1604 The Zoologist— March, 1869. 



niarliii-hi)use, a pair are building: it is a place used some [years ago by robins; but 

 ibe fact was so novel that, instead of driving them off, a new mariin-bouse is to be 

 put up at once near by, which the martins, in their necessity, will no doubt occupy. 

 The blackbirds are lame about our streets and gardens, alighting on the ground at the 

 same time with ibe robins, with much the same habits in this respect, although 

 evidently going beyond the limits of the village for most of their food. We have 

 robins in large numbers, — small birds being protected by law, — and on the arrival of 

 the blackbirds the first season there was trouble among them, and their note, denoting 

 disturbance, could be heard on every side; and for good reason, for the blackbirds, 

 without so much as saying " by your leave," look the materials from every unfinished 

 or unoccupied robin's nest they could find ; bul, singularly enough, the blackbirds soon 

 succumbed, and the robins drove them away in all cases of contest ; bul ihey seem to 

 live in harmony, and, as I have mentioned, are often in conipany on the ground 

 seeking for food. — Newark (New York) Correspondent in the ' American Naturalist,' 

 August, 186S. 



The Robin at Fault. — A remarkable instance of the lack of the "bump of locality" 

 in birds came under my observation some years ago. I bad nailed a board of moderate 

 width under the eaves of a barn to form a resting-place for the nests of the cliff or jug 

 swallow: it was inclined at an angle. So as to form a sort of trough. A rol>iu com- 

 menced building her nest in it; but, seeming unable to fix ujion any particular spot, 

 deposited the mud and straw along the entire length of the trough, about ten feel: 

 after working several days she abandoned her task. Shortly afterwards I saw a robin 

 (whether the same bird or noi I cannot say) attempting to build her nest in tlie same 

 way, along the entire outer cornice of a bouse, about thirty feet. — ^American Natu- 

 ralist,' June, 1868. 



Galatea Andreivsii at Penzance. — I have to record the occurrence here, in seven 

 fathoms water on sand, of Galatea Andrewsii of Kinahan. My specimen is a female, 

 nearly full grown, and was kindly identified lor me by Mr. Sjience Bale. The speci- 

 men was taken by me in August last.— T'Aomas Cornish; Penzance, February 6, 

 1869. 



The Locust Killer. — I never saw but obe of these wasps, and that was about two 

 years ago, and then only for a few moments: it appeared to be marked almost, if not 

 precisely, like a hornet, and lo be about iwo or two and a half inches in length, and 

 large in proportion ; truly a most formidable-looking insect. The " killer" had seized 

 one of our August locusts, and was endeavouring to rise from the ground with it, the 

 locust clinging to the grass, and fluttering and screaming [? E. N.'] all the while. Be- 

 fore I could seize them they rose from tbe ground and made off in a bee-line, at a 

 height of about twelve or fifteen feel, tbe locust resisting with might and main. T am 

 told they make nests in the ground, boring a hole lo the depth of two or three feet. 

 They must be rave, or I should have seen them before. — C. W. Taylor ; Hulmeville, 

 Pa. [The wasp is probably the Stizus speciosus, which seizes the Cicada to store its 

 nest with, which is probably Hot more ihan a foot in depth. — Editors of ' American 

 Natxtratist.'] 



