222 CORRESPONDED I . 



(Torrfspontirncr. 



i mi: Stabling. — There has been here this Beason a 

 wonderful scarcity of starlings. For some years past there were 

 always three or four nests on these premises alone, and many more in 

 the trees and buildings Dear at hand, whereas this season I have not 

 seen om , nor do we sec the small nocks, composed of the young broods, 

 frequenting the helds as was formerly their custom at this time of 

 year. The winter of '79-80 seemed to have very little effect on them, 

 and after last winter there appeared to be a fair number about, so I do 

 not think that the severe weather can alone account for their decrease . 

 Save any of your readers noticed a similar diminution of numbers — 

 I may almost Bay extinction of the species — in their neighbourhood? 

 It is the more surprising, insomuch as the winter flocks of this bird 

 have greatly increased during the last few years. — Olives V. Aplin, 

 Bodicote, Oxon., August, 1881. 



Migrator? Birds (see " Midland Naturalist," page L86). — In my 

 notes on Migratory Birds the date of arrival of the Willow Wren 

 should have been 13th not 18th. — O. V. A., Bodicote, Oxon. 



Mn roscopic Slides.— At the recent Exhibition of the Beekeepers' 

 Association, at South Kensington, our correspondent. .Mr. F. Enock, 

 30, Russell Road, Seven Sisters' Road, London, carried off the siher 

 medal offered for the best microscopic slides illustrating the natural 

 historj of tin honeybee. The slides were four dozen in number, and, 

 says the "Journal of Horticulture," "if not unapproachable are 

 certainly as yet unapproached. The preparation of parts in situ with- 

 out pressure gives an opportunity of examining structure that flattened 

 chitine could never afford. The beauty of these objects when properly 

 illuminated must be Been to be appreciated. On some slides he brings 

 Bide 1>\ side the homologous parts of drone, worker, and queen, which 

 ■jives a ready means of comparison, and on others displays the parts 

 illustrative of the complete anatomj of the insect. Some clever 

 sections and some specimens of the interesting parasite Stylops 

 Spencii were included in the collection." 



Bbitisb Glacial Action. -At this Beason, when so many 

 persons are travelling in Wales and elsewhere, 1 wish to call 

 attention to a particular instance of former Glacial Action, 

 which came Bpecially under my observation in June last, 

 when staying at Ffestiniog : an example well-known to many 

 Geologists, but which travellers maj frequently miss, or fail to notice 



should they pass that w a J . Looking up at Mbe] Wyn from the east or 

 south, it is apparent great forces have been at work in former ages, re- 

 ducing its mass, altering its form, and Leaving those grand precipices, 

 so rugged and broken, partlj i aclosing its vast hollows like walls. If 

 you walk up fr< ■:■ oing village of Tan y Grisiau into Cum 



Orthin, the great recess or glen lying between Moel Wyn and Yr Allt 

 Mawr, the evidences oi former Glacial Action are most apparent as 

 you stand and survej the scene, especially at the outlet of the glen, 

 where the ice for unknown time must have poured over the rocks. 

 On either band, and far up the spurs of Moel Wyn, most distinct and 

 some really beautiful forms of ice-planed rocks are to be seen ; so well 

 preserved, that one could almost imagine the ice had not long melted ! 

 The peculiar wavy lines, the rounded and softened contours, the great 



