212 NOTES AND NEWS. 
I should say that White Wagtails as a rule associate very little 
with other species, but I once saw a family party in company with 
a Wryneck. Perhaps the latter was an uninvited guest ; at any rate, 
he was very busily engaged in catching ants, and the group of old 
and young Wagtails gracefully posed around him made up a very 
pretty little picture. That occurred early in July, in the neighbour- 
ood of the Upper Rhine. There, as elsewhere in Central Europe, 
the White Wagtail was a common bird, and often enlivened the 
country roads with its cheery presence. It may be fancy, but it has 
sometimes struck me, that the White Wagtail subsists upon flies to 
a much greater extent than the Pied Wagtail; and perhaps it is also 
more partial to perching on buildings than our common bird. I do not 
remember, either, having seen the Pied Wagtail feeding on the refuse 
of farm-yards, which often attracts the White Wagtail to search for 
insects. The continental bird always seems to me to be the daintier 
species, less robust perhaps than our home bird, a trifle slighter in 
make, and more graceful in carriage. But the two species are so 
closely related that it is really unsafe to discriminate too nicely 
between their relative characteristics. Nor should it be forgotten 
that the habits of most birds are modified by circumstances. I have 
never yet met with the Pied Wagtail upon the Continent. Had 
I done so, it would have been easier to compare the habits of the 
two species with absolute certainty. But the Pied Wagtail has, of 
course, a much less extensive range on the Continent than the 
White Wagtail, which one meets with almost everywhere in the 
plains and valleys, and up to at least 5,000 ft. in the mountains, 
though the Grey Wagtail to a considerable extent replaces the White 
species on the rivers of elevated districts, as in the Puy de Dome 
country. 
NOTES AND NOTES. 
The paper on ‘Some Physical ropetics of Coal,’ which our vrs Mr, Benj- 
Holgate, F. ee bia ol rect bajo abstract at the Leeds meeting of the British 
Association, h jt ¥ in the Proceedin, ngs s of the Y: orkshire Geological’ 
and Poliechnse ish kg ey from which a reprint lies before u 
—-—— >coq 
ae Entomological Soci London was read a letter which Lord Bscign 
had received from Sir Arthur Blackw e Secretary of t Office, in 
e ose farm Pinch ubmitted to the Post ter-General, asking. 
age 
samples. The letter intimated that, so far as the English Pos ce was con- 
cerned, a. a sent by errr post to places bead would not be 
sto opped in futu 
Mihi 
Naturalist, 
