Reptiles, $c. 2741 



termed, the common wild goose ; and hence arose the error, for such it doubtless is, 

 which Mr. Gurney has pointed out. In future we shall pay attention to this genus, 

 and, as soon as we have obtained a more thorough acquaintance with the relative 

 rarity of its species, will again trouble you with some observations on the subject. — 

 A. 8c H. Matthews ; Weston, January 22, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Hawk's-bill Turtle (Chelonia imbricata) in the Parret, Bridgwater. 

 The notice by Mr. Rudd of the occurrence of the hawk's-bill turtle off the Yorkshire 

 coast, last year (Zool. 2708), induces me to send you notice of one taken alive in the 

 river Parret, many years ago. I find in my memoranda that an apparently healthy 

 hawk's-bill turtle was brought to me on the 27th of May, 1827, which was taken a 

 few days before, floating up the river with the tide, above Bridgwater. I mentioned 

 this circumstance in a note to my departed friend, Mr. Anstice, whose letters to the 

 late Col. Montagu, on the black stork, appear in the last number of the ' Zoologist,' 

 and the following reply will, I am sure, interest many readers of this useful and inte- 

 resting periodical. " I know the circumstance of a turtle being caught in our river, 

 but of what species I do not know. If, as you say, it was a hawk s-bill, it is not very 

 probable, I think, that it had been assisted hither by one of our trading vessels from 

 abroad, as its flesh is not sufficiently esteemed to induce any one to bring it to the 

 market of the gourmands, and its shell may be brought over in a far less troublesome 

 and expensive manner. I should think they may sometimes accompany the inter- 

 tropical seed-vessels and shell-fish, that are yearly brought to our channel, and to the 

 coasts of Scotland and Ireland, by the gulf stream. I have seen the species in ques- 

 tion on the coast of Portugal, and once, I remember, in a winter month and gale of 

 wind ; and why they should not, therefore, take an excursion across the Bay of Bis- 

 cay occasionally in summer time I do not know." The following extract from Lyell's 

 1 Geology,' vol. ii. p. 104, is very appropriate here: " Turtles migrate in large droves 

 from one part of the ocean to another, during the ovipositing season. Dr. Fleming 

 mentions that an individual of the hawk's-bill turtle, so common in the American seas, 

 has been taken on one of the West Zetland islands, and, according to Sibbald, the 

 same animal came into Orkney : another was taken in 1774, in the Severn, according 

 to Turton. * * These animals, of more southern seas, can only be considered as 

 stragglers, attracted to our shores, duiing uncommonly warm seasons, by an abundant 

 supply of food, or driven by storms into high latitudes." — Wm. Baker ; Bridgivater, 

 February, 1850. 



Land and Fresh-water Mollusca found in the Neighbourhood of Nonvich. 

 By W. K. Bridgm^n, Esq. 







given in the table of Gray's edition of Turton's Manual, from the lists of Sheppard, 



Pages and Bloxam, seventy-two species are recorded. Of these I have found sixty in 



Norfolk, with but one or two exceptions in the immediate vicinity of this city, and 



VIII P 



