8 



The Naturalist. 



Wetherey Coleopiera. — Having had occasion to go to Wetherby on 

 the Thursday following our Whit-Monday excursion, I had an oppor- 

 tunity of taking several beetles, of which I enclose a list : — Aijltodius 

 fossor, A. ted'iidinariu&, A. prodromus, Hider simiafAis, Sphcafidium 

 scarabceoides, Phyllohius uniformis. — H. Crowtheu. 



Carahus nitens at Richmond. — On May 2nd I found Carahus nitens 

 here, just in the kind of locality given by Rye. I think it is new to this 

 part. — G. P. Harris, Frenchgate, Richmond, Yorks., July 9th. — [Carabm 

 nitens is not uncommon on the moors round Huddersfield, some seasons. 

 —Eds. Nat.] 



Nests of House Martin.— Mr. J. E. Palmer mentions in the Natu- 

 ralist " (vol. 1, p. 29) a curious martin's nest which he had observed near 

 Malham Tarn. I was at Malham Cove last July (1876), and I noticed a 

 small colony of martins had built their nests a considerable distance down 

 the sides of the rocks, and what was more curious, a few of the nests were 

 not domed. One nest particularly struck me as being remarkable. It 

 was built behind a few loose stones at a considerable distance from the 

 ground, and looked like the nest of a sand martin, only it had two aper- 

 tures leading to it — an upper one which entered somewhat obliquely, and 

 a lower one which opened downwards. The old birds almost invariably 

 entered by the u:pper orifice. In the course of my reading, if my memory 

 serves me, I have read of one or two instances of small colonies of house 

 martins having built those domeless nests in such localities as Malham 

 Cove. Perhaps the reason for so far deviating from their usual habits in the 

 construction of their nests is to be found in the fact that as such situations 

 are away from the breeding haunts of the house sparrow (which is a most 

 inveterate and intolerable foe to the house martin), they breed in halcyon 

 security, and therefore find domed nests altogether useless. — E. P. P. 

 Butterfield, Wilsden, June 16th. 



Names for the Norfolk Plover {OdAcnemus crepitans). — The name 

 of " Thick-knee " is objectionable, because it is not correct to speak of the 

 tarsal joint as a knee, and, besides, I have never observed any particular 

 thickness in it ; but in young birds I have noticed that the upper part of 

 the tarsus was swollen. The name of Stone Curlew " is no whit better, 

 seeing' that the bird is not a curlew. ^' Norfolk Plover'' is its best and 

 most correct English designation, as associating with it the name of the 

 county in which it is and long has been the commonest. — J, H. Gurney,, 

 Jun., Northrepps Cottage, Norwich, 



Barnsley Naturalists' Society, — Meeting July 2nd. — The president^ 

 Mr. T. Lister, exhibited a collection of finely-marked small serpents, 

 locusts, and other creatures, from South Africa, brought him by Sergeant 

 Dillon. He stated that the nightingale had been heard as near as one- 



