The Zoologist— May, 1866. 1215 



Widgeon.— In passing Groby Pool, on the 18th of April, I saw 

 three pairs of widgeon rise from the sedge, and each pair flying by 

 itself, sailed round me overhead, uttering a succession of whistling 

 notes, as they do in the breeding season : they have most likely a nesl 

 near, although they have not been known to breed in the county that 

 I am aware of. 



Snipe.— I flushed several snipes from the swamps, on the 18th of 

 April, which is rather late for them to remain here. 



Swallow.— On the 18th of April I saw three or four swallows flyin- 

 low over Groby Pool and the marshes: they were first noticed on the 

 13th : they are always seen about the pool before visiting the town. 

 I see by my note-book that I did not observe them till the 13th of 

 May last season. 



Yellow Wagtail.— k V x\\ 18. The yellow wagtail has arrived here in 

 the damp meadows. 



„ r , . , Theodoke C. Walker. 



VVoodside, Leicester. 



A Season's Collecting of Land and Freshwater Shells in West Sussex. 



By W. Jeffery, jun., Esq. 



In the 'Zoologist' for July last (S. S. 873), Mr. William Thomson 

 expressed a wish for a list of Sussex shells, and as this has not yet 

 appeared, it may not perhaps be out of place on my part to offer a 

 list of shells found by myself in this neighbourhood last season, 

 together with a few remarks on the same. Mr. Thomson writes, 

 " Beech woods and their vicinity are not generally regarded as prolific 

 collecting-grounds by conchologists," but I have found as many as 

 nine species on beech trees, in addition to those mentioned by 

 Mr. Harting (S. S. 760), viz. Helix hortensis, lapicida, caperata, 

 virgata and rotundata, Bulimus obscurus, Pupa cylindracea, and 

 Clausiha bidens and nigricans. Were I in want of specimens of 

 H. lapicida, B. obscurus, C. bidens or nigricans, I know of no place 

 near here where I should be so likely to find them as in a certain 

 beech wood. Indeed it has always appeared to me that the Clausiliae 

 were intended by Nature to live in the vicinity of beeches, such a 

 resemblance have these shells in shape and colour to the long leaf- 

 buds of the beech. I am not stating this as an attack on Mr. Thomson's 

 remarks, but merely to show that beech woods on a chalk soil are not 

 altogether to be despised by the shell-collector. But to my list. 



