CREPIDULA FORNICATA AT GRIMSBY. 275 



and visit some damp or marshy spot, where no doubt food is plentiful. 

 If you wait in some spot which is a kind of high road to these feeding- 

 places you may be sure of several coming over before it gets quite 

 dark. In the very early morning they are much scattered over the 

 fields, but soon gather up again into flocks as the day advances, and 

 are exceedingly wary. At this time of year they seem to be well 

 distributed over the country, or at least the lower-lying land, as I saw 

 numbers of them in the fields up to the sea bank between Pilling 

 and Fleetwood. 



September loth — Newly manured grass land appears to be the 

 most attractive locality at this date. 



November 12th — A very dark night, and going down Legh Street, 

 Warrington, was astonished to hear two or three Tewits shouting ; 

 they were evidently flying round, attracted by the bright light from 

 the Fair Ground and Market. 



November 19th — The ground was rather hard with frost, and we 

 put up several Tewits from sheltered spots and places under trees 

 where the cold had not rendered the ground so hard. 



November 26th — Ground soft, and almost every field held several 

 Tewits, and some favoured ones had many hundreds. 



December iith — We had a walk up the hills and on the higher 

 ground, but saw no Tewits after leaving the low-lying land ; they seem 

 to desert the higher ground as soon as the breeding-season is over. 



December 26th — Ground frozen hard, with a slight sprinkling of 

 snow ; almost all the Tewits driven away in consequence, and 

 although we kept a careful look-out, only saw nine in three days. 

 The frost continued till the end of the year, and the Tewits absolutely 

 deserted this part of the country. The birds seem much more 

 plentiful during the last few years, and possibly this is owing to the 

 operation of the Wild Birds' Protection Act, as the close season is 

 the only time that they appear to lose any of their wariness. 



NOTE—CONCHOLOG V. 



Occurrence of Dead Shells of Crepidula fornicata on Grimsby Beach. — 



While searching for specimens on the Grimsby Beach I found a shell which I did 

 not recognise as being British, nor had I found or seen such a shell before. This 

 was in November 1887. Some weeks after I found another. I sent one to the 

 Natural History Museum at South Kensington. It was kindly returned to me as 

 Crepidula fornicata, a native of the east coast of North America, and I was told 

 that it had possibly been thrown out of some ship with ballast, and then washed 

 ashore; but as I continued to find specimens I could scarcely think this to be the 

 case. After making inquiries I have learnt that they are brought from America 

 with the American Oysters, which are deposited at Cleethorpes for the use of 

 visitors to this seaside resort in the summer season. As yet I have not found living 

 specimens, although a friend assures me they are often adhering to the shells of 

 the Oysters when first brought here. —Arthur Smith, 103, Freeman Street, 

 Great Gri msby, February 29th, 1888. 

 Sept. 1888. 



