NOTES AND QUERIES. 357 



character as those extending along the Lancashire coast from Liver- 

 pool to the mouth of the Eibble, and it is a generally accepted theory 

 that the river Mersey, within geologically recent times, used to empty 

 itself into the sea considerably to the west of its present mouth ; so 

 that at one time the Wallasey coast -line was north of the river. The 

 spread of the suburban residential districts round Liverpool, the 

 growth of seaside resorts such as Hoylake and West Kirby, and the 

 formation of golf-links all along the coast have destroyed a large por- 

 tion of these sand-hills ; but there are considerable stretches in both 

 counties where the Lizard may still exist. The Sand Lizard is not 

 known in Cumberland or Westmoreland, and, although many miles of 

 the North Wales coast, from the mouth of the Dee westward, are, or 

 were, similar in character to the Cheshire shores, I know of no record of 

 the Sand-Lizard from the Principality. The evidence therefore shows 

 that L. agilis, generally considered to be only an inhabitant of some of 

 the southern counties, occurs in the north, on a strip of sand-hills 

 bordering the Irish Sea, from the mouth of the Kibble to the outskirts 

 of Liverpool, and, unless Byerley's and Gregson's specimens were 

 incorrectly localized, on the Cheshire shore from West Kirby to New 

 Brighton. Possibly some of the readers of ' The Zoologist' may be 

 able to give information about existing specimens, or of recently 

 captured examples of the Sand-Lizard in Cheshire. — T. A. Coward 

 (Bowdon, Cheshire). 



IN SECT A. 



A Dipterous Parasite in the Plumage of Birds. — I enclose herewith 

 some flies which I obtained from among the plumage of a Blackbird 

 caught in a net protecting raspberries on Aug. 5th last atBalcombe, in 

 Sussex. I should be interested to know the name of the fly, and also 

 if its habit of infesting the plumage of Blackbirds and Song-Thrushes 

 is known. — Alfred T. Comber (3, Worcester Terrace, Eeigate, Surreyi. 



[This fly has been identified as Ornitliomyia avicularia by Mr. E. 

 E. Austen, who has added the following note. — Ed.] 



Ornithomyia avicularia, Linn. — This fly, a near ally of the so-called 

 " Forest Fly " (Hippobosca equina, Linn.), which is exceedingly trouble- 

 some to Horses and Cattle in the New Forest, and of the Deer-Fly 

 {Lipoptena cervi, Linn.), a parasite of the Koe- and Red-Deer, appears 

 to occur indiscriminately in the plumage of most wild birds. The 

 series in the collection of the British Museum includes examples from 

 the Thrush, Eed-backed Shrike, Wheatear, Whitethroat, Starling, 

 Pheasant, Partridge, Red Grouse, Ryper (in N.W. Norway), Blackcock, 



