EDITOEIAL GLEANINGS. 383 



Mr. R. J. Ussher has recently discovered bones of the Great Auk in 

 Co. Waterford. In a communication to the 'Irish Naturalist,' Mr. Ussher 

 states he has investigated some kitchen-middens on the Waterford coast, 

 from which he not only obtained bones or horns of Ox, Goat, Horse, Pig, 

 Red-deer, and domestic Fowl, but also an abundance of shells of Oysters, 

 Cockles, Mussels, and Limpets, with many pot-boilers or burned stones. 

 But the great find consisted of some birds' bones, which were submitted to 

 Prof. Newton, who examined them with the great assistance of Dr. Gadow. 

 Prof. Newton, writing to Mr. Ussher, observes: — "I congratulate you on 

 possessing remains of at least two Great Auks, for you will notice that the 

 two coracoids are of the same side. . . . Read in the light of these relics, 

 Mr. Davis's famous bird of 1834 must have been visiting the home of its 

 forefathers." 



On a subsequent visit Mr. Ussher again found bones, which Dr. Gadow 

 determined as containing a humerus, tibia, and metatarsus of Great Auk. 

 Remains of this bird have already been recorded from Co. Antrim, and the 

 present discovery shows that the range of the Great Auk extended in 

 Ireland nearly as far south as 52° N. latitude. 



In the Bulletin de la Soc. Zool. de France, Mai-Juin, 1897, Mons. Ch. 

 van Kemper gives details of colour variation, hybridity, and "anomalies" 

 in birds and mammals in his own collection. Ornithologists will find 

 much to interest them in the records of the colour variation of the thirty- 

 seven birds enumerated, while several British varieties will be seen to have 

 found a home in this collection. 



Canon Ingram, rector of St. Margaret, Lothbury, writing to the ' City 

 Press ' in July, says : — " A pair of Wood-Pigeons have built their nest in 

 one of the trees in the little garden-churchyard in front of my rectory 

 house in Ironmonger Lane, and the young birds were hatched last Thursday. 

 The tree is within a hundred yards of historic Cheapside, the busiest 

 thoroughfare probably in London ; at about the same distance from the 

 Bank of England ; and within, I suppose, two hundred yards as the 

 crow flies of the Mansion House. I should imagine that there is no 

 previous record in the modern history of London of a pair of wild birds 

 building their nest and rearing their young so near the very heart of 

 the City." 



• The House Sparrow,' Passer domesticiis, is the title of a leaflet, written 

 by Miss Ormerod and Mr. Tegetmeier, which has just appeared. In it is 

 condensed much of the authentic information which has been given by 



