Quadrupeds — Birds — Fishes. 4913 



Deer feeding on the Fruit of the Horse-Chestnut. — It is said that the Turks grind 

 (or perhaps crush) the fruit of the horse-chestnut, and give it to horses to improve 

 their wind, whence the name Aorse-chestnut. In this country these nuts are generally 

 deemed useless, and I was not aware they were eaten by any animals till I had ocular 

 demonstration of the fact. Many years ago I was waiting in the churchyard within a 

 nobleman's park, when several deer came up to a horse-chestnut tree not many yards 

 distant from me, and not only picked up the nuts from the ground, but also gathered 

 those on the lower twigs. Moreover, one buck certainly, perhaps more (I do not now 

 recollect the precise number) thrust his horns into the tree, and rattled the boughs 

 about till he had shaken down some of the fruit otherwise beyond his reach. Hard as 

 the nuts are, the deer champed them up with little apparent difficulty, and decidedly 

 as if they were a treat. — Arthur Hussey ; Rottingdean, October, 1855. 



Occurrence of the Creamcoloured Courser on Salisbury Plain. — I have just 

 received a very rare bird to stuff for Mr. Walter Langton, who shot it on East Down, 

 Salisbury Plain, on the 2nd of this month (October) : it is the creamcoloured courser 

 (Cursorius isabellinus). Mr. Langton was following a wild covey of birds which had 

 pitched on the open down, when his pointers stood at this bird : it got up, flew about 

 a hundred yards, and pitched again : he kept it in sight and shot it on the ground. 

 Mr. Yarrell had the bird to examine in the flesh; he was much pleased with it, and 

 will figure the breast-bone in a Supplement to the ' History of British Birds,' which 

 he is now preparing. — James Gardiner; 426, Oxford Street, October 30, 1855. 



Note on the Common Night Heron. — It has been remarked that in very old birds 

 of this species the number of occipital plumes increase. The usual number seldom 

 exceeds three, and I have observed this number in several examples where the state of 

 plumage exhibited perfect maturity. It is, however, very probable that, without 

 depending either upon age or sex, the number of plumes now and then exceed three ; 

 I have heard of one specimen, which came under the notice of Mr. Vingoe, having 

 six. Yesterday I examined a specimen, killed a few years since in the Lizard 

 district, at the same time and in the same locality that afforded me a very beautiful 

 male specimen in perfect plumage, which had three well-defined snow-white plumes. 

 The example now under notice is scarcely so bright in plumage as my bird, but quite 

 adult; but the number of plumes that adorn the head is no less than ten; one or two 

 of them are rather shorter than the rest, but differing iu no other particular. — Edward 

 Hearle Rodd ; Penzance, October 27, 1855. 



Occurrence of a supposed new Wrasse and other Fishes in Swanage Bay. — Whilst 

 dredging the other day in Swanage Bay I took a wrasse, a description of which 

 I enclose, in hopes that some of your readers may be able to tell whether it is a new 

 species or only a variety of Labrus Comber (Yarrell, vol. i. p. 323) or of Labrus 

 Donovani (Yarrell, vol. i. p. 315). It was of a slender form, bright olive-green on the 

 back and head, lighter on the sides, and silvery on the lower part of head and belly; 

 a silver streak runs from the superior edge of the orbit to the tail, beneath and fol- 

 lowing the lateral line ; the fins shaded and tipped with orange. Length 2| inches. 

 XIII. 3 D 



