1254 The Zoologist— June, 1868. 



locality, and tb e part of ibe stream where the shells were found in the greatest profusion 

 was quite covered in with brambles and tall willows, a willow-covert bounding it on 

 one side. Two otters were trapped on the stream last year, and fresh traces, unmistak- 

 able, were not wanting at the time I was there ; further than this an otter has been 

 trapped there since. With all this evidence I think the otter must be found "Guilty." 

 — W. Jeffery,jun ; Rat ham, Chichester, May 9th, 1868. 



Food of the Water Shrew.— I have a similar charge to make against the shrew, and 

 on equally circumstantial evidence. I have been endeavouring to cultivate the 

 Planorbis corneus in some ponds in the garden, and have recently found several hoards 

 of the remains of these shells (altogether upwards of 100 in number) amongst some 

 rock-work at the edge of the water. The thin circumference of the shell was invariably 

 broken away, leaving the thick spiral centre. Wbai can have done this but the water 

 shrew ? 1 have several times seen these little animals near the ponds. While on this 

 subject I will mentiou a circumstance which occurred to me oue day last winter 

 (December 24lh, 1867). My attention was called to a struggle between a water shrew 

 and a frog. Both were in a ditch in which there was scarcely mud enough to cover 

 the frog, and a little water over that. The shrew was of course the attacking party, 

 and resolute he was, biting at the frog's nose and shaking him, " as a dog would a rat," 

 only that it had a proportionately larger antagonist to deal wilh. Froggy was of 

 course in rather a sleqn state at that lime of the year, and the only mode of defence 

 which he appeared capable of was that of burying himself in the mud ; but this was of 

 little avail. The shrew showed himself in no way afraid of sand or water, diving into 

 both after his prey. He had succeeded in dragging the frog to the edge of the dilch, 

 but it was a slow process, and time would not permit me to stop and see it out There 

 is little doubt, I think, that the shrew was victorious, and probably made a hearty meal 

 off froggy. — 1<1. 



Longevity of a C'ayed Lark. — A highly respectable tradesman in this town, whom 

 I know quite well, kept until lately a lark, which, to use his own phrase, "sang at my 

 shop-door for twenty-one summers." He had it as a young bird from the nest. 



' H 's lark" was a splendid songster, and was well known to almost every one in 



the town : it was kept in an ordinary lark's cage, looking on to a crowded thoroughfare, 

 was fed on hemp-seed and bread, and a hard-boiled egg cut up, with sometimes a 

 piece of meat, and had a fresh turf in the summer twice a-week. It was very lame, 

 but pugnacious, and would fight its owner's finger, and hang on to it with its beak 

 when he was cleaning out the cage. Whenever he entered the shop it would welcome 

 him, fluttering its wings and twittering or singing, even in ibe middle of the night. 

 This remarkable bird was found dead one morning in its cage, and the owner tells me 

 that when skinned for stuffing there was a quantity of blood at the top of its skull, 

 leading him lo suppose that it had been frightened, and had dashed up against the 

 lop of the cage, and so killed itself.— Henry P. Hetuman; Northampton, April 20, 

 1868. 



Vinous-breasted Pipit near Plymouth.— On the 21st of March I killed the Anthus 

 spinoletta (viuous-breasied pipit of Gould) on the rocks near Plymouth, which is, I 

 believe the second recorded Devonshire specimen, the first being obtained at Torquay. 

 — John Gatcombe ; Plymouth. 



[I suppose this to be the water pipit (Anthus aguaticus) of my editiou of Montagu, 



