470 



THE ZOOLOGIST. 



with last October, this has been a very poor migration, from a lights- 

 man's standpoint. He lamented a paucity of " fog-horny " nights, 

 i.e. the nights were most frequently clear, and the birds were not 

 driven to such straits on migration as happens on damp, drizzly 

 nights. There were Larks, Tree- Sparrows, and other small birds 

 noticed passing, but the only birds "of any account" were a King- 

 fisher and a Moorhen. The latter struck a lamp on about the 8th, 

 killing itself, and, my relative remarked, " was within an ace of 

 bashing the lampman's face, the whisk of its wings being felt upon 

 his face." This bird was immediately pounced upon, and afterwards 

 " baked with a bit of salt pork." The fact of a Kingfisher coming 

 aboard the vessel, which is eighteen miles from shore, is interesting. 

 It has been remarked, I believe, that this bird had never, so far, been 

 recorded from a light-vessel ; of course naturalists can only conjecture 

 it a possible migrant. It arrived the same night as the Moorhen. I 

 afterwards visited the particular lightsman's house, where its carcase 

 was to be seen. It had been drawn and filled in with salt and a bit 

 of stuffing, and was of course an exceeding sorry example of amateur 

 taxidermy. A goodly muster of Swans was reported to me by a 

 Mr. Youngs, an amateur puntsman, as seen by him on Breydoii. 

 They were, he states, divided into three or four flocks, in all number- 

 ing upwards of a hundred individuals. This was on Nov. 11th. 

 Youngs tells me he heard some of them " whooping"; while Mr. 

 Sharman, an old Breydon puntsman, informed me one flock was 

 almost certainly composed of Bewick's. One or two large bunches 

 of Snow-Buntings have been seen, and two Lapland Buntings are 

 reported as " obtained." — Arthur H. Patterson (Ibis House, Great 

 Yarmouth). 



Correction. — T. Lennard (p. 233) should be T. Sheppard (Muni- 

 cipal Museum, Hull). 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



The Place of Animals in Human Thought. By the Countess 

 Evelyn Martinengo Cesaresco. T. Fisher Unwin. 



This is a stimulating and learned book on a subject which 

 engaged the minds of thinking men long before zoology was 

 studied as a science ; it approaches the subject on a mystical 

 and psychological plane, and seeks to unravel the hidden quali- 

 ties which unite man to the other animals rather than the 



