FIRST APPEARANCES OF BIRDS, INSECTS, ETC. 263 



seems reasonable to suppose that a large portion of our Purbeck- 

 bred birds migrated last autumn into the neighbouring county of 

 Devon. (E. R. B.) 



BITTERN (Botaurus siellaris, L.). One at Keysworth, Feb. 21. 

 (S. E. V. F.) 



GENERAL ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 



HEDGEHOG. On Jan. 2 last, at 5.40 p.m., I discovered a full- 

 grown hedgehog grubbing about the west bank of the railway 

 cutting at Rodwell station. (F. J. Barnes.) 



ABUNDANCE OF WASPS IN SPRING. Queen Wasps were 

 exceptionally common at Norden, Corfe Castle, in the spring of 

 1906. While recruiting my health in our garden, I myself 

 netted and killed 94 of them in parts of two consecutive days in 

 the middle of May, and destroyed 129 in portions of four 

 successive days ! Nearly all of these were taken whilst either 

 sitting on the uppersides of the leaves of a hedge of common 

 laurel, or whilst hovering over them, and although they delighted 

 to rest on the laurel leaves in the bright sunshine, not a single 

 one was seen on a leaf of the rhododendrons growing beside 

 the laurels. They appeared to resort to the leaves merely for 

 repose, not in quest of food, and I can only imagine that they 

 knew by instinct that those of the laurel would afford them more 

 warmth than those of the rhododendrons. Of 18 individuals 

 selected, more or less at random for preservation, and kindly 

 identified by my friend, Mr. Edward B. Nevinson, F.E.S., the 

 14 taken on May i4th included one Vespa vulgaris, L., four 

 V. germanica, Fb., nine V. ruja, L., and one V. sylvestris, Scop., 

 whilst the two secured on June 5th are both referable to this 

 last species, and the one netted on June 4th is V. norvegica, 

 which is usually scarce in this county, though two nests found 

 near Corfe Castle yielded me an abundance of it in 1893. It is 

 impossible to say in what proportions the first four species 

 occurred among the numbers killed, and the still larger numbers 

 seen flying about ; probably they were all more or less common, 



