NOTES AND QUERIES. 29 



Distribution of the White-bellied Brent Goose.— So far as I know, 

 little or no attention has hitheito been paid to the distribution of the White- 

 bellied Brent Goose during its stay with us; the only locality named 

 for its occurrence in the 4th edition of Yarrell's 'British Birds' being 

 the I<incolnshire sea-board. As winter is come it would be well if 

 ornithologists would look out for, and record, the occurrence of this very 

 marked race of goose. To set the ball rolling, let me say that a young 

 White-bellied Brent Goose was shot on Loch Pooltiel, Isle of Skye, on 

 October 28th, 1886.— H. A. Macpherson (3, Kensington Gardens Sq., W.). 



M O L L U S C A. 



Habits of Testacella haliotidea. — Between four and five months ago 

 I found eleven specimens of this slug upon a low wall surrounding the 

 garden of a house near the Oxford University Parks, and on the following 

 day I captured eleven more in the same place. There had been exceptionally 

 heavy rain, extending over some days,_ immediately previous to those on 

 which I found the specimens, and it therefore seems probable that these 

 animals are driven out of the earth when it becomes sodden with moisture. 

 Thus it is possible to account for the capture of a very unusual number of 

 specimens, for, as far as I can learn, the species has hitherto only been met 

 with singly in this locality. I have also ascertained what happens to the ani- 

 mals when the earth in which they are contained becomes hard and dry from 

 loss of water. A few of the twenty-two specimens were killed and hardened, 

 and the remainder were put in a box containing earth, in which they buried 

 themselves. In the press of other work the box was neglected, and remained 

 untouched in my laboratory until to-day, the earth having quickly dried into 

 a hard cake. To-day I emptied the box, and fully expected to find the 

 slugs dried up dead, but to my surprise I found twelve specimens alive, 

 each encysted in a thin transparent capsule formed of the hardened mucous 

 secretion of the animal's skin. The body was contracted, and oval in shape, 

 but it had been so completely protected from evaporation that there was no 

 noticeable reduction in bulk after these hottest months of the year, durin^ 

 which water had been entirely withheld. One or two specimens had died 

 almost immediately after capture, and a few escaped, so that all those which 

 had been exposed to the heat and dryness in the box had become encysted, 

 and survived in apparent health. — Edwakd B. Poulton (Wykeham House, 

 Oxford) in ' Nature." 



A Correction. — Kindly spare me space to observe that A. H. Mac- 

 pherson and H. A. Macpherson have separate existences. Owing to the 

 unlucky similarity of initials, several notes of my cousin, A. H. Macpherson, 

 of Oxford, have been attributed to me in the Index of the volume for 1886; 

 and various friends have also identified our unfortunate individualities as 

 one and the same. — H. A. Macpherson (3, Kensington Gardens Square). 



