3736 The Zoologist— October, 1873. 



I had received from a Scotch coiTespondent (a most accurate and careful 

 observer) which bore somewhat on the subject. As Mr. Duraford states 

 that he thoroughly believes in the trustworthiness of his informants, one 

 of whom told him that in the end of ]\Iay the young of the Sandwich 

 tern had flown and left the neighbourhood with their parents, all I can say 

 is, that I do not, nor would any other person who had paid attention to the 

 breeding habits of this species in Great Britain. — H. W. Feilden ; Wool- 

 tvich, September 1, 1873. 



The Flamingo Killed in the Isle of Shcppey. — The fact of a flamingo 

 having flown away from the Zoological Gardens only two or three days 

 before the notice .of one having been killed in the Isle of Sheppey (S. S. 

 3693), renders it extremely probable that this escape was the bird in 

 question. I was only aware when it was too late to correct the paragraph 

 of the loss the Zoological Society had sustained. — Edward Newman. 



Vipers in the New Forest. — This reptile has been unusually abundant 

 in the forest during the summer, whilst its relation, the common snake, has 

 been comparatively rare ; I have not seen above half-a-dozen of the latter 

 during the whole season, whilst I have killed as many vipers, and saw a 

 great many more, in one day's entomological ramble in the woods and on 

 the heaths. In July, whilst with a friend, searching amongst some grass 

 for specimens of the pretty little moonwort fern, the locaHty for which we 

 had discovered the previous summer, I almost knelt upon a viper about 

 twenty inches long, but it made good its escape into a large and very tangled 

 bed of moss and heather, and we continued our search somewhat unsuccess- 

 fully, and had almost forgotten the viper, till my attention was attracted to 

 the bed of heather by a very slight but seemingly most pecuhar noise, and 

 as we had never heard a viper make any but a blowing or hissing noise, we 

 determined to find out what it was : setting to work verj' cautiously we 

 gently removed the moss, &c., and were not long in finding a hole, which 

 led into a sort of gallery, and from which this pecuhar little sound came. 

 We carefully removed portions of this gallery and as we approached the 

 inner end saw the viper glide away from a mouse's nest, in which one very 

 young_ mouse, about the size of a ground-beetle, was left. We concluded 

 that the viper had swallowed the other, probable, inmates of the nest, and 

 had relished the dainty morsels, but having a wish to ramble farther just 

 then he had made off", as we searched in vain to discover his whereabouts. 

 Whether the viper had destroyed the parent mice, or that they were on a 

 foraging expedition, I am unable to say ; we did not see them. Had we 

 caught the viper we should certainly have dissected the glutton. Is it 

 possible that the continued slaughter of the hawks, kestrels, &c., may 

 account for the uicrease in numbers of the viper? — G. B. Corbin. 



