Reptiles. 121 



of 1843, a fine young cock, of what is generally termed here, the Spanish breed, a ve- 

 ry large variety, wholly black, with extremely large wattles, and the ears white and 

 nearly as large as a shilling. He succeeded in rearing it to its full growth ; being a 

 very fine bird, a tradesman of the town induced him to sell it, and this season, since 

 it has been in his possession, it has changed to as pure a white as it was before a black. 

 — James Bladon ; Pont-y-Pool. 



Note on a prolific Buck. Mrs. Braithwaite, of the Old Phoenix Inn, at Morpeth, 

 has in her possession a duck, which has laid this season the extraordinary number of 

 one hundred and eighty eggs. During the first seventy days she produced as many 

 eggs ; then missed one day ; and for thirty following days laid every day. Fifty-seven 

 young ducks may be seen running about, the offspring of this extraordinary bird, and 

 twice that number more may probably be reared in the course of the summer. — Ber- 

 wick Advertiser. 



Note on the capture of a Kitthvake near Pontypool. On the morning of the 23rd of 

 August, a young individual of this species, nearly full grown, was caught by the hand 

 on the top of a wall near this town. It made hardly any resistance, seeming to be 

 completely exhausted ; and although it was taken alive, it died in the evening of the 

 same day. It is rather strange what could have induced it to wander so far from its 

 usual habitation ; the place where it was caught being about fourteen or fifteen miles 

 from the shores of the Bristol Channel, and consequently much more from any cliffs 

 or rocky coast, which it is generally stated to prefer : the whole coast of this county 

 being low and marshy, and of the same description for several miles inland. — James 

 Bladon ; Pont-y-pool, Sept. 9, 1844. 



Note on the British specimens of the Edible Frog. I have received, through the 

 kindness of F. Bond, Esq., some specimens of frogs from Foulmire, in Cambridge- 

 shire, which I am enabled to designate positively as the true Rana esculenta. I hap- 

 pen, at the present moment, to have a favourabble opportunity of comparing them with 

 French specimens, as I have about forty living in my possession, which were lately 

 brought to me from France. The figure at p. 104, in my work on British Reptiles, is 

 an accurate representation of several of the individuals from Foulmire, excepting that 

 the skin is represented as smooth, instead of being glandulous, and the distinct longi- 

 tudinal line of glands on each side of the back is also omitted. The Rana esculenta 

 may be at once distinguished from R. temporaria [the common frog of Britain], by 

 the absence of the large, distinct, black mark, which in the latter species occupies the 

 space extending from the eye to the shoulder, and by the existence in the former, 

 of a light line running the whole length of the middle of the back, and of distinct, 

 rounded, black spots, dispersed over the body. In R. esculenta the vocal sacs are very 

 distinct, globular, and large, standing out prominently when the animal croaks, but 

 they do not exist in R. temporaria ; and the palatine, or rather vomerine teeth, are in 

 the latter placed rather farther back than in the other species. I observe also, in R. 

 esculenta, a pair of lumbar glands, which, although less conspicuous, occupv the same 

 position as the more prominent ones in the genus Pleurodema of Tchudi. There is a 

 remarkable difference in the croaking of our two species — that of R. esculenta being 

 so loud and shrill, as to have obtained for these frogs the name of " Cambridgeshire 

 nightingales," and " Whaddon organs ! " This is accounted for by the construction 



