NOTES AND QUERIES. 395 



touched in the daytime. So wild and untameable were they that on going 

 near the cage they would rush about and never rest till we went away. 

 On one occasion the steward on visiting the summer-house one evening 

 and when standing under the eave of the thatch, and near to the branch 

 of an oak tree which extended close to the roof, — and which was the only 

 way by which they could get on the house, — caught one when jumping off 

 the roof to the tree, and, although severely bitten and scratched, held him 

 till he took him to the house and put him into the cage with the others, 

 having half-a-mile to walk with him, no other person being present. By 

 degrees they all made their escape by gnawing away the boards of the coop. 

 The last Marten that was taken at Ballyarthur was in 1872, when one was 

 caught in a rabbit-trap during the winter of that year. I have no doubt 

 there are Martens still in that locality. All those taken had the yellow 

 throat and breast, and appeared to be fully grown. — H. L. Bayly 

 (Portland House, Ryde, Isle of Wight). 



Barbastelle in Huntingdonshire. — Another specimen of the Bar- 

 bastelle, Synotus barbastellus (see p. 187), was sent to me, alive, by Lady 

 Ethel Wickham, on Sept. 4th. I find that this animal was captured in a 

 cottage at Elton, and given to Lady Ethel for me by Mr. John Crisp, of 

 Warmington. The village of Elton is in Huntingdon, though I believe 

 that the boundary between that county and Northamptonshire runs within 

 a few hundred yards of the cottage in which this bat was taken. I have 

 therefore a scruple about claiming it as a Northamptonshire specimen. 

 The individual in question was a female, and had a great deal of grey hair 

 on the back and under-surface of the body. The former of these two 

 animals alluded to above was of an almost uniform black-brown. — Lilford 

 (Lilford Hall, Oundle). 



BIRDS. 



Osprey in Bedfordshire.— On May 18th I visited Southill Pool, the 

 only regular nesting haunt of the Great-crested Grebe in Bedfordshire, a 

 pair of which, I am pleased to say, at that date, had a nest containing four 

 eggs, which were eventually hatched, and the young reared. This pool I 

 found was haunted by an Osprey, which stayed several hours in my com- 

 pany, searching for food, occasionally plunging into the water, but unfortu- 

 nately at no time successfully. Now and again it rested on the over- 

 hanging trees surrounding the pool, sometimes amongst the thick green 

 foliage, and at other times on some dead branch, from which a good look-out 

 was easy. Nevertheless, the bird did not seem at all wild whilst on the 

 wing. Twice it came within gunshot whilst I was standing in the open, 

 and each time made one's blood boil (as the saying has it) to think of the 

 keeper in the immediate background, to whom all pleading was in vain, 

 and the Wild Birds Protection Act no intimidation. It is to be hoped, 



