54 CORRESPONDENCE, 
Hepcrnoc.—My garden is entirely walled-in, and near the bottom 
there is a raised bank supported by a wall of casting pots placed with the 
open ends outwards. In November, 1876, a friend gave me a young 
hedgehog about one-third grown. He lived in the garden, but was only 
visible at intervals of a month or six weeks. Desiring to find where he 
hid himself I carefully searched the garden, and on examining the casting 
pots I observed one about 15in. from the ground filled to the very mouth 
with dead leaves, of which there was a large quantity on the ground near, 
On removing the leaves from the casting pot I found them quite densely 
packed together—not as if they had been loosely cast in, but as if they 
had been subjected to both arrangement and pressure—and about 5in. 
from the mouth of the casting pot appeared the prickles of the hedgehog. 
Query—How came he there? I had no other domestic pet to “ tuck him 
up” after he had got into his cosy bed, and the cats of the neighbourhood 
can hardly be credited with it. Probably some Naturalist can solve the 
question. My own guess is that he filled the hole with leaves, and then 
with a screwing motion of his body used his prickles to draw in the leaves 
after him as he bored his way through them.—R. Huen Burman, 
Handsworth. 
NorrHampron Castir.—Many readers of the “‘ Midland Naturalist” 
are aware that with the progress of the new line of the North-Western 
Railway, by which Northampton is placed on the main line of their 
system, the old Castle of Northampton, built by Simon de St. Liz, willbe 
completely destroyed, the site being required for the sidings of the new 
station. Excavators have for some time been at work, and have now 
laid bare the foundation of the western walls and postern gate, and a 
memorial has been signed asking the North-Western Company to incor- 
porate or utilise in some way this block of masonry}{if possible. A com- 
mittee of Archzologists has been formed to watch the excavations in 
case anything of interest should be unearthed. The walls of the Castle, 
and particularly the south bastion, were interesting, as being the only 
Northants locality for Diplotaxis tenuifolia &c.; and among other 
interesting plants growing on them may be mentioned Hehium vulgare, 
Linaria vulgaris, Sedum album and reflecum, Poa compressa, Antirrhinwm 
majus, Cheiranthus cheiri, &c. Burgess, in his Wild Flowers, I believe, 
alludes to the profusion of Malva sylvestris growing in the Castle moat, 
but this has disappeared, nor can Fritillaria meleagris be now seenin the 
meadows near, although Colchicum autumnale still appears, making the 
fields gay in September within a few hundred yards of this site.— 
G. C. Druce. 
Gleanings. 
OrnNITHOLOGY.—We have received from Dr. E. Rey, of Leipzig, the 
first and second parts of a general (priced) catalogue of birds. The prices 
appear moderate, as the skins are guaranteed to be in good order. 
Moxuvuscan Tureaps.—Mr. G. Sherriff Tye contributed to the Novem- 
ber number of ‘‘ The Quarterly Journal of Conchology” a most interesting 
paper on the threads spun by Mollusks. The paper was read before the 
Birmingham Natural History and Microscopical Society. 
PuHotoGRaPHy.—We have received from Mr. J. Vincent Elsden an 
excellent photographic enlargement of the diatoms Tvriceratium favus and 
T. megastomum. 'These are enlarged toa diameter of from lin. to 14in., 
and the details are brought out with considerable clearness. 
