76 



The Naturalist. 



of the water rail. I find a note of my father's dated 3Ist Jan.. 1838, of 

 an instance of the kind. He says : — " Water rail. — On the morning of 

 this day (the 31st), one of these birds was found dead, in a ditch on 

 these meadows (Earlham, near Norwich), with a miller's thumb about 

 three inches in length in its mouth. The broad head of the fish had 

 stuck in the bird's throat ; the two small sharp spines with which it is 

 armed on each side of the head being fixed in the inside coat of the rail's 

 throat, having one of them actually perforated through the outer skin as 

 well, sufibcation had ensued. About two inches of the tail part of the 

 fish was hanging out of the water rail's mouth. As the bird was in very 

 good condition it would not appear that it had been pressed by hunger to 

 swallow so large a morsel. The bird was only just dead and was brought 

 to me in exactly the state which I have described, and so firmly was the 

 fish fixed that I was obliged to have recourse to a corkscrew to extract it 

 from the throat of the bird. The water rail would appear not to be very 

 select in its diet. In the York Museum the throat of one is preserved, 

 which was choked by the swelling of some large peas which it had 

 swallowed, and which are still to be seen in the dried gullet." — J. H. 

 GuRNEY, Jun., Northrepps, Norwich. 



Late Swallow. — I saw a swallow here (Ryburne Valley) flying strong 

 on the wing after insects, yesterday afternoon, Nov. 14th.— F. G. S. 

 Rawson", Thorpe, Halifax, 15th Nov. 



Great Grey Shrike (Lmiius excuhitor). — A fine male specimen of 

 the above bird came into my possession, shot near here on November 

 18th. — Geo. Parkin, Brampton, Cumberland. 



Dasypolia Templi, &c. — Dasypolia Templi has this autumn again been 

 very plentiful in the Huddersfield district, and has been taken in large 

 numbers by difierent collectors. Celoena Haworthii, too, I found in 

 abundance on the Marsden moors, early in September. — G. T. Porritt. 



Watching a Beetle. — I think I have discovered something new in 

 the economy of a beetle, the identical specimen I enclose. I was sitting 

 on a rock at Sea Point, (a suburb of Cape Town), smoking and thinking 

 of the beautiful sea which was busy in its efibrts to dislodge the spotted 

 mineral boulders, when I noticed my gentleman walking about intent on 

 spoil. First he went in for a feed off the flower (also enclosed with its 

 leaf), which I presume is a kind of dandelion. Off he trudged again, and 

 after a long promenade, came to a dead standstill. What's up 1 queried 

 I. He raised himself gently on his forelegs, and lifted his abdomen aloft, 

 then allowed it to fall with (for him) a very large noise as the result ; this 

 he repeated several times, and then walked off again. At each small 

 pebbly place, succeeding a run of green grass or vegetation, he stopped 

 and tapped again. Suddenly I noticed a sort of spider jump up from 

 underneath one of the stones, and the beetle " jawed " him up like a shot. 

 Excuse tlus unscientific language, please, but it is very expressive. Now I, 



