CHAPTER OF VARIETIES. 



129 



where any morning during the season 400 or 500 might be bought. 

 He said that he himself sold annually about 700 : and he added, 

 that about once in seven years the breed of squirrels entirely fails, 

 but that in other seasons they are generally prolific. The subject 

 was introduced by his answering to a woman, who came in to buy a 

 squirrel, that he had not had one that season, but before that time 

 in the last season he had sold 500. It appears that the mere manu- 

 facture of squirrel cages for Londoners is no small concern.* — Hon. 

 and Rev. W. Herbert. 



Moulting of the cockroach. — Some years ago, when resident 

 in Westminster, 1 was called into the kitchen by the servant to look 

 at what she called a white black beetle, when I found the curiosity 

 to be a cockroach in the act of casting its skin. I secured him im- 

 mediately after he had effected his escape from his old coat, and 

 kept him for some days under a wine-glass, during which period he 

 gradually assumed his sable suit, although he contrived to get away 

 before he quite rivalled <f Warren's Jet." The object of my present 

 note is, however, to state the very extraordinary circumstance, that 

 my poor friend was assisted in disrobing himself by some of his 

 fellow cockroaches. The operation, which I watched until it was 

 completed, appears to be one of some difficulty, and took place un- 

 der a stone slab which was placed across the fire-place, under the 

 chimney-board, but within ken." — W. J. T., 11, St. Mary Abbot's 

 Terrace, Kensington, 11th Feb. 1833. 



The chough. — On the 13th of August last a red-legged crow or 

 chough, (Pyrrhocorax graculus, Temminck), was killed on the Wilt- 

 shire downs, near the Bath road, between Marlborough and Calne, 

 by a man employed in keeping birds from corn. It was flying by 

 itself, and he took it for the common crow, till it came to hand. 



This very local species has always been considered as confined 

 to the rocky coast of Devon, Cornwall, and Wales, a distance from 

 either in a straight line of not less than sixty miles (and inland too) 

 from where this was killed 5 by what accident it should be driven 

 so far from its native rocks is difficult to be conjectured. 



It was a female, in pretty good plumage, and weighed 12 oz. It 

 is now in the possession of Mr. Butler, of Kenneth.— Merlin, 

 Marlborough, Feb. 13, 1833. 



* From the Notes to White's Selborne. 8vo. London, 1832. 

 VOL. I— NO. III. 1833. K 



