NOTES AND QUKRIES. 65 



P. laricio largely (I have none except guarded) says that it is rabbit-proof, 

 and, on his assertion, I am planting some hundreds of it this season. The 

 fact is, I believe, in a really severe season Rabbits will attack anything, — in 

 a deep snow I have had yews eaten down, — but in the generality of years 

 certain things escape." Another writer in the same journal (Dec. 12th) 

 says:— "I have hit upon a good material for protecting the bark of young 

 trees from the attacks of Hares and Rabbits, and one which can be readily 

 applied. Virgin cork, so much employed in the construction of Ferneries, 

 and which can be easily placed round the stems of young trees, and attached 

 in such a way that the attacks of Hares and Rabbits will be rendered 

 ineffectual. The mischief caused to specimen trees planted near dwelling- 

 houses, in parks, or on lawns, by cats and dogs, &c., may also be prevented 

 by the same means. I first fix the pieces in their proper position, and then 

 fasten them together with wire or strong twine, an operation which can be 

 done at a trifling expense; but, of course, such tree-protectors might be 

 made to close round the stems, and open and shut by means of hinges." 

 Apropos of forestry, we observe that in the same number of this new 

 periodical (pp. 28, 29) an extremely ingenious instrument for measuring 

 heights of trees, known as " Kay's Dendrometer," is described, with 

 illustrations. It is to be obtained of Messrs. Dickens & Co., 1, Waterloo 

 Place, Edinburgh, and we imagine that some of our readers would find it 

 both useful and amusing in determining the heights of birds' nests. 



Bottle-nosed Dolphins at Plymouth.— On December 15th I examined 

 two immature Bottle-nosed Dolphins, Delphinus tursio, which had been cap- 

 tured in shallow water on the mud banks of Hooe Lake, near Plymouth, one 

 measuring eight feet nine inches, and the other about eight feet in length. 

 Their beaks or snouts were much shorter and thicker, in proportion, than 

 those of the Commou Dolphin, Delphinus delphis, and the teeth much less 

 numerous, there being only about twenty-five in each jaw. These were not 

 truncated, as would have been the case, I believe, in older animals ; the 

 pectoral, dorsal, and caudal fins were also smaller in proportion to the 

 animal's size, and the colours on their bodies much more uniform, without 

 any signs of the wavy lines so often seen on the sides of the more common 

 species. They were b9th females. Delphinus tursio is, I think, rare on 

 our coast. The only one I ever before recorded was driven on shore under 

 the Plymouth Hoe a few years since -an adult male, twelve feet long, with 

 truncated teeth, the skull and bones of which are now in the possession of 

 Mr. W. Hearder, Union Street, Plymouth.— J. Gatcombk (Stonehouse). 



BIRDS. 



Mr. Gunn's Lesser Terns at the Fisheries Exhibition.— My attention 

 has been drawn to a notice in ' The Zoologist ' for last November (p. 403) 

 by Mr. E. Cambridge Phillips, of the collection of stuffed birds and fish in 



