2220 The Zoologist— July, 1870. 



Woloes in France. — It is now nearly two centuries since wolves were exterminated 

 in Great Britain, — the last was killed in Scotland by Sir Evan Cameron in 1680, — 

 and it seems curious lo an English reader to find a French country gentleman at an 

 agricultural meeting taking the trouble to discuss the best means of getting rid of a 

 beast of prey which in these islands is as little likely to trouble our farmers as the 

 Mastodon or the Megalosaurus. At the Congres Lainier, at Dijon, however, a week or 

 two ago, the Comte d'Esterno called the attention of the meeting to the depredations 

 of wolves in Burgundy, and urged his hearers not only lo wage a war of extermination 

 against the wolves themselves, but to do all in their power to get rid of the louveliers 

 — i.e. the officers who are supposed to organize wolf-hunts, &c., and who are named 

 by the Government in all departments where wolves abound. These gentlemen the 

 Comte d'Esterno accused of being no more real enemies of the wolves or anxious for 

 their extermination than are masters of hounds for the total destruction of foxes in 

 England. Not only do they take good care — in order to ensure a run and to avoid all 

 danger of" chopping" the wolves in their lairs — to sound the horn (and a sportsman's 

 horn is something like a horn in France!) when approaching a wolf-covert, but they 

 even offer a reward for litters of young wolves and turn them down in the woods — just 

 like young cubs. At preseut a reward of 15f. is given to whoever destroys a she-wolf, 

 12f. for a wolf, and 6f. for a wolf-cub. M. d'Esterno considers that these prices are 

 not high enough, and proposes a reward of 200f. (£8) for whoever shall kill a full- 

 grown wolf. We do not know what influence the lieutenants de louv«terie, or, as they 

 are called, louvetiers (XI. Paul de Cassagnac styles himself a " louvelier de I'Empire") 

 enjoy in the provinces, and how they will receive Comte d'Esterno's proposition to do 

 away with the animal that shows sport to them and their packs, but we should like to 

 see the man who would be bold enough to set a reward of jC8 on foxes' heads in 

 Leicestershire. — Pall Mall Gazelle, June 1, 1870. 



Note on Migralion at Carshalton. — April 6lh, whitethroat first seen ; 8th, redstart; 

 lOlh, swallows; 17th, grasshopper warbler and nightingale first heard; 18th, house 

 martin and cuckoo; 23rd, sedge warblers; May 9ih, swift; 16ib, sand martin ; 23rd, 

 spotted flycatcher. This year will be remembered by ornithologists for the great 

 scarcity of the Hirundine family, especially the almost total absence of the sand 

 martin. I have only seen four or five of these birds this season. The house martin 

 is in the ratio of two to five compared with last year. The number of swallows are 

 decidedly below the average ; while, on the other hand, swifts appear to be quite as 

 abundant as usual. The Italians believe that the scarcity of swallows is a very bad 

 omen, proclaiming the advent of some severe epidemic: they state that in seasons of 

 cholera epidemics, swallows have been always seen in fewer numbers than usual. 

 Whether the statement that llie scarcity of these birds on the advent of epidemics is 

 to be regarded as merely a popular fiction, and a coincidence due to accidental 

 causes, or whether there may not be the same well-defined law regulating the move- 

 ments of the Hirundinae in such cases, is a subject well worth the consideration and 

 study of the ornithologist. — /I. H. Smee ; June 1, 1870. 



Notes on Migratory Birds. — March 27th, wheatear seen. April 14th, saw yellow 

 wagtail and sand martins, the latter passing northward in a small flock; 15th, saw 

 willow wren; 16th, heard tree pipit; 18tb, heard chiffchafiF; 21st, heard whitethroat; 



