382 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of these pests is to place a white cloth on the ground and roughly 

 shake the shrubs, when the much- surprised larva? will fall off, 

 and are then easily despatched. I have fed tame Natterjack 

 Toads with this caterpillar, upon which they eagerly prey, the 

 contortions of the caterpillar being curiously overcome by the 

 reptile using its fore feet as hands. I can never watch the 

 comical twinkle in the Toad's eye as the squirming larva tickles 

 him without being amused. 



I observed my first Sand-Martin on May 12th. I did not 

 consider this species quite so locally abundant as in some other 

 years. 



During May and June the Nightjars appeared to be some- 

 what numerous, the bracken-covered uplands above the valley 

 of the Waveney being well suited to their habits. One or more 

 came nightly to " churn" in a tall old elm at the farm, making 

 delightful music between the times of their onslaughts upon the 

 night-loving insects. The V-shaped flight makes the bird look 

 excessively uncanny in the gloaming. 



A pair of Kingfishers nested in a red-sandy corner near the 

 ' Moorhen II.' The tunnel seems to have been bored by the birds 

 themselves, for no Cone}', Stoat, or Eat would have chosen such an 

 exposed and cliff-like location ; and the bore was so small that my 

 arm stuck when half-way up. The floor of the tunnel was filthy 

 black, with strong-smelling moisture, large blow-flies being 

 attracted to it. It was odd to see these insects gyrating around 

 and crawling well into the shadow to sip at this obnoxious matter. 

 The young birds kept up a queer, scissor-wheel kind of churning 

 noise, which stopped at the least unfamiliar sound from without, 

 even the hum of a venturesome fly causing a break in it. One 

 old bird cunningly remained inside all the time I stood at the 

 entrance, but as soon as I had shifted my position a trifle, out 

 she came ; and a short while after her mate came home with a 

 small Roach in his mandibles ; with it he passed through the 

 entrance as neatly and as swiftly as a Swallow dashes through 

 a hole in a marsh-mill window-pane. 



One might have thought the brightly-plumaged birds had an 

 eye for beauty when choosing this site — a few yellow furze-sprays 

 were dependent from above, with several wild flowers littering 

 the broken soil at the cliff-base, around which flitted a Tortoise- 



