an inch ; width three- 

 sixteenths. It occurred in company 

 with P„ vortex. — James Beevers, 24, 

 Chorley - street, Wellington - street, 

 Leeds. (This is not unusual : the 

 tendency to distortion is common to 

 the genus. — Eds.) 



A Day at Llangollen in June. 

 June 10. — Beached here at seven 

 p.m., started for the " Gleusiegs " 

 rocks, sugared the lower ground be- 

 fore ascending the mountain. Beach- 

 ed the ledges I had previously deter- 

 mined to sugar at dusk, and went to 

 work forthwith. Night, all sorts — 

 fine, wet, windy, and calm, within 

 the two hours, I remained perched 

 on the ledges, sugared about one 

 mile of ground and went three times 

 over the sugar. The best insect 

 captured was Agrotis cinerea. On 

 my return to the lower ground I 

 found Aplecta tincta, Rusina tenehrosa, 

 Xylophasia hepatica, amongst other 

 abundant species on my sugar, and 

 was glad to observe my old coleop- 

 terous friend Lemera podagrarce, tak- 

 ing sweets here in June as freely as I 

 had at Conway seen it sipping sup- 

 per from ivy bloom in September. 

 Lampyris noctiliica was just lighting 

 her lamp on the mountain slopes to 

 guide her lovers to her bower of 

 moss, and several of these *' roving 

 blades" met a pill-box grave as they 

 came to see what strange queen of 

 light reclined in my lanthorn. Be- 



