Reptiles. 2395 



Dorsetshire. — This reptile is often met with in Dorsetshire throughout the year, on fine 

 sunny days, basking on banks exposed to the sun. On the 9th of January, 1849, I 

 killed one on a grass drive in Milton Park Coppice. The thermometer on that day 

 stood at 50° in the shade ; the morning fine, with sunshine ; the afternoon turned out 

 wet. On the 1st of February I met with one which had just been killed by the 

 blacksmith on a private grass-walk leading from the Abbey to the village : it mea- 

 sured nine inches in length : I did not girth it. Again, on the 18th of December, 

 1847, while my men were engaged in taking down an old brick wall, close to the pri- 

 vate walk above alluded to, in a crevice of this wall were found seven full-grown ones 

 and five small or young ones : when taken up and laid on the turf close by, they im- 

 mediately began — as Paddy would say — to take " leg bail ; " but they were all killed. 

 I find, by my note-book, that the thermometer on that day stood at 48°. On the 24th 

 of the same month, and same year, I killed another, not twenty yards from where the 

 old wall formerly stood : this one was basking in the sun : the thermometer on that 

 day stood at 52°. From the above it appears that 50° of heat, with sunshine, is suffi- 

 cient to awaken this agile creature. I generally meet with them under large stones 

 in our woods ; also under old decayed stumps of trees. Some future day I will for- 

 ward an account of vipers, snakes, &c, which are abundant in our woods. — J. 

 Mcintosh; Milton Abbey, near Blandford, Dorset, February 7, 1849. 



The Sea-Serpent ? — " A snake (my friend Telford received a drawing of it) has 

 been found thrown on the Orkney Isles, a sea-snake with a mane like a horse, 4 feet 

 thick and 55 feet long : this is seriously true. Malcolm Laing, the historian, saw it, 

 and sent a drawing of it to my friend." — ' Life and Letters of Campbell.' 



Probability of the present existence of Enaliosaurians. — In reference to the sea- 

 serpent a correspondent writes thus : " M. Agassiz said it would be in precise con- 

 formity with analogy that such an animal should exist in our [the American] seas, as 

 he has found numerous instances in which the fossil forms of the old world were re- 

 presented by living types in the new. He instanced the gar-pike of the western rivers, 

 and said he had found several instances, in his recent visit to Lake Superior, where 

 he had detected several fishes belonging to genera now extinct in Europe." In con- 

 nexion with the extraordinary discovery announced in last number (Zool. 2356) of a 

 huge marine animal having the general figure of an alligator with the flappers of a 

 turtle, the opinion of Professor Agassiz becomes of great interest. — Edward Newman. 



Note on the Natterjack (Bufo calamita). — The Bufo calamita is very common 

 around Liege, in the small pools and ditches along the railway leading towards Ver- 

 viers. It is found in great numbers in the pond of the Botanic Garden at Verviers, 

 the water of which is tepid and comes down from the collieries. It breeds much later 

 than the common toad (Bufo vulgaris), spawning at the end of May or beginning of 

 June. During the greater part of the day they lie hid in holes in the banks or under 

 stones ; but on the approach of night they creep out of their hiding-places and take 

 to the water, where they croak incessantly : their croaking is peculiar, and more re- 

 sembles that of the tree frog (Hyla arborea) than that of the common toad : when a 

 great number are croaking together the effect is very unpleasant : the sound may be 

 heard at a great distance : they do not croak as the common frog does, by repeated 

 notes, but go on nearly indefinitely in two or three tones, the sound produced being 

 something like the churring of the mole-cricket. — Julian Deby ; St. Josset-en-Norde 

 pres Bruxelles, January 13, 1849. 



A Young Sea-Serpent. — On Friday, while some fishermen belonging to Usan were 

 at the out-sea fishing, they drew up what appeared to them a young sea-serpent, and 



