CORRESPONDENCE. 47 



Early Flowers. — Ivy-leaved Speedwell < Veronica hederifolia ) in full 



flower in the open fields, January 7th. Bulbous Buttercup (Uniinun- 

 culu>i hiilhosiis i, single flower, on sheltered hedge bank, with S.W. aspect, 

 January 18th. Vernal Whitlow Gi-ass ' Dnihn rcriKi > in full flower, on 

 walls. ir,th.— O. V. A.. Banbury. 



Ornithological Notes. — A female Shoveller ' Ana>< cli/peata) was 

 killed on the Cherwell, near Aynho, on the 13th December. It is the 

 only specimen I have seen from this immediate neighbourhood, 

 although a male bird was procured from the same locality some fifteen 

 years or so ago. Walking home along vlie meadows on the 24th 

 of that month, my brother and I counted twenty-six Magpies as they 

 flew out of a row of trees. Although this is a plentiful species here, 

 and I have frequently noticed parties of ten or a dozen, I think it is 

 unusual to meet with so large a number as this together. The Carrion 

 Crow is also gregarious sometimes in the autumn, and I once shot two 

 from a party of about twenty-five coming to roost in a small oak 

 spinney. The Goldfinch is now getting very scarce in this district, 

 and I was accordingly much plensed to see on the 2()th December a 

 flock of about a score of them fe.ding on the remains of some thistle 

 heads in a low lying pasture field. The winter has been very 

 noticeable so far for the great scarcity of winter birds. I have only 

 seen four Fieldfares (and can hear of no others being seen by my 

 friends), and not more than a dozen Redwings. I never knew either of 

 these birds so scarce. Wildfowl, too, of all kinds have visited us in 

 very small numbers. On the 'JTth T saw a few Lesser Hedpoles f I.inola 

 ruff-'eeus — Vicillnt) feeding on the seeds of some alders, but I have heard 

 of no Siskins or Bramblings, and only one or two Short-eared Owls. My 

 brother informs me that a Chiffchaff ( Phi/llopneu.'itea nifa ), has 

 frequented his garden for some time, in full song, and on the morning 

 of the loth he saw the bird plainly. Although not without precedent, such 

 occurrences are very rare. A Blackbird's nest with young was found, as 

 I am informed, near Aynho, on the 18th of last month. Truly the 

 winter is an extraordinary one.— Oliver Y. Aplix, Banburv, Oxon, 

 January 17, 18^2. 



A New Agent of Denudation. — A correspondent sends the following 

 note : — " Professor Ball tells geologists that tliey must " hurry 

 up their phenomena." for astronomers cannot allow them more 

 than some fifty millions of years. It seems that about that time 

 ago, or a little eai-lier, the moon parted company with the earth, 

 and commenced to circle round it at great speed, and in close 

 company. Ever since, the moon has been gradually receding from 

 us. It fo lows from this theory that the tidrs were formerly of 

 immensely greater height than at present ; for, the uearei- the moou 

 was to the earth, the greater would be its attraction on the waters. 

 In Silurian times, for instance, we must jucture to ourselves tides of 

 (500 or 700ft. in height, continually rolling round the earth. This is an 

 attractive theory, and would be useful to geologists in some respects, 

 as in explaining our old plains of denudation, etc., but in some respects 

 it seems to prove too much. With our present agents of denudation- 

 rain, rivers, frost, the sea, etc, it has been a cause of wonder to great 

 geographers, " how there could be any land at all," or " how the land 

 could get its head above the waters ;" but liow are we to explain the 

 great continents which certainly existed in the Old Red Sandstone 

 epoch, and, probably, also in Silurian and Cambrian times? With 

 tides such as Prof. Ball describes it is, indeed, diflicult to imagine the 

 formation or existence of land surfaces of aiiv extent." 



