260 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



A R CH.EOLOG Y. 



Protecting Poultry from Foxes in Scotland. — In my copy of 

 Childrey's ' Britannia Baconiea'flOUO), a manuscript note runs as follows: — 

 " Singularities of Scotland. In all the hill country, and where there is 

 much poultry, specially in open moores, every house doth nourish a young 

 fox, ami then, killing the same, they mixe ye flesh thereof amongst ye meate 

 they give ye fowle and other small bestiall, by meanes whereof they are 

 [Hi served from ye attempt of ye fox for 2 [V 12] moneths after, who smelling 

 that meate in their craw will not touch ye hird or beast." At the foot of 

 the opposite page are the initials and date "'6 Julij A. 1067, W. M." in 

 the same handwriting. There are a considerable number of other MS. 

 notes, evidently taken from various books, but no reference is given for the 

 above. — Oliver V. ArLiN (Great Bointon, near Banbury). 



Origin of the name " Twite."— In Yorkshire the Twite is called 

 " Twatc-liiu-h." "Thwaite" is an old English word meaning a piece of 

 ground cleared of timber — ground, we may presume, that would be favourable 

 to the bird. Can any one say whether the present name of the bird has 

 l» en derived from this word " thwaite," or from one of its notes? — George 

 Roberts (Lofthouse, Wakefield). 



Mr. II. T. Wharton, in his remarks on the meaning of English bird- 

 names (' Zoologist,' Inn,!, p. 44;!), considers that the name " Twite" is one 

 of those " which plainly indicate the note they describe," and we see an 

 obvious correlation with the words " twit" and " twitter." — Ed.] 



Spoonbill and Shoveller. — It is somewhat curious to remark that 

 as in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Spoonbill, Plakdea 

 leucurodia, was known as "Shovellard" [vide 25 Henry VIII., cap. 11, and 

 'Zoologist,' ls?7, p. 428), so now-a-days, in the Otmoor district in this 

 county, the Shoveller, Anas clypeata, is known as the "Spoonbill." — 

 Oi.ivi i; Y. An. in (Great Bointon, near Banbury). 



OBITUARY. 



The late Mr. W. A. Forbes.— Mr. William Alexander Forbes, Fellow 

 of St. John's College, Cambridge, Prosector to the Zoological Society of 

 London, and Lecturer on Comparative Anatomy to Charing Cross Hospital, 

 whose untimely death on the Niger has been lately announced, was born at 

 Cheltenham on June 2 1th, L855, and was the second son of Mr. J. S.Forbes, 

 the well known railway director. He was educated at Kensington School 

 and Winchester College. On leaving Winchester in 1872 he passed a year 

 at Aix-la-Chapelle, studying German, and then became a student of the 

 University of Edinburgh, where he pursued the regular medical course, 

 paying special attention to Zoology and Botany, and commencing collections 



