PLANORBIS DILATATUS. 
5 
and fern, there being no nest whatever. The single egg is 
glossy, white, beautifully marbled with pale purplish and warm 
brown. Proceeding onward, I visited a marshy pond which 
abounds in moorhens, and here I found what appeared to be 
a new nest of one of these birds, but it contained no eggs. 
Here also I found the cinnabar moth ( E. jacobcece) to be quite 
common. In a low bank, and partly concealed by a little furze 
bush, I discovered a willow warbler’s nest containing four 
fresh eggs. Down in a low-lying tract of grassy land I came 
on a pair of lapwings which, from their behaviour, may 
possibly have had eggs or young somewhere, although I failed 
to discover the whereabouts. I noticed that the male several 
times alighted upon a grass-grown ant-heap, which on ex¬ 
amination I found was trodden down and covered with 
droppings, and had evidently been frequently resorted to by 
the bird. While searching around here, I found an old nest 
of the lapwing containing one runt egg, which had evidently 
lain there some time, as the contents smelt slightly while I 
was blowing it. This egg is in colour and markings similar 
to the usual eggs of this bird, although somewhat nest-stained, 
but in size it is very much less than the average, measuring 
only about ij in. by in. In a little copse near here I 
startled a nightingale from a bush in which was the com¬ 
mencement of a nest of one of these birds. The nightingale 
seems to be quite abundant on the common and its vicinity, 
there being a pair located at intervals in almost every thicket; 
just now, however, most of the nests contain young, there 
being but one brood in a season, and that early. The cuckoo 
also is very plentiful on the common, and maybe frequently 
seen and heard; the red-backed shrike, too, is fairly common, 
and breeding. 
A man residing on the common showed me to-day stuffed 
specimens of kestrel, sparrow-hawk, barn owl, tawny owl, 
green woodpecker, hawfinch, brainbling, tree-sparrow, gold¬ 
finch, bullfinch, and others, all shot in the neighbourhood. 
June 13^, 1892. PI. K. S. 
PLANORBIS DILATATUS. 
This is, perhaps, the most local of all the British fresh¬ 
water shells. It is an American species, and was first observed 
in this country some twenty-five years ago, in the canal at 
Gorton, Manchester, and later on at Pendleton. In both 
cases it was found near the warm water discharged from the 
condensers of steam boilers belonging to cotton mills. Mr. 
T. Rogers, of Manchester, who found them, considers them 
