NOTES AND QUEKIES. 357 



bred for several years in a precipitous spot just outside the town limits on 

 the north. " Grey-backs " are occasionally to be seen on the sands, and are 

 common, and breed on all the rocky parts of our coast. Occasionally one 

 or two Lapwings are to be met with on the sands at early morning ; but 

 this bird is not at all common in this neighbourhood. There are daily a 

 few Shags in the bay, and two nesting-places near the pier (one marking 

 a rock, the other the point of a small jetty) are frequently occupied by them ; 

 another roosting-place is the battle rnented wall of the ' Tower of Refuge,' 

 where I have seen ten ortwelve together at one time. — P. Ralfe (4, Queen's 

 Terrace, Douglas, Isle of Man). 



Little Bittern in Derbyshire. — In the spring of 1889, — I cannot 

 ascertain the actual date, but believe it was in April, — a Little Bittern, 

 a male in good plumage, was obtained on one of Mr. W. Burkitt's trout- 

 ponds at Langwith, in Derbyshire, being shot by his keeper, Unwin. 

 I believe this capture has not been recorded. — J. T. Teistkam Valentine 

 (1, Sheffield Gardens, Kensington). 



Occurrence of the Hobby on the Irish Coast. — Mr. James Byrne, of 

 the Lucifer Shoals lightship, off the coast of Wexford, has forwarded to me 

 the skin of a Hobby, Falco subbuteo. It rested on the mast-head on 

 May 23rd, and died on the 24th. Mr. Williams has made a capital 

 specimen of the skin. According to Mr. A. G. More 's 'List of Irish 

 Birds ' (2nd ed. 1890, p. 6), only seven examples of this bird are recorded 

 to have occurred in Ireland. — Richard M. Barrington (Fassaroe, Bray, 

 Co. Wicklow). [See < Zoologist,' 1877, p. 471; 1883, p. 122.— Ed.] 



AMPHIBIANS. 



The Defensive Nature of the Amphibian Integument. — At various 

 times I have kept about seventy Ringed Snakes, C.natrix, in confinement, 

 and of these only three, or at most four, ever ate a toad. Under pressure 

 of hunger a Snake ate a small toad about the middle of September. The 

 reptile died a few days after, and there was a greenish mark near its 

 middle, which proved, on dissection, to have been caused by the partially 

 digested body of the toad. This was of the same colour, and had tinted all 

 the tissues between itself and the cuticle. A little Snake, only a few 

 months old, ate without ill effects, but after some refusals, a large number 

 of toads newly emerged from the tadpole state. Only one of all my Snakes 

 would ever eat, though many attacked the Great Water Newt, Triton 

 cristatus. The other Snakes always released this Newt directly it began 

 to struggle; but other newts, and even sticklebacks, were eaten with 

 avidity. — Charles A. Witchell (Stroud). 



Bufo calamita near Valentia Harbour.— During a recent visit to 

 Kerry, I found some specimens of the Natterjack Toad, Bufo calamita, not 

 far from Valentia Harbour, near the small village of Castlequin. Hitherto 



