6238 



Tta dial a — Birds. 



and the animal soon dies. Saxicava possesses limited powers of 

 locomotion. 



Pholades are best preserved unburied, and will live very well, 

 though never found so naturally ; but if kept in the same vessel with 

 crabs or other voracious animals, the latter soon destroy them. They 

 cannot move. The siphons vary in shape ; their adventitious 

 covering falls off in confinement, and they become white. Most 

 bivalves live naturally in a vertical position, and when Saxicava and 

 Pholas are kept unburied and horizontal they curve their siphons 

 with the orifices upwards. The foot can be a little exserted and 

 moved. It seems that none of the bivalves that bore in rock or other 

 hard substances can form a new dwelling if removed. 



Ascidia? and Cynthise can be preserved in ordinary aquaria, but the 

 former require to be kept clean and free from Confervse, and they 

 soon die if they get foul. Cynthiae are not injured by dirt. 



Charles Bretherton. 



47, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, 

 August 23, 1858. 



Occurrence of Actinia gemmacea at Weymouth. — It may be interesting to the 

 readers of the ' Zoologist ' to know that I obtain Actinia gemmacea (Haliaetis gemmacea, 

 mihi., in 'Zoological Proceediogs '), on this coast ; they are not in very large numbers, 

 and are of a lovely colour, far brighter than the Devonshire specimens. My man 

 brought me eighteen on Saturday last. I do not particularize the spot further than by 

 saying it is within four miles of Weymouth, inasmuch as I am sorry to say that in this 

 part there is a system of extermination carried on by visitors, and to which Asplenium 

 inarinum and Actinia clavata have already fallen victims, and even Anthea cereus and 

 Actinia Mesembryanthemum are becoming rare ; hence I intend for the future to keep 

 exact localities to myself, not from sellishness, but simply from a well-grounded fear of 

 extirpation. — William Thompson ; Weijmouth, August 30, 1858. 



Note on the Pertinacity of the Spotted Flycatcher in its choice of a place for 

 Nidification. — About the end of June last, a spotted flycatcher began to build a nest 

 over the door of the lodge at the entrance of my grounds. The woman who lives in 

 the lodge, not wishing the bird to build there, destroyed the commencement of the 

 nest : every day for a week the bird placed new materials on the same ledge over the 

 door, and every day the woman removed them, and, at the end of the week, placed a 

 stone on the ledge, which effectually baffled the flycatcher's eff'oits at that spot ; but 

 the bird then began building at the latter end of the ledge, from whence it was also 

 driven away, and, three stones being then placed on the ledge, the bird relinquished 



