146 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



kills this bird is requested to communicate with me and inform me where 

 it occurred. — (Signed) F. R. Falz Fein ; September, 1892.' 



" I now raised my head, which hitherto I had kept closely bent^ down, 

 and the Khalifa asked, 'Well, what do the papers contain?' 'Sire,' 

 I replied, ' this case must have been fastened to the neck of a bird 

 which has been killed. Its owner, who lives in Europe, has requested 

 that anyone who finds the bird should let him know where it was 

 caught or killed.' ' You have spoken the truth,' said the Khalifa, in 

 a somewhat more amiable tone; 'the bird was killed by a Shaigi near 

 Dongola, and the cartridge-case was found attached to its neck. He took it 

 to the Emir Yunes, whose secretary was unable to decipher the writing 

 of the Christian, and he therefore forwarded it to me. Tell me now what 

 is written on the paper.' I translated the message word for word, and 

 at the Khalifa's command also tried to describe the geographical position 

 of the country from which the bird had come, and the distance it had 

 travelled before it was killed. ' This is one of the many devilries of these 

 unbelievers,' he said at last, ' who waste their time in such useless nonsense. 

 A Mohammedan would never havo attempted to do such a thing.' He 

 then ordered me to hand over the case to his secretary, and signed me to 

 withdraw ; but I managed to take one more hurried glance at the paper, — 

 ' Ascania Nova, Taurida, South Russia,' I repeated over and over again, to 

 imprint it on my memory. The Mulazemin at the door anxiously awaited 

 my return ; and when I came out from the presence of my tyrannical 

 master with a placid countenance they seemed greatly pleased. On my 

 way to my house I continued to repeat to myself the name of the writer 

 and his residence, and determined that, should Providence ever grant me 

 ray freedom, I should not fail to let him know what had happened to his 

 bird." This story found its way into print last autumn through the Cairo 

 correspondent of ' The Times,' whose very brief narration of it was quoted 

 in ' The Zoologist ' for October last (p. 382). A comparison of his version 

 with that now given reveals certain discrepancies ; but we may take it that 

 the authorized version is that which appears in the volume now before us, 

 and which has been translated by Major Wingate from the original notes of 

 Slatin Pasha himself. 



BATRACHIA. 



Acclimatisation of Rana esculenta in Yorkshire.— On March 11th 

 I received seventeen specimens of the continental Edible Frog. Twenty- 

 five had originally been forwarded to me, but three died on the way, and 

 five had disappeared, owing possibly to the attentions of the Custom-House 

 officers. I have turned them into a certain suitable pond, and trust that 

 they will increase and multiply. A few years ago I brought eight or nine 

 of them over from Germany with me, and let them loose in a large walled-in 

 garden. For four years they turned up regularly every spring ; but after 



