NOTES AND QUERIES. 349 



British Distribution of the Whiskered Bat (Myotis mystacinus). — 

 The Whiskered Bat probably occurs in every county of England and 

 Wales, but I possess no records from the following, viz. Cornwall, 

 Hereford, Leicester, Eutland, Hertford, Bedford, Huntingdon, Not- 

 tingham, Montgomery, Radnor, Brecknock, Cardigan, Pembroke, 

 Carmarthen, Glamorgan, Monmouth, Anglesea, and Flint. I should 

 be extremely grateful to any naturalist who can fill up any of 

 the gaps. — G. E. H. Babrett-Hamilton (Kilmanock, Arthurstown, 

 Ireland). 



A V E S . 



Does the Blackbird Eat Snails ? — I agree with Mr. Meiklejohn 

 (ante, p. 312) that the statement that the Blackbird eats snails has pro- 

 bably been made on the supposition that because the Song-Thrush eats 

 snails therefore the Blackbird must do so. And I must own that at one 

 time I believed and stated (being carried with the tide) that the Black- 

 bird eats snails. But I do not now believe that it does so habitually, 

 if at all. Whenever, having heard a snail being hammered, I have 

 been able to see the bird, it has proved to be a Thrush, and I do not 

 remember having seen a Blackbird hammer a snail. In my garden, 

 as far as I can see, Blackbirds live on fruit from the time the first 

 currants and raspberries ripen, and go on steadily with the plums, 

 pears, &c. The Thrushes take, comparatively speaking, little fruit, 

 and I think only bush fruit and cherries. Later in the summer a few 

 remain in the garden and hammer the snails — probably those with 

 very late young — but most of them go off to the turnip and bean fields. 

 At the end of August hardly a straggler is to be seen here. But the 

 Blackbirds are here in numbers all August, and plenty stay later if it 

 is a good fruit year, and do an enormous amount of damage to the 

 more valuable kinds of fruit. We must no longer mix up " Blackbirds 

 and Thrushes," either in respect of the good or the harm they do. 

 Their characters, from the gardener's point of view, are like their 

 colours — that of one is merely spotted, but the other is very black. — 

 0. V. Aplin. 



Mr. Meiklejohn (ante, p. 312) asks the above question, and appears 

 to doubt the authority of certain authors, whom he quotes, viz. Yarrell, 

 Howard Saunders, and others, who have stated that Blackbirds do eat 

 snails. We must of course admit that these authorities can scarcely 

 have made this statement without having had instances brought to 

 their notice to justify it, but I must say that after a great many years 

 of constant opportunities of observing the habits of both Thrushes and 



