motes ani> queries. 251 



double row clown the back are oval and separate in the Coronella, 

 but rhomboid and confluent in the Viper. Don't search for a V ; 

 every snake will show Vs and Xs and Zs too in its markings 

 about the head. 



(To be continued.) 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



The Davis Lectures at the Zoological Gardens —A series of lectures 

 upon zoological subjects will be given in the Lecture Room in the Society's 

 Gardens, in the Regent's Park on Thursdays, at . r i p.m., commencing on 

 June 7th, "The Evolutions of Ungulate Mammals," Prof. Flower; 14th, 

 " Our Snakes and Lizards," Prof. Mivart ; 21st, " The Lamprey and its 

 kindred," Prof. Parker; 28th, " Birds and Lighthouses," Mr. J. E. Harting; 

 July 5th, " African Birds," Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe ; 12th, " South-American 

 Animals," Dr. P. L. Sclater ; 19th, " Siberian Birds," Mr. Henry Seebohm. 

 These lectures will be free to Fellows of the Society and their friends, and 

 other visitors to the Gardens. 



• The Birds of Walney Island.— Whilst thanking you for having 

 noticed in 'The Zoologist' so humble a publication as my 'List of the 

 Birds of Walney Island and the Neighbourhood,' permit me to make two 

 or three remarks in reply to the criticism on my pamphlet which appeared 

 in your last number. I acknowledge that a more correct title would have 

 been "The Birds of Furness," but I venture to doubt whether this would 

 have conveyed to the majority of ornithologists as much information as the 

 one I have selected ; and I cannot help thinking, from your remarks on 

 this head, that you have overlooked the fact that the word " neighbourhood " 

 appears on my title-page. As regards the appearance of the Spotted Eagle, 

 I fail to see the inconsistency of recording the fact of one having been found 

 dead on Walney Island, whilst refusing to admit it to the ranks of British- 

 killed specimens. I do not feel capable of deciding whether the bird in 

 question was a wild specimen, or whether it was one that had died on board 

 ship, and been consigned to the deep, or whether it had escaped from 

 captivity. All I can positively assert is that it is a genuine specimen of 

 Aquila ncevia, that it had not been very long dead when discovered, and 

 that until recently it could at any time be seen at Barrow. I have given 

 authorities for the occurrences of the rarer species of birds which have not 

 come under my personal observation, that for the Swallow-tailed Kite being 

 the ' Handbook of British Birds ' (p. 88) ; and if I have erred at all I feel sine 

 that it is rather in having omitted species which have a claim to be inserted 



