232 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
a few light brown feathers on the front of the former. By far the larger 
number of the feathers on the breast, back, and wings were white, but the 
tail was of the usual colour—Rosrrr M. Curisty (20, Bootham, York). 
Mercansers AND Divers Intanp.—A Red-breasted Merganser and a 
Black-throated Diver were shot near Banbury in January this year. The 
former at Edgecote, by one Harrod, a gamekeeper, the latter on the 
Cherwell, by a boatman named Hunt.—C. Marruew Prior (Bedford). 
Lirtte Birrern anp SporreD CRAKE IN OxFoRDsHIRE.—When in 
Banbury one day in December, I was asked to go and see a specimen of the 
Little Bittern which had been shot near that town, on the Cherwell, by one 
Frederick Murray, a boatman, on the 27th October, 1867. It was much 
knocked about, having been shot the moment it rose, but the shattered bits 
were collected together and stuffed by W. Wyatt for its captor. I was also 
shown three specimens of the Spotted Crake, which I am informed is not 
unfrequently obtained in the vicinity, and one of which J purchased.—In. 
Lanp AND FRESHWATER SHELLS oF ScoTLAND.—At a meeting of the 
Natural History Society of Glasgow, held on March 6th, Mr. David 
Robertson exhibited specimens of fresh-water shells, the first of which, the 
little bivalve Pisidiwm fontinale,. var. Henslowana, was taken in the 
Glasgow and Paisley Canal. It is the Pisidiwn Henslowana of Shephard, 
and was first discovered by Professor Henslow in the River Cam, near 
Cambridge. It occurs in many of the northern, eastern, and south-western 
counties of England, as well as in South Wales and Cork, but hitherto it 
has not been discovered in Scotland. Such small shells are apt to be mis- 
taken for closely allied species, but in this case the most cursory inspection 
would discover the remarkable little elevated plate on each valve near the 
umbos, which at once distinguishes it from all its congeners. The other 
shell is Planorbis complanatus, and is found moderately common in Lochend 
Loch, Edinburgh. Mr. Robertson also showed Helix villosa, a land shelt, 
four living specimens of which were taken on the flat ground or moors near 
Cardiff, by Mrs. Robertson, and not being able to refer them to any British 
species they were submitted to Mr. Jeffreys, who pronounced them to be 
Helix villosa (Drap.), and has recorded the species in the ‘Annals and 
Magazine of Natural History’ for February as an addition to our British 
Mollusca. H. villosa inhabits Germany, France, and Switzerland, and it 
often occurs at a considerable height above the sea. Mr. Jeffreys refers to 
H. alpestris, a British variety of H. arbustorum, as having similar habits. 
It is met with on the Swiss Alps, in the region of perpetual snow, as well 
as on the marshes and banks of English rivers, an example of the great 
elasticity of such animals in accommodating themselves to different condi- 
tions of habitat and temperature. 
