102 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



found at the end of March and beginning of April were naked and blind ; 

 those taken at the end of April were about three parts grown. The old 

 Squirrels, in case of danger, remove the young from the nest, or " drey " 

 to some hole in a tree, whither they carry them one by one in the mouth, 

 just like a cat carries her kitten. One of the prettiest sights in the world is 

 to see an old Squirrel teaching a young one to jump. Of this we may give 

 some account later, in a paper on the Squirrel which is in preparation. — Ed.] 



Wolves in France. — During the year 1890 it appears that 515 Wolves 

 were killed in France, at a cost to the Government of £1430. This is 

 slightly in excess of the number destroyed during 1889. The rewards 

 paid for the destruction of these animals varies from 30s. for a young Wolf 

 to £4 for an old one which has attacked and killed any person. 



BIRDS. 



The Great Frost in the S.W. — In East Somerset the departure of all 

 the Redwings, Fieldfares, and Peewits, at the end of November, and the 

 large flocks of Sky Larks which early in December were seen passing in a 

 continuous stream towards the south-west, indicated that the frost would be 

 both severe and protracted ; and so it proved. Deep snow covered the 

 ground for six weeks, and the frost — with a break of a day or so — lasted 

 for full two months. It is not to be wondered at that there was a great 

 destruction of bird-life. Among other birds we lost nearly all our Owls, to 

 our great regret. I myself saw four White Owls lying frozen upon the 

 snow, and heard, of others, and of some Brown Owls also having been 

 picked up dead. Several poor Owls are said to have flown into houses in 

 search of shelter. A great many of our Partridges succumbed. Rooks 

 were found lying beneath the trees, having dropped frozen from their 

 perches. Small birds of many kinds lay dead on the ground beneath the 

 hedges. Many Bitterns have been shot. I have heard of eleven ; two of 

 them close to the town of Frome at the beginning of the frost, one of them 

 turning up at such an unlikely spot as the town sewage-works. From 

 North Devon, Swans, White-fronted Geese, Canada Geese, Smews, one 

 Eider, besides a multitude of commoner wildfowl, are reported. The Canada 

 Geese had, of course, escaped; and the Swans were frozen-out tame birds, 

 thongh one is said to be a Whooper. Although Pembrokeshire escaped 

 the snow, the frost there was severe, and several 'flocks of Swaus were 

 noted — some of fifty and more. These were probably all Cygnus Bewichii, 

 the commonest of the Swans visiting Ireland in the winter, and not un- 

 seldom seen in the S.W. of England and Wales. One shot at St. David's, 

 and sent in to Haverfordwest, proved to be a young Bewick's Swan. An Eider 

 was obtained at Milford Haven. The coverts throughout Pembrokeshire 

 were full of Woodcocks. In some small woods of only twenty-five acres, 

 in the north of the county, forty were found by me one morning in mid- 



