OF THE DISTRICT. 207 
Of Sparrows, the ivy harbours legion. This spring they 
hardly touched primroses and not many crocuses, but in 
previous years they have destroyed both. Just at present an 
all white sparrow is reported here, which we hope to get for 
the Museum. 
The first Swadlows, six in number, we saw flying over on the 
26th April. They were apparently so tired with their flight 
that they seemed to get along only by great exertion. They 
flew at once to their old nesting place (some buildings about 
300 yards from the house) and did not appear on the wing 
again for a week. 
During a stay at Bull Bay (on the North Coast of Anglesea) 
at the end of August and early part of September, we saw the 
Lobster pots drawn up for the winter. They were covered 
with beautiful examples of the Rosy Feather Star (Antedon 
rosea), varying in colour from yellow to deep red. 
Is not the singular minute Aznelid with only two tentacles, 
which lines hollows of limestone all round the Ormes and at 
Llandulas, Spzo sefieornis ? I have often wondered over this 
little creature and tried to scrape or get it from the holes for 
examination, but it seems to me to actually perforate a tube 
into the limestone into which it withdraws on the least alarm. 
And the ragged edges of the cavities seem to indicate rapid 
erosion, and the probability that they are due to the burrowing 
of Spio. No doubt you have often seen the little worm with 
its two long thread-like se/e lining miniature pools at the 
places named. J. D. SIDDALL. 
NoTEeE oN STARLINGS IN THE ABOVE. 
It is curious, that although Starlings are extremely common 
about my house and garden at Colwyn Bay, I have never seen 
one taking, or even trying to take, any kind of fruit. On the 
other hand, Blackbirds, which are also very abundant, clear 
off every sort of fruit that is not protected from them, and if a 
hole can be found in the covering net they are certain to 
find it out and take advantage of it. Possibly, the Black- 
birds, which are very pugnacious, drive the Starlings away as 
they certainly do the Throstles, when the birds are fed in 
winter. As the latter are in every way superior to Blackbirds— 
in their much longer duration of song, in their destruction of 
snails, and their much smaller “ frugivoracity””—it is clear that 
one may easily have too many Blackbirds. eae 
Hasirs or Gobius minutus (SMALL GoBY.) 
This little fish, which is common in the Estuary of the Dee, 
lays its eggs in the inside of the shell of any large bivalve 
mollusc, such as the common Mussel / Mytilus edults), or Clam 
(Mya arenaria.) It then (or possibly before) half buries the 
shell in the sand, the ova being in the unburied half, which may 
be seen sticking up at the bottom of shallow pools at low 
