Reptiles. 



6015 



the river throughout the greater part of December ; and at high water, on more than 

 one occasion, good sport was had by parties in boats, in chasing one of these divers, 

 and they generally had to make a good pull for it, and to expend a considerable quan- 

 tity of cartridges before a specimen was hauled dead into the boat. All the birds 

 which were shot were in an immature state of plumage. C. septentrionalis has also 

 been shot this winter, as well as a beautiful specimen of Podiceps cornutus: this 

 grebe is obtained on our river with some regularity nearly every winter. One day, in 

 the early part of January, I saw a fine specimen of Lanius excubitor, but did not get 

 very near to it : I watched it fly some distance down the valley, its gray and white 

 plumage making it visible at a considerable distance: its flight is in a straight line, 

 with regular dips, closely resembling that of Turd us viscivorus. I also observed a 

 specimen of Emberiza nivalis on a marsh close to the town, a far from common win- 

 ter visitant with us ; the bird in question I saw frequenting the same spot for more 

 than three weeks ; his favourite haunt was a turnip field bordering on the marsh, 

 where he associated amicably with a flock of skylarks, always leaving them on the 

 approach of any one, and often settling on the top of a tall tree in the hedge-row, 

 where, when the sun was shining brightly, he glistened as if a small ball of the purest 

 snow were attached to the topmost branch. — Murraij A, Maiheivs ; Raleigh^ near 

 Barnstaple^ March 15, 1858. 



The Sea- Serpent. — To one who firmly believes in the existence of some huge ma- 

 rine monster of the serpent form, such as the Northmen love to descant upon (and I 

 am not ashamed to own to such credulity, as I have already declared in my Notes on 

 Norway, Zool. 3229), the clear and minute account of Capt. Harrington, of the sea 

 monster which he and twenty people saw on the 12th of December last, off the coast 

 of St. Helena, was exceedingly interesting ; nor did the subsequent letter of Mr. F, 

 Smith tend to shake my belief in the accuracy of Capt. Harrington's statement, the 

 particulars of the two alleged appearances being so very diff'erent. I am not, how- 

 ever, about to argue the point, the premises before us being far too unsatisfactory and 

 vague to argue from. I merely write to express my hope that as you have admitted 

 the first correspondence on the subject to the pages of the ' Zoologist,' you will give 

 both parties fair play, and insert the remaining letters, which appeared in the ' Times ' 

 of February 16th and 23rd respectively, copies of which I enclose, so that naturalists 

 may have an opportunity of studying the case in all its bearings, before they form 

 their conclusions. — Alfred Charles Smith ; Yateshury Rectory.^ Calne^ March 5, 1858. 



From the ' Times' of February I6th, 



" Sir, — Observing in your paper of yesterday's date a letter from a correspondent 

 relative to the marine animal commonly called the ' sea-serpent,' in the concluding 

 paragraph of which he mentions that he has no doubt the object seen from Her 

 Majesty's ship ' Da?dalus,' in the month of August, 1848, when on the passage from 

 the Cape of Good Hope to St. Helena, was a piece of the same seaweed observed by 

 himself, I beg to state that the object seen from Her Majesty's ship on that occasion 

 was, beyond all question, a living animal, moving rapidly through the water against a 

 cross sea, and within five points of a fresh breeze, with such velocity that the water 



