SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES, BY SIR WM. JARDINE. 401 



Yftrrell, Br. Fishes, where three British species are enumerated. Mr. 

 Bell could easily ascertain the species of sticklebacks which are fou 

 around Selborne. There is a good paper by Dr. Parnell on the stick e 

 backs, with etchings of the costal plates, in Trans. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh. 



Bats. — Letter XI., page 43. 



Mr.. Bell, in his "British Animals," describes seventeen species ol 

 bats as inhabitants of this country. It is only of late that the distinctio s 

 between nearly allied species have been pointed out, and several may be 

 easily, and are constantly confounded. Mr. Bell has again to tell us 

 which prevail at Selborne. 



Pallas, in his travels, mentions a curious superstition regarding bats 

 found in the grottos or natural caves in the neighbourhood of Pertova. 

 In these caves they are in immense abundance, and are found flying and 

 enjoying their gloomy solitudes at all hours. It is the opinion of the 

 surrounding natives, who are very superstitious, that one of these bats 

 dried, and carried suspended about the person as an amulet, will ensure 

 fjood fortune and prosperity ; and that boiling water, in which one of 

 chem has been dipped, when given as a drink, will prove an effectual 

 remedy for intermittent fevers or rachitis in children. 



Migratory Birds. — Letter XIII., ^a^'e 51, text and note*. 



The great proportion of our migratory birds appear at the seasons of 

 migration to separate into flocks, composed almost entirely of one sex. 

 Thus we know that the males of many of the summer birds of passage 

 arrive before the females ; and it has been thought, by some of our 

 ornithologists, that we receive an addition to the numbers of the chaffinch 

 in the end of autumn. About this period they begin to assemble in 

 flocks, and it has been also thought that these flocks were, in many 

 instances, composed of females alone. This is, perhaps, the case to a 

 considerable extent ; but from many young males not having attained 

 their full plumage it has been over-rated. In the South of Scotland, at 

 least, the flocks are not of that exclusive sexual character ; we liave 

 noticed that two-thirds at least were females, while not a half of the 

 remaining third were males in full or nearly perfect plumage. In Ireland, 

 Mr. Thompson states that the females assemble in very large flocks. 

 These, from never being but with flocks of male birds, he is disposed to 

 believe have migrated to this island from more northern latitudes. 



The Bunting. — Letter XIII., page 51, note f- 



The range of the common bunting extends generally, but locally, 

 northward to Sutherlandshire and the Hebrides. 



Wagtails. — Letter XIII., x^^ge 52. 

 Oiir original note to the wagtails has been omitted ; it is — " MotaciSia 



D D 



