PHotes on the Patural History of the 
Pistrict, from J879 to J89S. 
EDITED BY ALFRED O. WALKER, F.L.S. 
NOTE ON THE SQUIRREL. 
HIS, the most beautiful and graceful of all our wild animals, 
is frequently accused of biting off the leading shoot of Fir 
trees, and persecuted accordingly. I have a good many 
Conifers of various kinds in my grounds, and, I should guess, 
almost as many Squirrels. At any rate, it is certain that if each 
Squirrel bit off only one leading shoot in each year, I should 
not have an unmutilated Fir tree in the place; whereas, on the 
contrary, it would require a long and careful search to find a 
single tree so disfigured! It is well known that Conifers 
sometimes lose their ‘‘leaders” from other causes in places 
where there are no Squirrels. A OW. 
OccurRRKENCE OF DotpHins (Dolphinus delphis, L.) 
AT CoLwyn Bay. 
On October 15th, 1874, a ‘‘school” of Dolphins passed 
through Colwyn Bay, near the shore. As usual with this 
species, they were very playful, not only rolling like Porpoises, 
but sometimes throwing themselves quite out of the water. 
They were easily distinguished from Porpoises by their blowing 
or spouting, which Porpoises cannot do. The station- master 
at Colwyn Bay (then Colwyn) Station, asked me if I had 
observed the Sprats and Herrings jumping out of the water in 
front of the “ Porpoises” noses! This was his interpretation 
of the spouting ! A ahy tae 
Hapits OF ROOKS. 
Rooks, which had been greatly reduced in numbers by the 
severe winters of 1879 to 1881, had again become numerous in 
1884, and the little colony at the Lead Works, deserted since 
1880, was again established. Probably it is only an outlier of 
the Rookery at Dee Hills (about 300 yards distant), and is only 
occupied when the latter is full. It is curious that whenever 
it is re-established (and I have known this to happen twice, with 
an interval of three or four years in each case) the Rooks always 
return to the same tree—a dilapidated Poplar (Populus nigra), 
overhanging a chamber used for drying white lead, the ventila- 
tor of which is underneath the nests; and this although there 
are several large Elm trees (U/mus campestris) in the garden. 
As this tree was in full view of my dressing-room window, I 
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