NOTES AND QUERIES. 345 



insects — the inhabitants by repealing the laws were glad enough 

 to encourage the Crows to come back. 



The general effect of these laws has been to cause the 

 destruction of large numbers of Crows. Dr. Godman has with 

 graphic pen described the methods of hunting and slaughtering 

 them in Maryland in the first years of this century. 



It is interesting to learn from Mr. Henshaw that such near 

 relatives of the Crow, the Blackbirds {Agelaius gubemator, Wagl., 

 and A. phoeniceus, Linn.), at San Luis Obispo, collect in the fall 

 and winter in immense flocks and roost in the swamps of " tulle" 

 (a kind of bulrush). They do not come into the swamp in 

 streams, but in large flocks, and these, diving down into the 

 reeds, are very soon hidden. 



This dwelling together in large flocks is also quite true of the 

 Crow-Blackbird, or Purple Grackle (Quiscalus quiscala, Linn.), 

 as we see in this latitude after the breeding season and until 

 migration, and in the South during the winter. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Death of Mr. Henry Stevenson, F.L.S., F.Z.S. — Our readers will 

 learn with regret that our excellent friend and contributor, Mr. Stevenson, 

 of Norwich, author of the well-known volumes on the ' Birds of Norfolk,' 

 died at Norwich on the 18th August last, aged fifty-eight. For more than 

 five-and-tweuty years we have been accustomed to read in the pages of this 

 Journal all kinds of interesting information from Mr. Stevenson's facile pen, 

 and have for some time past deplored the fact that domestic trials and 

 troubles had deprived him of that energy as a writer for which at one 

 time he was conspicuous. As proprietor of ' The Norfolk Chronicle,' and 

 contributor to other periodicals, notably to this Journal, ' The Field,' and the 

 ' Transactions of the Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society,' of which 

 he was for some time Secretary, his name was well known, and few writers 

 could furnish from personal observation more graphic descriptions than he 

 could of the haunts and appearance of the wild creatures whose habits he 

 loved to study whenever he could break away from literary work, and betake 

 himself to one of his favourite "broads" or "meres" for a little quiet 

 contemplation of nature. It has long been a matter of disappointment to 

 his naturalist friends that he did not complete and publish the third volume, 

 as contemplated, of his ' Birds of Norfolk.' We are glad to learn from a 

 mutual friend that the materials for this volume have been preserved, and 



