NOTES AND QUERIES. 467 



nesting in the bank of the Liffey, about a mile above the Falls. We dug 

 out three or four of the burrows, and found most of them to contain eggs. 

 One of these nests consisted merely of a large handful of the dry, brown 

 scales from the expanding buds of the beech, without the admixture of any 

 other material. A quantity of these had been dropped about the entrance 

 of the hole, and strewed the entire bottom of the burrow, which was about 

 two feet deep. Why was this bird so eccentric in its choice of building 

 materials, while its neighbours all round had their nests constructed, as 

 usual, of straws and large white feathers ? I have examined very many 

 Sand Martins' nests, but never came across a similar instance. In the 

 lofty bridge which spans the glen over the waterfall we noticed numbers of 

 Swifts nesting in company with Jackdaws and Starlings in crevices in the 

 crown of the arch. In Kildavin Bridge, over the Slaney, near Newtownbarry, 

 Co. Wexford, I have seen Swifts flying in and out of their nests, which were 

 situated in holes under the arches, not more than six feet above the water. 

 The House Martin sometimes nests in the arches of bridges. — Allan 

 Ellison (Trinity College, Dublin). 



Supposed Occurrence of the Orphean Warbler in Devonshire. — On 

 April 16th last there was a great rush of Warblers arriving all along the 

 South Coast, — Willow Warblers, Blackcaps (males), and Wheatears, — and 

 whilst watching a Blackcap feeding on ivy berries in my garden, at 10, 

 Claremont Terrace, Exmouth, where I was then residing, another bird, 

 with a jet-black head, but pure white throat and under parts, and with a 

 slender beak, longer and larger in proportion than in the Blackcap, settled 

 on a twig quite close to it, and I was able to compare the two birds. The 

 sun was shining very brightly at the time, and I did not notice the white 

 tail-feathers. It was certainly smaller than the Blackcap, but nevertheless 

 I have little doubt that it was a male Orphean Warbler. — W. S. M. 

 D 'Urban (Moorlands, Exmouth). 



mollusca. 

 Observations on Vitrina pellucida. — We have in this country a single 

 representative of a large and well-distributed genus of land molluscs known 

 as Vitrina (Draparnaud), viz., V. pellucida (Miiller), which forms the subject 

 of this communication. Towards the end of summer or the beginning of 

 autumn little clusters of eggs may be found secreted under decaying leaves, 

 logs of wood, &c. These hatch out in about twenty-eight or thirty days, 

 the animal attaining maturity in about four months. The shell is very 

 thin and fragile, transparent, and of a delicate green colour, faintly striate 

 in the line of growth and spirally; of 3 — 4 whorls; the body whorl being 

 very large, the spire short, apex obtuse, and no umbilicus. The animal is 

 of a light pinkish grey, slightly transparent, mantle finely spotted with 

 black, tentacles ashy grey, foot yellowish. This interesting mollusc is 



