22 fi THE ZOOLOGIST. 



from the island. Through an unfortunate oversight, the names of the 

 Swallow and the House Martin were omitted from the above list. Both 

 these birds breed on the island, the former about the castle, and the latter 

 on the north-eastern and eastern cliffs. I have never seen Swifts on 

 Lambay. — H. C. Haut (14, Lower Pembroke Street, Dublin). 



REPTILE S. 



The Palmated Newt in Gloucestershire. — Desiring to procure some 

 examples for Mr. Elope and Mr. Aplin, I recently wrote to a correspondent, 

 Mr. Witchell, of Stroud, by whom I had been favoured with examples in 

 1881. I asked Mr. Witchell to give some account of its habits in his 

 district, and believe that the following remarks, extracted from his reply, 

 may prove of general interest. He says : — " I first observed the Palmated 

 Newt in the neighbourhood of Stroud in 1878, in some pools near the 

 Stroud Reservoir. They are there common, ami keep down the insects. 

 I have noticed that where there are many Palmated Newts there are few 

 Smooth or Common Newts. I have found the former (really the common 

 Newts here) in all the pools on the CotteswoM Hills surrounding this town, 

 and in some of them they are very plentiful. In one pool in a brickyard 

 also I found immense numbers ; and a small boy, whom I asked to procure 

 me some, brought a bucket-full of them to our house the same evening. 

 Whether the Palmated Newt destroys the tadpoles of the Common Newt, I 

 cannot say, but I am certain that, in any pool near Stroud, you would find 

 twenty Palmated Newts for one Smooth one. I may add that the Palmated 

 Newt leaves its winter quarters earlier than the other two species, many 

 being killed by the occasional early frosts, when the ponds are frozen over. 

 They retire also for the winter later than the other Newts. The tadpoles 

 of the Palmated Newt are often devoured by the tadpoles of the Great 

 Water Newt, even when almost ready to leave the water." To the fore- 

 going it may be worth while addiug the following points: — 1. A pair of 

 Palmated Newts which Mr. Witchell gave me in J 881 showed a strong 

 predilection for the tadpoles (or " Polheudes ") of the Common Frog. 

 2. The fine filament at the end of the male's tail did not become absorbed 

 during the following winter, as Dr. Cooke states is usually the case ('Our 

 Reptiles,' p. 1G8). 3. My examples were very late in hybernating, and 

 seemed to bear cold better than the Smooth Newt.— H. A. Maopherson. 



BATRACHIANS. 



The Edible Frog in Suffolk. — In connection with recent remarks on 

 Batrachians (pp. 84, 129, 130) it may be of interest to note that in August 

 of last year a specimen of Rana esculenta was found in the garden of the 

 house at which I was then staying at Felixstowe, in Suffolk. 1 kept it for 

 two days under a flower-pot, and then it escaped. I have now no books by 

 me to which to refer, but I believe that some exist, or formerly existed, at 



