NOTES AND QUERIES. 309 



as two eggs were bad, and an owlet disappeared when only about two 

 days old. A Stock-Dove had two eggs in a box on March 4th, which 

 is our earliest record for this species. There were a pair of young ones 

 on the 17th, but a few days later they had been taken by some marauder, 

 probably a Eat. The first nest of the Nuthatch was a failure, as an 

 egg was broken by a piece of clay falling into the box, and the bird 

 deserted the remaining six. These were taken, and she returned later 

 on, bringing off a brood of five — a welcome addition to our Nuthatch 

 population. Last year we had about a dozen nests of Tree- Sparrow 

 in the boxes, but tins year only one, and the only explanation seems to 

 be that the birds were killed off during the hard weather. We had 

 one House-Sparrow's nest in a box in the kitchen-garden, which, it is 

 hardly necessary to add, was destroyed. — Julian G. Tuck (Tostock 

 Rectory, Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk). 



Notes on Manx Sea-Birds. — At the time of the publication of my 

 ' Birds of the Isle of Man,' I was aware of one Manx colony only of the 

 Kittiwake, but during this summer Mr. F. S. Graves and myself were 

 told by a Port St. Mary boatman that " Pirraghs " nested at another 

 spot near the south end of the island, and later I was able to locate the 

 colony — perhaps fifty pairs — in a cavernous recess among high preci- 

 pices. The nests are, as usual, comparatively low down on the cliffs, 

 many Guillemots on the ledges near, and numbers of Puffins on the 

 green brows above. There has been a great extension of the breeding 

 range of the Puffin on this southern coast within the last few years ; 

 whereas it was formerly nearly confined, on the main island, to the top 

 of the cliffs adjoining the Calf Sound, it now swarms in continuous 

 colonies for more than a mile northward past the " Sugarloaf," and the 

 place called "The Chasms."— P. G. Ralfe (Isle of Man). 



MOLLUSC A. 



Carnivorous Propensities of a Slug. — Referring to the note on this 

 subject (ante, p. 277), the following may be of interest to your corre- 

 spondent, Mr. Gordon Dalgliesh : — Mr. W. A. Gain, writing in the 

 'British Naturalist,' November, 1891, p. 225, speaking of Avion ater, 

 says : " These Slugs attack their weaker brethren, gnawing the skin, 

 and not unfrequently devouring the greater part of the victim " ; and 

 again, September, 1891, p. 194, ibid., he says : " Our two species of 

 Amalia are exceedingly hardy, very voracious, and nearly omnivorous." 

 — Frank A. Arnold (48, Martell Road, West Dulwich, S.E.). 



