8464 The Zoologist— April, 1873. 



continue to grow very slowly for some years longer, the ultimate 

 size depending a good deal upon the haunt of the whale ; some 

 regions having larger specimens than others. If the whales are 

 descendants of our marine Carnivora we should expect them to 

 presefi've something like the same growth rates, for this feature 

 seems to be tolerably permanent in any group of related animals. 

 The rate of growth, deducible from the observations of the prac- 

 tical students of the whale, coincides pretty closely with what we 

 should be inclined to expect on the supposition that the Cetacea 

 were descended from some ancestor like the marine Carnivora. 



The great decline of the whale fishery in all countries seems 

 likely to deprive us of the ill-used opportunities, which naturalists 

 have long had, of making themselves acquainted with the habits 

 of the greatest of the mammals. There are many questions which 

 should be discussed and settled before the class of clear-headed 

 and observant whalemen has passed away ; else we may remain 

 for centuries without a competent knowledge of the ways of this, 

 the greatest living monument of animal life. 



Ornithological Notes from North Lincolnshire. 

 By John Coedeaux, Esq. 



(Continued from S. S. 3402.) 



January and February, 1873. 



Blackbird. — January 9lh. Blackbirds and mistletoe thrushes 

 have been singing during the last week in December and the first 

 week of the new year. 1 heard the spring notes of the starling in 

 December. 



Green Plover. — Very large flocks have wintered in the marshes 

 and middle marsh district. I lately had an opportunity of making 

 a careful estimate of the probable number of birds composing one of 

 the large flocks which we now daily see winnowing to and fro above 

 the marsh land : they happened to pass directly over me, in an 

 unusually long and extended line ; by counting up to one hundred 

 and then taking the rest in sections I found there were about four 

 thousand. This was only one flock out of many in the marsh. 

 What an enormous amount of insects, insect larvse, worms, &c., 

 they must extract from these lauds in the course of a single season. 



