NOTES AND QUERIES. 191 



I quite agree with you regarding the period of the Cuckoo's arrival. 

 The earliest record I have is April 16th. I was talking lately to an old 

 lady who is 82 years of age, and has lived here in the park for upwards of 

 fifty years. Her husband was gamekeeper at Levens in the time of the late 

 Hon. Mrs. Howard. During all those years she never saw or heard a Cuckoo 

 in March. She told me that there was an old saying that the " Cuckoo 

 never comes to the bare thorn." Strange to say I once shot a young 

 Cuckoo as late as the 3rd of October. — J. Hall (Head Gamekeeper to 

 Capt. Bagot, Levens Park, Milnthorpe). 



Norfolk Notes ; Corrigenda. — I shall be glad if you will make the 

 following correction in my notes under this heading: — For " my duck-pond 

 was visited by a Shoveller " read " the ducks on my pond were increased 

 by the addition of a Shovoller." — J. H. Gukney (Keswick, Norwich). 



EEPTILIA. 



The size of British Newts. — In an article on this subject (p. 145), 

 Mr. Boulenger alludes to his having captured sixty-six specimens in half-an- 

 hour in some puddles. A description of the locality, which is well known 

 to me, may be of interest. It was originally an extensive gravel-pit, which 

 subsequently became a small lake. In this, no doubt, the Newts bred and 

 thrived undisturbed for a number of years ; their inaccessibility and seclusion, 

 as also the large number Mr. Boulenger had to select from, will probably 

 account for the fineness of the specimens mentioned. Last year the pit 

 was filled in, and when the Newts once more resorted to their breeding- 

 haunts they found but a few small pools, which proved little better than a 

 death-trap for them. The whole of the specimens obtained were from two 

 puddles, the combined superficial area of which did not exceed eight square 

 yards. I again visited the spot on April 4th, and found numbers of dead 

 Newts on the ground, while the majority of the remainder were blind and 

 diseased, through the partial drying up of the water. — Edward Dodson 

 (Taxidermist, Spring Grove, Hampton). 



Palmated Newt at Scarborough.— On April 2nd I had the pleasure 

 of identifying several specimens of the Palmated Newt, M. palmipes, which 

 had been taken, with Common and Great Crested Newts, in a pond near 

 Scarborough. The specimens included two males and two females, whilst 

 many others were observed by their captor, Mr. Oxley Grabham. I believe 

 I am correct in saying that this is the first record of this amphibian in the 

 Scarborough district, although it has been reported from Whitby, twenty 

 miles further north. — Wm. J. Clarke (44, Huntriss Row, Scarborough). 



Palmated Newt in Herefordshire.— About the beginning of April 

 last I obtained several of this species, together with the two commoner 

 kinds, from a small pond in Edoin Woods, near Bromyard. So far as 



