264 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



built in the small elms surrounding a farmhouse and buildings, and the 

 Herons, with a number of Rooks, bring up their young above the sights 

 and sounds of a cow-stable and poultry -yard. Storks, formerly so common, 

 seem to be gradually deserting Holland. A pair have built in the topmost 

 pinnacle of the spire of the new Reichs Museum at Amsterdam, and a tree 

 which was inhabited eighteen years ago near the house of Oesterbeg, at the 

 Hague, still holds a nest. But the spectacle of a brood of young Storks, 

 wading about in the wet grass and catching frogs in the evening, is no 

 longer one of the common sights of Holland. Towards the southern shore 

 of the Zuyder Zee the level of the polders sinks, and there, at more than 

 one point, even the Dutch engineers are unable to free the flat from 

 stagnant waters. But the transition from dry polder to wet polder, and 

 thence to marsh, is shown only by change of vegetatiou and the disap- 

 pearance of sheep from the meadows. The bird-life remaius the same." 



MOLLUSCA. 



Carnivorous Habits of Limax agrestis. — In a foot-note to Mr. F. V. 

 Theobald's paper, " Mollusca injurious to Farmers and Gardeners" (Zool. 

 1895, p. 208), the statement that Limax agrestis eats earthworms is ques- 

 tioned, and it is suggested that the slug had been mistaken for Testacella. 

 Mr. Theobald's authority for the statement was, presumably, the late 

 Dr. Gwyn Jefferys, who quotes Mr. J. F. Whiteaves, but does not say 

 whether the earthworms eaten were alive or dead (' British Conchology,' 

 vol. i. p. 134). I have occasionally seen Limax agrestis feeding upon dead 

 earthworms in my garden, and in the fields here. Mr. W. A. Gain 

 (' Journal of Conchology,' vol. vi. p. 361) found that in confinement it would 

 not touch earthworms, although mutton, raw and cooked, was eaten. The 

 dead bodies of other slugs are sometimes devoured. A few days ago 

 1 watched an individual of Limax agrestis feeding upon the crushed body 

 of an Avion subfuscus. Mr. H. W. Kew has seen it eating a dead Limax 

 ftavus (' Naturalist,' 1889, p. 107), and the Rev. A. H. Cooke states that 

 it has been known to feed upon the crushed remains of Arion ater (' Cam- 

 bridge Natural History— Molluscs,' p. 31). Perhaps the most remarkable 

 instance of its carnivorous habits is that recorded by Mr. Cooke (loc. cit.), 

 in which five examples were observed, each feeding upon a May-fly. — 

 Charles Oldham (Romiley, Cheshire). 



ANNELIDS. 



Large example of Trocheta subviridis in the Thames.— Early in 

 the spring of this year Mr. Latimer Clark, F.R.S., brought to the Natural 

 History Museum a large Leech which had been found in a canal opening 

 into the Thames, near Maidenhead. He wrote me that M the men who 

 found it said they knew Lampreys and Leeches well ; they were confident it 



