46 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



to the proprietor of the soil, the Museum authorities have had 

 the skin of the present specimen valued by a furrier, who 

 estimated it at 15 crowns; the castoreum, submitted to an 

 apothecary, was judged, according to its weight, to be worth 

 about 14 crowns. The skin might have fetched a slightly higher 

 price at another season of the year, but can hardly be worth 

 more. We thus find that a full-grown Beaver cannot be valued 

 at much more than about 30 crowns. Still this is such a large 

 sum that one should advise the landowners to protect these 

 animals, as one of the resources of their farms, and by means of 

 which a fair revenue can be made in bad times. 



The Beaver is not really a noxious animal, except where it 

 lives in large numbers. Then it is that the trees suffer ; but, as 

 it is of sedentary habits, it will not be difficult to restrict it 

 within reasonable limits. 



NOTES on the ORNITHOLOGY of NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 



By the Right Hon. Lord Lilford, F.L.S. 



I continue my notes from the end of 1893 (Zool. 1894, 



p. 221):— 



January, 1894. 



2nd. I received a Mealy Redpoll, "in the flesh," from Mr. W. 

 Tomalin, of Northampton, who informed me that it had been 

 taken by a birdcatcher near Roade a few days previously. Very 

 few occurrences of this species in Northamptonshire have hitherto 

 come to my knowledge. 



6th. Mr. Walter Stopford informed me that he noticed nine 

 Dabchicks diving in a small u wake" in the ice on our river near 

 Islip — 25 degrees of frost. 



10th. A fine old male Pochard was brought to me, killed to-day 

 near Tichmarsh Mill. 



11th. Our schoolmaster reported to me that a pair of Green 

 Woodpeckers had for some days been actively engaged in pulling 

 out the reeds with which the school-house is thatched over* 



13th. I was informed of the passage over Pilton, on 9th inst., 

 of forty-two Wild Geese. 



24th. I received from Mr. F. B. Simpson a stuffed specimen 



