422 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the woods outside showed that food was plentiful enough there, but in the 

 tunnels there were not even fungi on which the Mice could feed, and the 

 drippings from the caudles of casual trippers did not seem sufficient to 

 account for their presence. Besides two moths, Gonoptera libatrix and 

 Scotosia dubitata, which are fairly abundant, a gnat (Culex), two flies 

 (Blepharoptera serrata and Borborus niger), and possibly other insects, 

 hybernate in countless numbers on the roofs and walls of the tunnels. 

 That the Mice frequent the place in order to feed upon the insects was 

 clear from an examination of the stomachs of several which I trapped. 

 Wings and empty skins of the gnat and flies, as well as legs of the moths, 

 were easily identified in their half-digested contents. In some cases vege- 

 table matter was present in addition, and, as the footprints were present 

 from end to end of the tunnels, it appears that the Mice obtain part of their 

 food in the woods ; whilst the burrows in the tunnels themselves seem to 

 indicate that they actually live in their recesses for the time being, and do 

 not merely visit them to prey upon the insects they find there. Even in 

 June there are flies in thousands on the walls of the tunnels, but during 

 the summer months I have failed to trap any Mice, nor are there then any 

 fresh tracks to be seen iu the sand. — Charles Oldham (Alderley Edge). 



AVES. 

 Mistle-Thrush laying twice in the same Nest. — Last season I 

 obtained a clutch of four eggs belongiug to Turdus viscivorus from a nest 

 near Bath. On visiting it again a short time afterwards — I think at about 

 a week's interval — I found the bird had laid in the same nest a second 

 time, laying two or three eggs. I was unaware that the Mistle-Thrush 

 would return to its robbed nest, and should be interested to hear if others 

 have met with similar instances. It is quite possible another pair of 

 Mistle-Thrushes may have appropriated the vacant nest. — Charles B. 

 Horsbrugh (Marlock, Somerset). 



The Bearded Titmouse : a Correction. — In the article on the Bearded 

 Titmouse (Panurus biarmicus), ante, p. 359, Mr. Gurney says " John Ray 

 published the first notice and description of this family of birds in 1674 (a 

 scarce book.)" May I point out that in a much earlier work (now before 

 me in my library), by Conrad Gesner " De Avibus," 1575, there are illustra- 

 tions given of all the known Tits, with full descriptions. Seven are por- 

 trayed. The woodcuts are very quaint, and the volume is in folio, and in 

 Latin. I expect Ray knew this book well, for he wrote and published his 

 work just one hundred years later than Gesner. — E. L. J. Ridsdale (The 

 Dene, Rottiugdean, near Brighton). 



The Bearded Tit and other Birds in Norfolk.— I have just read Mr. 



