) 



Notes and Comments. 297 



should be (i) vigilance in preventing the entrance of insects 

 either by way of the barley used for malting purposes or malt 

 introduced into the brewery from sources not under the brewer's 

 control ; (2) cleanliness in the maltings and attention to 

 the soundness of the malting floors, walls and kiln ; (3) 

 attention to the condition of the bins, and watchfulness for 

 first appearances suggesting infection ; (4) where infection 

 already exists, the application of some treatment more 

 drastic than any hitherto adopted. 



AMBLESIDE BIRDS. 



The Headmaster of an Ambleside School writes to Bird 

 Notes and Neivs (summer number), ' We have a wonderful 

 lot of birds this year. Our boys made a couple of nesting 

 boxes, which they affixed to the trees. One is occupied by 

 a Redstart, which is hatching six eggs, and the other by a 

 Pied Flycather. There is a Ground Lark's nest in the wood 

 with five eggs, a Sedge-Warbler's with six, and a Willow- 

 Wren's with seven (a lovely nest), a Tree-creeper's with a 

 family, a Tomtit's with a family, a Robin's with six eggs, a 

 Wren's with seven, and one which the children call a "Miller's 

 Thumb's " with seven. There are several Owls' nests in the 

 neighbourhood. We can easily see into two of them, two 

 young brown Owls in each. Three youths were fined at 

 Ambleside for robbing a Heron's nest. We were glad they 

 were caught and had to take the eggs back.' 



WHALES. 



We learn from Sir Sidney F. Harmer's useful ' Report on 

 Cetacea stranded on the British Coasts during 1919 and 1920,'* 

 that it includes records of the Blue Whale {Balaenoptera 

 masailus) , which has not previously appeared in this series. 

 As bearing on the general distribution of Whales in the North 

 Atlantic, it also includes a statement of the total catch at 

 the Whaling Station in Harris during 1920, with a notice of 

 the capture of large numbers of Pilot Whales {Globicephala 

 melaena), at the Faroe Islands, in the same year. Cuvier's 

 Whale [Ziphius cavirostris) has been recorded on several 

 occasions, during the two years, and it may be considered 

 to have established its right to be considered a not infrequent 

 visitor to the British Coasts. The complete absence of records 

 of any of the other Ziphioid Whales, particularly of Hyperoodon, 

 the Bottle-nosed Whales, is a noteworthy feature of the two 

 years; while another negative characteristic of the period 

 since May, 1919, is the absence of the Lessor (sic) Rorqual 

 {Balaenoptera aciitorostrata) , of which five records were 

 obtained in the summer of 1918. The Common Dolphin 



* British Museum (Natural History), 18 pp., 4/-. 

 1921 Sept. 1 



