1592 The Zoologist— Mahch, 1869. 



time in 'Land and Water:' these two birds, male and female, are 

 now at Mr. Couche's, birdstnfrer,, here, the one stuffed and the other 

 to be stuffed for the gentleman who owns the island. 



Herm swarms with rabbits and with rats : of the former I heard that 

 five thousand had been sent off during last season. The island only 

 contains about seven hundred acres altogether, and only a small 

 portion in the centre is cultivated. The rats I am told, however, are 

 even more destructive than the rabbits, and a whole field of wheat has 

 been destroyed principally by them : little heaps of half a dozen or 

 more dead ones are to be seen every here and there, showing the able 

 workmanship of the keeper and his steel-traps and strychnine. Mr. 

 Purday, the landlord of the little inn here, and a capital seaman, &c., 

 informed me that occasionally the rats have been found, at low tide, 

 drowned, with the tip of their nose or tongue held fast between the 

 edges of the liuipet-shells and the rock, thus having paid penalty for 

 iheir curiosity. About this period we had extremely rough weather 

 and high tides, and Pinday, who crosses every day to Guernsey, 

 weather permitting, could not ])Ut to sea. The crossing is only about 

 three miles, but nearly half way across from Herm to Guernsey a 

 great field of sunken rocks stretch out, and these, together with the 

 cross-tides and an otherwise stormy sea as well, make the crossing in 

 rough weather dangerous even to those accustomed to the coast. 

 During the days these gales lasted, Purday, who is quite " well up in 

 shells" assisted me in my excursions at low tide, and, as he knew all 

 the localities, greatly helped in swelling the number of my specimens : 

 he also procured for my mother various sea anemones, hairy urchins 

 and other sea wonders, to be painted. One anemone was apparently 

 very common here : the name 1 found out is '' Feachii," whether they 

 are common elsewhere or not I do not know, but 1 have never observed 

 them myself on any former occasion. We also got a worm dug out of 

 the sand, which 1 was told was very rare ; I forget the name, but 

 perhaps some of your readers might recognize it from the fact that 

 under the microscope the filament or skin presents to view a great 

 number of little sack-looking vesicles exactly the shape of a ship's 

 anchor. 



I hope to go to Serk soon, and if there be*any notes worth sending 

 I shall forward them to you after ray return from that island. 



John A. Harvie Brown. 

 St. Peter Port, Guernsey, 

 February 8, 1869. 



