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Rh while out for a a stroll, was frightened by an accidental noise, and at once plunged into the tank and swam across, nearly all the way under water. The next day (when the cubs were almost nine weeks old) on my giving some fish to the old otter while the cubs were out with her, she took two small roach to them and tried to entice them to eat, by taking first one fish, then the other, then both together in her mouth and moving them about close in front of the cubs to attract their at- tention, at the same time uttering a peculiar whine or growl, or something between the two, which was quite new to me, and which sounded ferocious ; her intention evidently was to make them believe she did not want them to take the fish from her, while all the while she was using her utmost cunning to incite them to do that very thing ! The cubs were by dint of much patience gradually induced to try, and though they at last occa- sionally gnawed at the fish, they appeared on this occasion to get nothing off. This amiable dissimulation was repeated daily for some time afterwards. On 31 December (when 11½ weeks old) they appreciated an additional fish meal at about 11.15 p.m. ; and a day or two later a third meal was added first thing in the morning ; but the cubs lay up through all the remainder of the day, and if food were given at other times the mother made no at- tempt to induce them to eat. On 25 Janu- ary (when fifteen weeks old) the cubs came out an hour earlier than usual (at 5 instead of 6 p.m.), and continued gradually to come out earlier until 20 February, when they were out as early as 2.30 p.m. I could not satisfy myself how long they continued to suckle, but believe they did so all through the spring.

The above are the bare bones of the story, but the whole episode, watched day by day, and almost night and day, with its various little details, proved one of the most interest- ing events, from a naturalist's point of view, that I can imagine. Both cubs were females ; one I eventually sold ; the remaining one came in season for the first time when ten months old, but was hardly full-grown before she had completed her twelvemonth. Males continue to grow rather longer than this. She spent six months of her life in London, at the Fisheries Exhibition. From the time I obtained the mother as a cub about two months old, to the death of the daughter, seventeen years and almost nine months elapsed. Each lived to be over ten years old. The cause of death in the mother was slightly obscure, while the daughter was drowned during very cold weather under the ice in her tank. In both cases however they had lost the vigour of youth, so died from accidents that would hardly have proved fatal to younger animals.

The two largest Thames otters that I have handled were trapped at different spots above Bisham, near Great Mario w, and were natu- rally both males. One, caught 14 July 1889, was brought to me alive, but died from the injury sustained in trapping. The other was caught 23 April 1882. The two largest females from the Thames, of which I have measurements, were both caught by myself. One, on the lock eyot, Great Marlow, 1 May 1896, died 25 February 1898; the other, caught 10 july 1873, died 27 December 1878. The largest ever killed by the Bucks Otter Hounds was near Thornton Hall, Bucking- ham, and weighed more than 30 lb., which was the limit of weight the steel yard could show.

The second of the two Thames females mentioned above was caught in an unusual manner. On the evening of the day named (10 July 1873), I went up the river to shoot some water voles for my wild cats, and after securing two or three, saw near the Bucks side, a little above Bisham Grange, a piece of water weed travelling steadily up stream. Not doubting that this was being carried by a water vole, I put up the gun and was on the point of firing when I noticed what appeared to be a water vole's head about a foot beyond the water-weed, and the two objects kept exactly the same distance apart as they pro- ceeded up the river. Struck by this odd cir- cumstance I paused, and instantaneously saw that the leading object was not a vole's head but an otter's nose, the remainder of the head being under water ; and that the weed was lodged against the curve of the back, which just protruded above water. To shoot an otter being about the last thing I should wish to do, I half-cocked and put down the gun, whispered to my dog, who was on the tow- path, and had seen me put up the gun, though he could not see what I was pointing at, to 'down-charge,' which he did at once; and noiselessly backed the boat up stream to see as much as I could of the otter. It continued steadily up stream, generally swimming, but once or twice getting into shallow water it waded for a few yards, until at last it dis- appeared into or under a thick stubby hazel- bush growing out of the bank and hanging down to the water's edge. I forced the boat's head into the bush, and kneeling in the bow pushed my head in likewise ; on opening my eyes I saw a large hole doubtless a water- expanded water vole's hole under the roots of the hazel, and the otter looking out of it.

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Rh Quick as thought I pushed my open hand through the branches to the mouth of the hole, to stop the otter (if I should have the luck to be in time) from rushing out, thinking I would wait there (for a week if necessary !) until some one should pass by who would either go for a spade or send some one with one. The otter however saved me the trouble of what might have been a very inconveniently long wait by jumping at my hand and seizing me by the thumb. I closed my fingers round its lower jaw, and giving a ' mighty heave ' brought the otter plump into the boat. The other hand sufficed to disengage it from my thumb, and, to complete my good luck, I chanced to have my cartridges in a ferret-bag, so shaking them out I stuffed the otter in, and having made the string secure, gave vent to my feelings in wild hurrahs ! Not until the otter was actually in the boat did I dis- cover that she was not full grown, though of considerable size a circumstance doubtless just as well for my thumb. The bite was fairly severe, but I have had hundreds worse, and I was quite ready to catch any number more otters on the same terms. Five and a half years afterwards she was killed by another otter ; I macerated and articulated her skele- ton, and it was exhibited at the Fisheries Exhibition.

The following interesting remarks are very slightly abbreviated from the notes kindly given me by Mr. Uthwatt :

Otters lie in hollow trees, hollows in the banks and among roots, and are very fond of old stone drains and the sewers of towns. The claws of otters inhabiting rocky or gravelly streams are found to be worn down. If an otter's claws ap- pear to be freshly worn down, it has been dis- turbed from its usual haunts, and has been travel- ling in search of a fresh habitation or of one of the opposite sex. The male is however solitary, and two adult males are never found together. It is curious that when otters are killed, even when one is chopped, nothing is found in the stomach.

Probably this is because, owing to the peculiarly small size of the oesophagus neces- sitating the very complete mastication of the food, it is quickly digested. Mr. Uthwatt has seen slides down banks of snow, and tracks, as if otters had been sliding in the way described of the North American species in Mr. Harting's account in the Zoologist, 1894, p. 379, but has never met any one who has actually seen them using the slide.

Otters are also fond of rolling on grass, and it is probable that this is done to some extent in order to get rid of the large ticks, with which they are sometimes infested.

In Bucks, otters are not often found at a dis- tance from water, as is the case in more mountain- ous parts of the country, where the smaller rivers run very low in the heat of summer.

Mr. Uthwatt remarks that an otter ' gener- ally chooses a very hidden spot in which to have young, either in a water-worn hollow beneath the bank, or a hollow tree, or a tree root.' I have known used as nurseries the cup-shaped top of a pollard willow, and the interior of a hay-rick built on an eyot, above and below Great Marlow respectively ; and the dry arch of a bridge over the Cherwell (Oxon), the nest in this instance consisting of a large accumulation of water weeds. I have no doubt also that they not unfre- quently nest in spaces accessible only by water in the foundation of the mills on the Thames.

They may be enticed away from stretches of water where it is impossible to hunt them by making artificial holts convenient for them. Mr. Frank Higgens of Buckingham has been very suc- cessful in this. The nest is formed of reeds and grass. The bitch will take care never to leave her ' wedgings,' or the slightest sign of her presence, on the banks of the river where she has established her nursery, and either never uses the banks at all until the cubs are able to swim, or else nature has provided that she shall leave no scent during the period. She generally lays up her ' wedgings ' in a secret place, often in the same cavity as the nest, if it is large enough.

One can tell that an otter has young, if when she is hunted, after being put down by the hounds, she determinedly keeps away from the spot where she was found.

A bitch is a good deal more difficult to hunt than a dog, being gamer, not so lazy, more rapid in her movements and much more crafty. We have frequently hunted a bitch for hours in a weedy river without even viewing her chain. Cubs look after themselves as soon as they lose their milk-teeth.

In its nocturnal wanderings in search of prey, an otter never swims much of the river at a time, but cuts overland across the bends, leaving what is technically known as 'the drag.' The strongest scent is left by the ' dripping drag,' which is where the water was still dripping off its coat. The drag generally ceases about a hundred yards from the holt, the remaining distance being tra- versed in the water.

In hunting, the bank of the river to which the wind is blowing is usually drawn, generally up stream, until a drag is struck. An otter generally works the side to which the wind blows when going out, and the side from which it blows when returning to its holt.

If it is a last night's drag, the pace in the rich meadow land of the midlands is fast enough to tax the best runner, unless he knows the country and is able to run cunning, and there is always the

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 will and testament, signed, sealed, published and declared, and unassailable as Gibraltar. Seems the old goof got wise to himself, and, what was more to the point, to Suzanne, before he kicked the bucket, and made a will that disinherited her, leaving the whole works to Dorothy.

"They found it in the pocket of an old coat in his shooting cabin out on the island, and found the men who'd witnessed it, a Long Island clam-digger and a garage mechanic out at Smithtown."

"How?" asked Mycroft.

"Through this fellow Toussaint. Dorothy had heard of him somehow and went up to Harlem to consult him. She told my Aunt Matilda Mrs. Truxton Sturdivant, you know—all about it. Seems Toussaint called old Meson's spook up—or maybe down, I wouldn't know—and it told them all about the will, gave 'em minute directions where to look for it, and told 'em who and where the witnesses were. He charged her a stiff fee, but he delivered. She's satisfied."

Mycroft had dismissed the story from his mind that afternoon, but next day when he read Roy Hardy's death notice it recurred to him. That evening as he walked across the Park he reached a decision. Of course, it was all nonsense. But Prior's story hung in his mind like a burr in a dog's fur.

Oh, well he'd have a go at this Toussaint. If nothing more it would be amusing to see him go through his bag of tricks.

HE furniture and rugs had been moved from the drawing room when he reached Toussaint's house ten minutes before twelve two nights later. Before the empty, cold fireplace a kind of altar had been set up, clothed with a faircloth and surmounted by a silver cross, like any chapel sanctuary. But there were other things on it. Before the cross there coiled a great black snake, whether stuffed or carved from black wood he could not determine, and each side of the coiling serpent was a gleaming human skull. Tall candles flickered at each end of the altar, giving off the only light in the room.

As his eyes became accustomed to the semi-darkness he saw that a hexangular design had been drawn on the bare floor in red chalk, enclosing the altar and a spare some eight feet square each side, and in each of the six angles of the figure stood a little dish filled with black powder. Before the altar, at the very center of the hexagon, was placed a folding chair of the kind used in funeral parlors.

Annoyed, he looked about the room for some sign of Toussaint, and as the big clock in the hall struck the first stave of its hour-chime a footstep sounded at the door. Toussaint entered with an attendant at each elbow. All three wore cassocks of bright scarlet, and over these were surplices of white linen. In addition each wore a red, pointed cap like a miter on his head.

"Be seated," Toussaint whispered, pointing to the folding chair before the altar and speaking quickly, as if great haste were necessary. "On no account, no matter what you see or hear, are you to put so much as a finger past the confines of the hexagon. If you do you are worse than a dead man—you are lost. You understand?"

Mycroft nodded, and Toussaint approached the altar with his attendants close beside him. They did not genuflect, merely bowed deeply, then Toussaint took two candles from beneath his surplice, lit them at the tapers burning on the altar and handed them to his attendants.

Fairly running from one point of the hexagon to another the acolytes set fire to the black powder in the little metal saucers with their candles, then rejoined Toussaint at the altar.

The big hall clock had just completed striking twelve as Toussaint called out sharply:

"Papa Legba, keeper of the gate, open for us!"

Like a congregation making the responses at a litany the acolytes repeated:

"Papa Legba, keeper of the gate, open for us!"

"Papa Legba, open wide the gate that they may pass!" intoned Toussaint, and once again his attendants repeated his invocation.


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Rh danger of passing the otter. The scent of an otter lies for a long time, though the duration naturally depends on the weather and on the land. Some of the younger hounds will often mark at an old nest, and the hounds generally will speak to the scent three or four days after the otter has gone by ; and in some places, where otters have habitually walked for long periods, the ground becomes so saturated that the hounds can own it six months afterwards.

The drag may continue for ten miles or more, and is either then run out, in which case it is known they have been hunting heel (though the older hounds generally have a preference for run- ning in the right direction at the start), or the hounds mark at some strong holt, and bay furiously, tearing at it with teeth and claws. The terrier is then put in and the otter bolted, when his ' chain ' may be viewed ; but in any case the hounds at once leave the holt. If during the hunt the otter shows rapidly, a number of times in succession, it means that it is taking in air, in order to take a long and desperate dive. It is not swimming all the time it is under water, but frequently walks along the bottom, especially in shallow places.

As this was news to me, I wrote to Mr. Uthwatt asking if this was beyond a doubt. He was unfortunately out of the reach of letters at the time (somewhere up country in South America), but Mrs. Uthwatt kindly wrote, saying she knew her husband was quite convinced this is the case, and that her brother-in-law, who has hunted the hounds for a great many years, is quite of the same opinion.

The otter is always some feet in front of its ' chain,' which is formed by its breath and the air contained in the fur. Sometimes when lost it betrays its whereabouts by taking in breath with a sort of gasping sigh, but it takes a keen ear to distinguish it.

On one occasion (in Warwickshire) the Bucks otter hounds ran a drag through eight fields of standing corn, from the river Itchin to the Learn. Even when shallows (of which there are however not many in Bucks) are lined two men deep, to keep the otter in a certain direction, it often breaks through.

Though the Bucks otters are not so quick and muscular as those of mountainous districts, not having swift streams to fight, yet they are not nearly so easy to kill, owing to the abundance of cover, the depth and muddiness of the streams, and the fact that the water carries no scent after it has been stirred up once or twice by the hounds.

An otter seems to know that he leaves a strong wash in the water, and often when being hunted goes down to rapid water, in order to lead the hounds from him, and then goes up stream and lies up.

Mr. Uthwatt has ' noticed that where a river has been diverted by a railway or for other reasons, the otters in their nocturnal travels show a preference for following the old course of the river, even when quite dry and is the furthest way.' A pack of otter hounds was formerly kept at Tyringham, and hunted by the late Rev. C. W. Selby Lowndes. A pack was also kept for a short time by Sir H. Hoare at Wavendon, about two years before the pack of which Mr. Uthwatt is the successful master was started in 1880. There was also a pack kept at Rowsham Park on the Cherwell (Oxford- shire) by an ancestor of the present owner of the property.

I have had on several occasions (successful) otter hunts about the lawn of my old home at Great Marlow after otters that had escaped from their cage, in one instance tailing it within two or three yards of the water's edge. One otter did escape, and subse- quently paid several visits to our lawn. On one occasion, after a fall of snow, I tracked her a long distance inland, nearly to her old cage. Over a year after she escaped she (presuming it was the same individual) put her foot into a rat trap, which did not hold her, but caused her to discontinue her visits. Undoubtedly wild otters occasionally visited our lawn, and three weeks after I caught the adult female mentioned as the largest female I have measured from the Thames an otter visited her cage during the night. On some few occasions besides that above mentioned I have either seen or heard otters in the river. The best view of one was obtained in one of the backwaters at Harleyford (Great Marlow), when a fisherman (long since dead) and I were proceeding in a boat perfectly noiselessly according to our custom, and an otter sud- denly rose to the surface of the water along- side the boat, and almost within reach of one of the sculls. Neither of us men moved a muscle, but remained as rigid as if suddenly turned to stone, and the otter floated along- side us staring in utter astonishment for some few minutes, until I suppose it had collected its wits, when it sank out of sight.

The most amusing animal I ever kept was a tame otter hand-reared in the house (this was the one I bred from). I have never ceased to regret I did not write down at the time the many proofs of her extraordinary sagacity, and the equally numerous instances of unmistakable humour ; but even as it is, many queer acts of hers, and of many of the other otters I have kept, might be added to this already overgrown section.

[The Pinnipeds (seals) and Cetaceans (whales and dolphins) are naturally, from

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Rh the inland position of the county, the only access to which for them would be through London, unknown there, though it is likely that in early days the common seal (Phoca vitulina) and two or three species of the smaller Delphinidæ may have sometimes found their way up the Thames as far as to what is now the southern border of the county of Bucks. I have kept examples of the two species of seal resident in the British Isles in captivity in Bucks, and have found the gray seal (Halichærus grypus), which has been given so bad a character by all previous writers on it, to be a much maligned animal, proving very docile and affectionate, and capable of receiving considerable education. In fact I can confidently recommend the gray seal as by far the most interesting animal I have ever kept, and readily taking to the performance of tricks.]

20. Squirrel. Sciurus leucourus, Kerr.

BellSciurus vulgaris.

Generally distributed. It seems remarkable however that they are not particularly numerous in the big beech woods of this neighbourhood, where one would have expected them to abound. Perhaps there is no great supply of food there except during the mast season; but possibly also the magpies, and even the jays (which are extremely numerous in these woods), may thin out the young before they leave the dreys. On two or three occasions squirrels visited our garden at Great Marlow, which is more than a mile distant from the nearest wood, except Bisham Woods in Berks, from which it was divided by a double width of the Thames (channel and backwater). In the beech woods they seem to live to a great extent on the bark of crab-apples; one finds small trees of this species completely stripped of bark from end to end. Among several examples which I have kept in captivity were a pair reared in company with a pine marten by a domestic cat. Squirrels breed chiefly quite early in the year, but occasionally as late as April.

21. Dormouse. Muscardinus avellanarius, Linn. BellMyoxui avellanarius.

The dormouse seems to be of general distribution in the county, though from its retiring habits it is comparatively seldom met with. I kept one here for about eighteen months, caught at Turville Grange in 1901, and given me by Miss D. Donald, and other examples have since been seen and caught there; I have two at the moment of writing caught at Danesfield, Medmenham, 2 April. They were in separate nests, about a chain apart, made of moss, under nearly 2 feet of dead leaves. One of them made its escape the same night, but was recaptured on 12 May, having apparently slept through the entire interval. They are fairly well known under the name of sleepy mouse or sleeper.

In the Zoologist, 1885, p. 204, Mr. G. T. Rope quoted a letter by J. B. R. in the Field of 19 April 1884: 'Dormice are not at all uncommon about Henley-on-Thames. A boy who used to live at Nettlebed (a village five or six miles distant), and come to school every day, has brought in scores. This is no exaggeration.' Henley is less than one mile from Bucks and Nettlebed about 2¼ miles, so that this statement refers to the borders of this county. Mr. Rope continued by quoting from a letter by Mr. J. F. Woods, stating that in 1856 and 1857 he took several dormice in the parishes of Great Brickhill and Bow Brickhill, and that they were by no means rare thereabouts at that date. Mr. Rope next quoted from a letter by Mr. F. Hayward Parrott of Walton House, Aylesbury (19 April 1884), who stated that ' Dormice occur in the beech woods on the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, and are locally known by the name of " sleepers." ' In the Zoologist for 1887, p. 463, Mr. F. H. Parrott wrote with reference to Mr. Rope's above quoted article, that ' since then I have ascertained that these little animals are far more numerous in the nut hedges. Towards the end of October last a man in this town had a consignment of five dozen, which were caught in the nut rows on Buckland Common.' One ' had a white tip to its tail.' In the Zoologist for 1901, p. 472, Mr. T. Vaughan Roberts of Watford wrote that, having seen the above account of how plentiful dormice were at Buckland, he went down and interviewed a man who collected them for London shops. Both he and another man told Mr. Roberts that they never found the nest of the dormouse in spring, but always in autumn, when the nuts were beginning to appear. Mr. Roberts's note was written in confirmation of a letter by Mr. H. E. Forrest of Shrewsbury in the same volume (p. 423), stating that he had found near there a nest containing young ' about half-grown ' on 28 August, another containing young

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Rh ' quite naked and blind ' on 29 September, and had been told of several other nests early in October containing young. I was told of a nest in the hedge of a cottage garden at Cadmore End, which contained quite small young, somewhere about 2O August. The dormouse would therefore seem to share with the gray seal the distinction of being the only British mammals having young but once a year that select the autumn for the event. I found a dormouse's nest near here on 22 September in a hazel bush in a hedge, formed of coarse hedge-side grass, lined with hazel leaves, which were still quite green and fresh. A friend climbing a spruce fir in Sussex to a supposed magpie's nest twenty feet from the ground dislodged from it a dormouse, which ran up and down the smooth upright stem with great ease for some time before we could catch it. In Surrey many years ago I found one dead in a thrush's nest, which had apparently been killed there by one of the birds. In captivity dry toast forms a very suitable stock food.

22. Harvest Mouse. Mus minutus, Pallas.

During the last thirty years or so, many thousands of mice have passed through my hands (as food for sundry British carnivorous animals, hawks, etc.). I have sometimes had 200 live mice, or even perhaps 300, in my possession at one time after a day's thrashing; and considerably larger quantities dead ; be- sides multitudes singly or in small quantities, trapped or otherwise procured under a great variety of circumstances. Never however, out of all these hosts, including several species, have I recognized a harvest mouse, and I can hardly be wrong in concluding that they must be rare, or perhaps very local, in the county. All the harvest mice that I have seen were captive specimens procured in other coun- ties ; for instance, my friend, F. H. Salvin, captured a number at his place in Surrey I think something like a dozen and a half which he presented to the Zoological Society, and my late respected friend, Professor Rolles- ton of Oxford, kept a pair alive for a con- siderable time under a bell glass in his dining room, by which arrangement they could be observed almost to perfection. Several per- sons have assured me that harvest mice are quite common in the county, but on the slightest attempt at cross-examination have proved so vague on the subject, not being sure even whether they have long or short tails, or whether they are larger or smaller than the common house mouse, that their evidence is valueless ; but from a very few persons I have obtained what appears reliable information as to their existence in the county, so hope eventually I may secure specimens. Probably the species has everywhere greatly decreased since machinery was introduced, which reaps corn so much closer to the ground than stubbles were formerly left.

23. Long-tailed Field Mouse. Mus sylvaticus. Linn.

Very plentiful, but its numbers probably fluctuate (as also those of the grass and bank voles) very greatly in any particular locality in different years, or groups of years. It breeds all the year round ; on 16 January 1893, f r instance, we captured in our garden at Great Marlow a litter of seven, probably barely three weeks old. On 28 March 1884 I was given a true albino (pink eyes) which had been found dead that day in the garden of Dropmore Vicarage. There was the slightest possible tinge of colour on part of the back and flanks. It was a female, and its abnormal coloration had judging by its teats proved no obstacle to its rinding a mate and becoming the mother of a family. Mr. F. H. Parrott of Aylesbury has bred this species freely in captivity, and before the young were -born the female was observed more than once to eat her fellow captives. He found a winter nest containing a pair. Having removed a newly born litter from a female in captivity, Mr. Parrott substituted the wild-caught young of the grass mouse (Microtus agrestis), which she took kindly to, and reared.

[Yellow-necked Mouse. Mus flavicollis, Melchior.

Years ago I remember to have been struck with the large size and bright pelage of some long-tailed field mice, procured at different times either in part or wholly in our garden at Great Marlow. These were I now sup- pose of this species (?), first recorded as British by Mr. W. E. de Winton in the Zoologist for 1894, p. 441. One remarkably large and highly coloured specimen I recol- lect skinning (about 1880), and giving away to serve as a doll's antimacassar, mounted on cloth. Certainly however, I have met with no example of this conjectured species since the publication of Mr. de Winton's paper, either in Bucks or elsewhere.]

24. House Mouse. Mus musculus, Linn.

It was perfectly astonishing how many mice blind of one eye, and in a good many

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 It might have been the rumble of a subway train, or one of those strange, inexplicable noises that the big city knows at night, but Mycroft could have sworn that he heard the rumble of distant thunder.

Again and again Toussaint repeated his petition that "the gate" be opened, and his dants echoed it. This was getting to be tiresome. Mycroft shifted on his uncomfortable seat and looked across his shoulder. His heart contracted suddenly and the blood churned in his ears. About the chalk-marked hexagon there seemed to cluster in the smoke cast off by the censers a rank of dim, indistinct forms, forms not quite human, yet resembling nothing else. They did not move, they did not stir as fog stirs in a breath of wind, they simply hung there motionless in the still air.

shouted Toussaint, and now the silent shadow-forms seemed taking on a kind of substance. Mycroft could distinguish features—Willis Dykes, he'd been the top kick, and Freddie Pyle, the shavetail, Curtis Sackett, Ernie Proust—one after another of his old comrades he saw in the silent circle as a man sees images upon a photographic negative when he holds it up to the light.

Now Toussaint's chant had changed. No longer was it a reiterated pica, but a great shout of victory. "Damballa Oueddo, Master of the Heavens! Damballa, thou art here! Open wide the dead ones' mouths, Damballa Oueddo. Give them breath to speak and answer questions; give this one his heart's desire!"

Turning from the altar he told Mycroft, "Say what you have to say quickly. The power will not last long!"

Mycroft shook himself like a dog emerging from the water. For an instant he saw in his mind's eye the courtyard of Don José's house, saw the eager, flush-faced youths grouped about the table, saw Juanita in the silver glow of moonlight, lovely as a fairy from Tinania's court as she laughed at them, promising

"Juanita, where is Juanita?" he asked thickly. "She promised she would give herself to the last man—"

"Estoy aquí, querido!"

In fifty years and more he had not heard that voice, but he remembered it as if it had been yesterday—or ten minutes since—when he last heard it. "Juanita!" he breathed, and the breath choked in his throat as he pronounced her name.

HE came toward him quickly, passing through the ranks of misty shades like one who walks through swirling whorls of silvery fog. Both her hands reached toward him in a pretty haste. All in white she was, from the great carved ivory comb in her golden hair to the little white sandals cross- strapped over her silken insteps. Her white mantilla had been drawn across her face coquettishly, but he could see it flutter with the breath of her impatience.

"Rog-ger," she spoke his name with the same hesitation between syllables he remembered so well. "Rog-ger, querido—belovèd!"

He leaped from the chair, stretched reaching hands to her outstretched gloved fingers past the boundary of the chalk-drawn hexagon. "Juanita! Juanita, I have waited so long so long "

Her mantilla fell back as his fingers almost touched hers. There was something wrong with her face. This was not the image he had carried in his heart for more than fifty years. Beneath the crown of gleaming golden hair, between the folds of the white lace mantilla a bare, fleshless skull looked at him. Empty eye-holes stared into his eyes, lipless teeth grinned at him.

He stumbled like a man hit with a blackjack, spun half-way round, then went down so quickly that the impact of his limpness on the polished floor made the candles on the altar flicker.

"Maître," one of the attendants plucked Toussaint's white surplice, "Maître, the man is dead."


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Rh cases totally blind, were captured through a succession of years about our house and grounds at Great Marlow. The greater number and the first of these blind mice were caught in the stable, which induces me to mention that an Icelandic pony of mine went blind, and to wonder whether the form of ophthalmia from which he suffered can have been contagious, and communicated itself to some of the mice, among whom it spread and continued rife for a good many years, though no horse or other domestic animal took it. I am however uncertain as to the year in which I first noticed these blind mice, and whether therefore it coincided with the going blind of the pony. A 'singing mouse' (always caused, I believe, by lung disease) was given me on 12 October 1889, by Mr. F. Rowe, jun., of Great Marlow, captured in his father's house if I remember right, at any rate locally. The ' singing,' which was very strong at first, gradually lost its fulness, and in the afternoon of 6 December the mouse died suddenly in a fit. In ten pregnant mice, obtained at various places in the south of the county, and all between January and May, but in different years, I found nine, seven (twice), six (four times), five, four and two foetuses, or an average litter of nearly six. One occa- sionally meets with examples abnormally dark, and occasionally one slightly lighter than usual, but I have never met with a really black or a white specimen in a wild state. Mrs. Raikes of Chandos Villa, Buck- ingham, informs me (in a letter, 9 May 1903) that she has seen in that neighbour- hood ' some of a cream colour.'

[Black Rat. Mus rattus, Linn.

I never heard of a black rat in Bucks, and it is probably a good many years since the last straggler in the county made way for the brown species. I have kept a few examples of the black rat in captivity, obtained elsewhere.]

25. Brown Rat. Mus decumanus, Pallas.

A plague in Bucks as everywhere else. I have no doubt that brown rats are far more numerous now than when I first made acquaintance with the species, as is only to be expected considering how prolific they are, and that man continues to exercise all his ingenuity and energy to encourage them by destroying all their natural enemies. It does not seem to be generally known that the adult buck rats live by themselves, and when one is captured in a mixed company it is only because he chanced to be at the moment visiting his harem. I knew several holes at Marlow which (when in use) would contain a single old buck, and no amount of ferreting or trapping could produce a second inhabitant. In perhaps a fortnight's time, after having forcibly removed the oc- cupant, the hole would be again used, and again proved to hold a single male rat, and so on, year after year. These buck habitations are much shorter and less complicated than the buries occupied by the does and young, which are frequently very extensive. Another point not, I think, generally known is that if several live rats are put together in a cage (the more the merrier) they settle quietly down after a very few minutes, and any one may put his hand in and pull the rats about without their attempting to bite. One day a friend sent me (at Marlow) about a score of live rats in a sack, which had just been caught while thrashing. I emptied the sack into a cage trap, and walked off with my prize, but the weight of so many rats was too much for the springs of the door, and it opened, letting them all escape in a moment. My dog killed one before I could stop him, but I recovered all the others alive single-handed. On one occasion a steel-trap which I had set over night in our house at Great Marlow was sprung, but contained only the severed foot of the rat. Two or three days after- wards, while looking for young sparrows among creepers on trellis-work on the house, I saw the large eye of something in a nest, and before I had time to get my hand there out jumped a large rat, which my dog stopped directly it reached the ground, and I found this was the owner of the severed foot, which in this freshly maimed condition had taken up its abode where it had to climb about I 1 feet up and down each time. In March 1893, at Great Marlow, one pregnant doe rat contained six foetuses ; two each con- tained seven, one contained eight, and one eleven ; quite a small doe at Poynetts (Ham- bleden), May 1 903, contained twelve, or an average of eight and a half young in a litter. I snared a buck rat which weighed lib., which is the heaviest weight I have person- ally proved, but I have handled many examples considerably larger and no doubt heavier. When brown rats are swimming in shallow water it is possible to pin them with the bifid end of a punt pole; and one can harpoon them with a boat-hook in any situation. Some years ago when on the river with two cousins (girls), I caught sight of a rat swimming in mid-river. Getting to the bow of the boat, and directing my cousins how to row, we presently, in spite of his many doublings and of the awkward trim of

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Rh the boat, rowed the rat fairly down, and I captured him by hand in mid-stream after one of the most sporting little hunts imaginable. Very good fun may be had in the early summer where there are wide ditches or brooks infested by rats by ferreting them out of their holes into the water, and running after them as they swim away, armed with a long-handled punt landing-net, and scooping them up.

26. Water Vole. Microtus amphibius, Linn.

Bell Arviola amphibius.

Commonly known as the water rat. Abundant in the Thames and its tributaries, as well as the other streams of the county. It is much more at home in the water than the brown rat, and it is far harder to ' pin ' one in shallow water with a punt-pole or boathook, or to scoop one up in a landing-net as described under the brown rat. A peculiarity about the water vole when so captured and put into a cage is that each one in turn stands on the defensive (like the Norwegian lemming), and fierce battles result, totally at variance with the normal conduct of brown rats under the same circumstances. The latter take matters wonderfully submissively unless by accident one is caged that has received some slight hurt, when for a few minutes it falls foul of all and sundry whom it may encounter. Water voles are mischievous to some classes of vegetation; at Great Marlow we had several magnolias killed at different times by the stems being gnawed by them; and to embankments, such as artificially-made sides of ponds or canals, by their burrowing allowing the water to escape. They are however distinctly an ornament on any piece of water, and afford a pretty sight when swimming, or sitting on a water-lily leaf or little accumulation of floating vegetable flotsam and jetsam, while they busily gnaw away at some edible find.

For breeding, water rats to a great extent leave the big river in favour of its backwaters and tributary ditches and small streams. Pairing takes place in the water. I have a note of this taking place on 23 April. The male remains, I believe, with his mate, and assists to take care of the young. During June young voles may bo seen very commonly making little excursions in the ditch or other stream in the banks of which they were born. The skin of the water vole is extremely pretty. I have a large antimacassar, or small rug, made of picked skins, all killed during December or January, early in the ' seventies,' and still in good preservation. Only one or two persons out of some dozens to whom I have shown the rug have guessed the source.

17. Field Vole. Microtus agrestis, Linn.

BellArvicola agrestis.

Commonly known as grass mouse. Not nearly so abundant as the bank vole, though five and twenty years ago, or even a good deal later, I should have confidently asserted the contrary. They seem more apt to frequent the neighbourhood of human habitations than the bank vole. On i July 1884 I was brought a white but not albino specimen alive, which had been captured the previous day in a hay field close on the Great Marlow side of Razzler Wood (Harleyford). A male example allowed itself to be captured by hand in one of my fields on 28 September, owing no doubt to the fact that it was infested with numerous ticks. Mr. F. H. Parrott has reared the young of this species in captivity, under a long-tailed field mouse.

28. Bank Vole. Evotomys glareolus, Schreber.

BellArvicola glareolus.

Very abundant, and probably much on the increase, the number of its natural enemies (the Mustelidæ and raptorial birds, 'and in lesser degree magpies, jays, etc.) being continually and rapidly on the decrease. The plentiful beech-mast crop of 1900 brought millions of this species and the long-tailed field mouse to the woods in this neighbourhood, whence of course they spread to the neighbouring fields and homesteads. From that autumn until well into the following summer, when walking through a wood after sunset, it would prove positively alive with swarms composed of these two species; a rustle of dead leaves, or sometimes the mouse itself, catching one's ear or eye every half dozen yards or so. The first two or three of many which I have kept in captivity died within a short time, and I was jumping to the conclusion that they were difficult to keep under artificial conditions, until I discovered that from my ignorantly supposing that they required soft food, their incisors had overgrown, and the poor little voles had starved. A regular supply of nuts, maize and other hard food entirely put an end to the high death-rate.

29. Common Hare. Lepus europaus, Pallas.

BellLepus timidus.

Thanks to the Ground Game Act, hares have now very little chance of maintaining a footing except in favoured places where a landowner keeps a fairly large acreage in his own hands. Here hares may still be preserved and a considerable number accounted for; and these oases of comparative security

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Rh are of the greatest use to less favoured locali- ties.

Hares do not average so large in Bucks (or in the south of the county at all events) as in some other parts of the country the Berk- shire downs for instance. Few leverets are born between August and Christmas, though a doe hare in my possession at the time of writing was picked up by me when a field of wheat was being cut here on 8 September, which was at that date so small that she could sit easily on my hand, and had to be fed for some time on milk with a teaspoon. In January many leverets make their appear- ance ; e.g. a doe shot here on the 17th of that month contained a single foetus within two or three days of birth, and in most years those does that are not already in young take the jack during the month with probably very few exceptions. On 7 May, in a mea- dow near here, I saw eight hares in company going through a most interesting and divert- ing performance closely resembling a 'musical ride ' by troopers at a military tournament. Probably seven of these were jacks, all court- ing a single doe. The individual already mentioned is the only specimen of this species that I have kept in captivity ; she was a most engaging and delightful animal as a pet while small, but as she grew she seemed to adopt ' Excelsior ' as her motto, and rode her hobby to an extent I could not endure for long. When let out of her box in the room, after she had grown to about a third of her full size, she would constantly sit and gaze upwards to the tops of all the higher pieces of furniture, and with considerable ingenuity in taking advantage of any projections, she quickly achieved the ascent of one piece after another, and I was speedily obliged for the sake of the various ornaments and knick- knacks, independently of the ink-stand, to banish the amusing and playful little sinner to an out-door cage. Whether this habit was an idiosyncrasy of this particular indi- vidual or whether Cowper and the other hare fanciers had no ink-stand or breakable orna- ments, I do not know. Certainly however to any one who lives without these amenities, I can recommend a hare as the most charm- ing pet possible. She found by experiment that one particular door (of four) of a large bird-skin cabinet was specially resonant, and she delighted to drum on it with her fore feet for long and frequent spells. For an interest- ing and amusing account of a tame hare, I would recommend any one interested to read a paper by Mr. R. Deane, F.L.S., in the Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, xxvii. pt. ii. 1894-5. I venture to offer a suggestion as to the preparation of hares for the table. Contrary to the accepted custom, draw as soon as possible after death, including in this removal the liver, which allows the blood to run. Then hang the hare by the chin instead of the hind legs, which promotes the drainage of the blood, and the result is something distantly approaching the highly es- teemed ' hunted hare.'

[Mountain or Blue Hare. Lepus timidus, Linn.

The blue hare has never existed as an in- digenous animal so far to the south as Bucks ; at any rate within historic times.]

30. Rabbit. Lepus cuniculus, Linn.

Bucks contains no great rabbit-warren or preserve on so large a scale as some other counties, but rabbits are nevertheless ubiqui- tous and very common ; and in some parks and other places the ground is literally honey- combed by them. Rabbits, like probably every kind of herbivorous animal, vary in size according to the locality they come from ; the chemical properties of the soil producing varying degrees of nutriment in the herbage of which their food consists. All about the parish of Great Marlow in which I lived un- til recently, rabbits were small. Tame rab- bits breed during the greater part of the year, but cease to do so during the winter months ; but with the wild rabbit the case appears to be different. When shooting in September one constantly sees little rabbits which have but lately emerged from the nest, but few does at that time contain foetuses ; later in the season however, during December and especially January (in most years) almost every doe rabbit is heavy in young. Five seems to be the most usual number for a litter, then four ; and nine is the largest number I have met with. Tame rabbits produce of course much larger litters. The intestines of rabbits are largely infested with tape-worms ; and besides these, scolices of a different species are almost invariably present on the rectum, and generally on the mesentery as well. These are rounded gelatinous bodies, rather smaller than a dried pea. Sometimes they are present in clusters to the number of thirty or even more, while it is exceptional to find an adult rabbit that does not harbour at least two or three. Rabbits frequently also harbour small flukes (Distoma). In the autumn they are sometimes half covered by harvest-bugs.

Mrs. Raikes of Chandos Villa, Bucking- ham, informs me (in litt. 9 May 1903) that there are in that neighbourhood (apparently

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Rh in the park at Stowe) wild rabbits of various colours, viz. white, black, silver-gray, spotted and brown in plenty. No doubt these must be the descendants of tame rabbits introduced for the sake of variety.

Mr. W. Uthwatt writes:

I have seen a stoat after a young rabbit, and the old one come out and kick the stoat over with its hind foot, and the stoat run away. They all seem to go in one run when going out to feed, and all migrate in a body when there is insufficient food, or the place has been disturbed.

Deer only exist in Bucks at the present time in some seven parks. Of these parks five contain

31. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn.

Ashridge Park (Earl Brownlow). the larger half of which is in Herts is the only one where the species can be considered as likely to be indigenous, or enclosed while wild red deer still roamed the county, it having been enclosed at any rate since 1286. ' The close of the Park ' of the manor of Ashridge (then about 1,300 acres) was given in that year by the Earl of Cornwall to the Rector and Fraternity of Bonhommes; and a confirmation of this charter was granted by Edward I. two years later. ' The Park, about five miles in circumference,. . . was anciently in two divisions, one of them stocked with fallow deer and the other with red deer.' Lipscomb states that the park contains about 1,500 acres, of which 385 are in Pitstone parish, 258 in Ivinghoe and the remaining larger half in Hertfordshire; but Mr. Whitaker gives the total acreage at the present time as 1,100, and the number of red deer as 1OO.

Fawley Court Park. Within two miles of Henley, a portion of the park being in Oxfordshire. The park was formed afresh and stocked with deer by Mr. W. D. Mackenzie, the owner (whom I have to thank for the following information), about 1 88 1, and in June 1901 contained eighty to ninety red deer. It consists of about 250 acres. The red deer here are full grown at about seven years old, and improve up to twelve years, after which they go back. Duration of life believed to be about twenty years. A stag which had a splendid head of fourteen points for two years was shot the succeeding year (about 1886), and had then a poor head of ten points. He was an old animal, and the grazing was very short that year. The master stag was once killed during the rutting season by the two next best stags; he had something like seventy wounds on him. One Easter Sunday (about 1897) a fine stag was found by the keeper with his horns right through the master stag, who had just shed his horns; they were both dying when found. The younger stag was believed to have harboured a grudge against the master stag since the rutting season in the previous October. The chief rutting season here is early in October; calves are born in April and May. The horns of the older stags are shed early in April, but the last horns of the younger animals are not shed until the middle of May. Number of points, ten to twelve when five years old, and then run up as high as eighteen points. In hard weather the deer are given a few locust beans and acorns, a little hay, and ash-poles to bark. A deer park existed here at the breaking out of the Civil War, but the park pales were broken down and the deer destroyed by Prince Rupert's troops. In Memorials of the English Affairs it is stated that in 1642

' Prince Rupert ranged abroad with great Parties, who committed strange Insolences, and Violences, upon the Country. . . . They broke down my Park Pales, killed most of my Deer, though Rascal and Carrion, and let out all the rest, only a tame young Stag, they carried away and presented to Prince Rupert, and my Hounds which were extraordinary good.'

The allusion to a ' young stag ' shows that there were red deer here at that date. Fawley Park is mentioned in Memoirs of the Verney Family. 'In the spring of 1660 "Cousin Winwood " is negotiating for Sir Ralph the purchase of " my Lord Whitlocke's deere," which has also to be discreetly managed, for " if it be knowne at Henley that the deere are sould, my Lord being now under a little cloud, they will endeavour to share with his Lordshipp, therefore the sooner & the privater

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Rh the businesse bee doun the better." ' The portion of the park between the Court and the Marlow Road (formerly called Fawley Lane) is still called ' The Lawn,' as Mr. Mackenzie informs me, a term used of parts of deer parks.

Langley Park. Red deer were introduced into the old-established deer park about the sixties or early seventies by the late Sir Robert Bateson Harvey, bart., father of Sir Robert G. Harvey the present owner, whom I have to thank for information. They were purchased by him at Whittlebury (just over the borders of the county in Northamptonshire, adjoining Lillingstone Lovell), when that property was sold at the death of Lord Southampton. Twenty-five animals were brought here, and another twenty-five were purchased by the late Mr. Coleman, then owner of Stoke Park, and introduced there. The late Sir Robert Harvey also bought (elsewhere) some white red deer, of the same strain as those at Windsor and Welbeck, which are believed to have origin- ally come to England from a royal park in Denmark. In 1887 the present Sir Robert Harvey killed off all the normally-coloured red deer, leaving only the white specimens. Hinds still occasionally throw red calves, but they never now throw one of intermediate colour. At the present time they number about seventy, and all are white. The best white stag once had twenty-three points. Sir Robert Harvey has recently considerably reduced the herds in the park. There are also fallow deer, about forty Japanese deer, which came from Sir Victor Brooke's park, Colebrook (where they were introduced by him and Lord Powers- court from Japan) ; and a flock of (so-called) St. Kilda four-horned black sheep. The ground accessible to the deer comprises 383 acres.

Stoke Park, Stoke Pages.— Mr. W. Bryant, the owner, kindly informs me that the park contains about 100 red deer and comprises 500 acres. Sir Robert Harvey has kindly informed me that though this has been a deer park from time immemorial, red deer were added only some forty years ago by Mr. Cole- man, the then owner, being obtained from Whittlebury in Northants. Shirley states that Sir John de Molins obtained licence from Edward III. to empark his woods here in 1337, having in 1331 obtained permission to embattle his houses here and at Ditton.

Stowe Park.The manor belonged to Ose- ney Abbey until the dissolution of monasteries, and no deer seem to have been kept here until about 1651, when, according to Browne Willis, Sir Peter Temple ' enclosed a Park on the disparking of Wicken Park, Co. Northampton, by the Lord Spencer, the Deer of which he bought.' Whitaker gives the number of red deer as twenty.

32. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn.

Probably not indigenous to Great Britain ; and only occurring in Bucks in seven parks.

Ashridge.In addition to red deer, Mr. Whitaker stated the number of fallow deer (1892) as 300.

Biddlesden Park. The fallow deer, accord- ing to Whitaker (1892) numbered 160. He states that this is the ancient deer park of the Cistercian Abbey which existed here, dating from 112O. Extent about 150 acres.

Fawley Court Park. In addition to red deer, forty to fifty Japanese deer and three Axis deer, contains about sixty to eighty fal- low deer. The species was introduced by Mr. Mackenzie about 1881. The fallow deer here include both the brown and the spotted varieties.

Langley Park.In addition to red deer, about forty Japanese deer, and a flock of so- called S. Kilda four-horned black sheep, con- tains at the present time about forty fallow deer, the number having been recently re- duced. Whitaker (in 1892) gives the num- ber of fallow deer as about eighty. On visiting this park, by kind permission of Sir Robert Harvey, in April 1903, 1 saw five of this species quite white, and three or four others very light coloured. This was a royal park until sold by Charles I. to Sir John Kederminster in 1626. This park is mentioned in a deed quoted by Lipscomb dated 1523; and ' the bucks and does therein,' i.e. fallow deer, are mentioned in 1551, when Edward VI. gave this manor and park to his sister the princess Elizabeth. In an MS. in the British Museum written by J. Norden, Surveyor of the Woods to James I., this park is alluded to as ' Lang- ley Parke,. . . whereof M. Edmond Keder- minster is keper, hath about 1 40 fallow deere, about 35 of antler, about 14 buckes.' ' Deer of antler ' would mean the young males, the ' buckes ' being only those of four years and upwards.

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Rh Stoke Park.In addition to red deer, Mr. W. Bryant, the owner, kindly informs me that there are at present about 100 fallow deer here. Whitaker (1892) stated the number at about 200.

Stowe Park. In addition to red deer, it is stated by Whitaker (1892) to contain about eighty-six fallow deer. Lipscomb's plate of this house shows deer in the park. Whaddon Hall. Up to 1840, deer, apparently red as well as fallow, existed in a wild state in Whaddon Chase, some 2,200 acres; but now the chase is enclosed and in great part cultivated, and the deer destroyed. Only some fifty head of fallow deer remain in the park. Evidence of the existence of the Chase and of the ' venison ' contained therein, as early as the reign of William Rufus is furnished by Lipscomb.

Besides the above mentioned deer parks, deer were formerly living at the following places, and I do not suppose this list is a complete one.

Bernwood Forest. Originally the western portion of the great Chiltern Forest. It doubtless contained red deer as well as fallow, though only the latter are actually mentioned in inquisitions recorded in the chartulary of Boarstall, where in 1363 and 1364 three persons were severally accused that each ' interfecit unam damam.' Bernwood was disforested in the reign of James I., though very likely fallow deer at any rate remained later at Boarstall, where another estate called 'The New Park' is mentioned in 1654.

Bulstrode Park.In Hedgerley parish, containing about 800 acres, is mentioned by Lipscomb as 'stocked with a great number of deer,' and is included in Shirley's English Deer Parks, published in 1867. A print in my collection, labelled ' Bulstrode, Buckinghamshire,' engraved by Walker from an original drawing by Corbould, published 1794, shows numerous deer in the park; three in the foreground are drawn with unmistakable red deer horns, though of course this evidence as to species is quite untrustworthy. In a paper in the Records of Bucks, v. 330, the late Rev. Bryant Burgess stated that the last Duke of Portland who lived here, apparently meaning the third duke, as the fourth duke sold the property in his lifetime in 1814, directed in his will that the fine herd of deer in the park should be killed and buried. The executors faithfully carried out this direction, but the venison was dug up again before it had become high. If this story is true deer may have been subsequently reintroduced.

Claydon House.In the third volume of Memoirs of the Verney Family are quoted several attempts of Sir Ralph Verney to purchase deer for the park at Claydon. In 1657 we are told that ' Sir Ralph's next project was to have a deer-park.' Apparently the idea was put into his head by acting as agent or ambassador for his cousin, Richard Winwood of Quainton. On 28 December of that year (?) (misprinted 1688), Sir Ralph induced his uncle, Doctor Denton, to accompany him to the Fleet prison, to bargain with Lord Monson, an Irish peer, one of the regicides, for his herd of deer at Grafton Regis Park, just over the Northants border west of Hanslope, which ' Cousin Winwood ' was anxious to buy, ' where ' (as Sir Ralph wrote next day):

at first my Lord, having almost forgot my Uncle, seemed somewhat shy, and carelesse of parting with his Deere, but as soon as hee caled him to minde, confessed clearly they cost him money, and yeelded him neither profit, nor pleasure, and was very inquisitive what his Friend would give (for you were never named), and at last told him, hee knew not what to aske, but intreated him. . . to get as much as hee could for a Poore Prisoner.

The negotiations begun with Lord Monson in the Fleet prison for the purchase of deer stretched over a considerable time. Doll Smith (Dorothy Hobart, who married W. Smith of Akeley, afterwards Sir William) wrote (27 October 1657) of some deer offered to her husband from Lord Gray's park (apparently in Herts, somewhere near St. Albans):

. . . but non but dows, & fawnes, and prickets & prickets sisters. . . twenty shillins a peece for all thees, one with another, & that he must be tyed to take twenty brace of them for else they will not bestow the making of a cops to take them.

About the same time Thomas Stafford was procuring deer for Sir Ralph from Mr. Dodesworth of Harrold Park in Beds, about five miles north-east of Olney.

In June 1658 (?), after an infinite amount of negotiation, Lord Monson was ready to accept an offer for his deer at Grafton Park; Sir Ralph intended to buy them all and then to divide them with ' Cousin Winwood.' On 1 January 1659 the latter wrote:

Because you desire to know what price I can

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1. Perch. Perca fluviatilis, Linn.

These are among the most highly esteemed of the fish found in the Thames, the Colne and the Thame. They are most plentiful in the first named river, but do not attain the large weights which were not uncommon some twenty years ago. The writer was acquainted with two anglers, both dead now, who had caught several perch weighing 3 lb. in the Thames bordering Buckingham- shire. At the present day a fish of 2lb. is considered a remarkably fine specimen. For edible purposes the perch of the Thames take a high rank, and are considered by some superior to Thames trout. There would without doubt be ten times as many perch in the Thames as there are if the numbers of swans and tame ducks which are allowed to be on the river during the spawning sea- son could be materially reduced. Perch de- posit their spawn on weeds and very near the surface, where it lies an easy prey to water- fowl. In the spawning season ducks may be seen working up and down the banks of the river devouring every ribbon of spawn which has been deposited, and it is surprising under the circumstances that perch have not been wholly exterminated.

2. Ruffe (Pope). Acerina cernua, Linn.

This fish is fairly common in the Thames. It is not specially fished for on account of its small size, though it is a sweet little fish on the table.

3. Miller's Thumb (Bullhead). Cottus gobio, Linn.

Wherever there is a clear flowing brook, and in some parts of the Thames and its larger tributaries, these fish are found.

4. Three-spined Stickleback. Gastresteus acuieatus, Linn.

This is a common fish in all the waters of the county, particularly in the stagnant por- tions of them. It is an extremely harmful fish to have in rivers, and should be destroyed wherever possible, as it feeds largely on the fry of other fish. The writer has seen it clear a globe full of bleak fry in the course of a few minutes.

5. Ten-spined Stickleback. Gastrosteus pungitius, Linn.

This little fish is found in the county. An instance was recorded in The Field on January, 1902, when the Rev. J. P. Langley of Olney, north Bucks, stated that he had captured a specimen and kept it in his aquarium for some time.

6. Pike (Jack). Esox lucius, Linn.

The pike fishing in Buckinghamshire is among the best in the kingdom, the Thames yielding annually a very fair number of large fish. Since trailing was abolished by the Conservators at the request of the fishery preservation associations pike have certainly increased in numbers, but their average size is not nearly so great as it was a quarter of a century ago. In the Colne and Thame pike are less numerous than in the Thames.

7. Carp. Cyprinus carpio, Linn.

The Thames contains a few of these fish which are caught occasionally. It is believed that they have found their way into the river by escaping from ponds and lakes during floods. They are found in several private sheets of water in the county, and grow to a considerable size.

8. Gudgeon. Gobio fluviatilis, Flem. The Thames, particularly the portion in Buckinghamshire, has long been noted for its gudgeon fishing. It is practically the only river where this little fish is systematically angled for from punts. It is feared that owing to over-fishing, and the injury done to the eggs of the fish by the steam traffic, the gudgeon has seriously decreased in num- bers. Certainly not nearly so many are now caught as was the case ten or fifteen years ago. Thames gudgeon run to a large size, and are highly esteemed as breakfast fish at Thames- side hotels.

9. Roach. Leuciscus rutilus. Linn.

The roach of the Colne run to a consider- able size, and are somewhat finer in their proportions than those in the Thames. In many ponds and lakes, and in the Thames, Colne and Thame the fish are plentiful, and many thousands are taken out by anglers in the course of the year. Like all other Thames fish they are strictly preserved during the spawning season.

10. Rudd. Leuciscus erythrophthalmus. Linn. It is doubtful whether any of these fish are still to be found in the Thames, but they are

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Rh caught in great quantities in a few private ponds and lakes. They were without doubt present in the Thames some years ago, but being easily captured have perhaps been ex- terminated.

11 . Dace. Leudscus dobula, Linn. (L. vulgaris, Day).

As we descend the Thames these fish, which are somewhat scarce in the upper reaches, become more plentiful, but in Buck- inghamshire they by no means rival the roach in numbers, nor do they grow to a very re- markable size. In the Colne they run to a better average size than in the Thames, and rise more readily to the fly.

12. Chub. Leudscus cephalus, Linn.

These are river fish and are fairly plentiful in the Thames, but less so in the Colne and the Thame. They grow to a considerable size in the Thames and also in the Ouse. In the former the steam traffic and the anglers together have decimated them ; and whereas in former years an angler with a fly would often take 40 lb. weight of these fish in a day he now deems himself fortunate if he secures a bag of 10 or 15 lb. These fish run up to about 5 lb. in weight, and are most numerous in the Buckinghamshire por- tion of the Thames between Remenham and Maidenhead.

13. Minnow. Leudscus phoxinus, Linn.

All the rivers of any importance in the county contain minnows, which, strange to say, are rapidly decreasing in numbers in the Thames. It is believed that the cause of this is the steam traffic, as it cannot be said that they have either been poached or caught in too great numbers by anglers. The Colne minnows are finer than those found in the Thames.

14. Tench. Tinea vulgarlis Cuv.

Tench are found in the Thames, the Colne, the Thame and the Ouse, but are more plentiful in ponds and lakes, and more frequently caught in still waters. Those from the Thames are considered excellent eating ; but they are a shy fish, not easily captured, and therefore not much sought after. Those which are taken from the Thames generally vary from 1lb. 104 Ib. in weight.

15. Bream. Abramis brama, Linn.

Are extremely scarce in the upper reaches of the Buckinghamshire portions of the Thames, but get more frequent as we approach the tideway. A few were turned in below Henley by the Henley Fishery Association, and some of these are occasion- ally caught. One was taken in 1902 be- tween Marlow and Henley weighing 6 Ib.

16. Bleak. Alburnus luddus, Heck, and Kner.

These are quite common fish in the Thames. They are little sought after ex- cept by children, their only use being as bait for Thames trout, pike and large perch. The Thames probably produces greater numbers of these fish than any river in England. From their scales was formerly obtained the silvery matter used in the manufacture of artificial pearls.

17. Loach. Nemachilus barbatulus, Linn.

Loach are found in the rivers and brooks in the county, but it cannot be regarded as a common fish except in certain localities.

18. Spined Loach. Cobitis tænia, Linn. In Bucks and in England generally this fish is both local and rare. In The Field of 31 January, 1902, the Rev. J. P. Langley of Olney, north Bucks, stated that he had caught a specimen, which he kept for some time in his aquarium.

19. Trout (Brown Trout). Salmo fario, Linn.

Very large sums of money have been spent in turning trout into the Thames, and now that the manner in which it should be done is better known the results should be still more satisfactory. At the Anglers' Hotel at Great Marlow are splendid specimens of Thames trout which have been caught in the district. It does not appear that these fish breed in the Thames to any extent, and the brooks up which they might run to breed are extremely few in number. The Thames therefore has for the most part to rely for its trout on the restocking operations mentioned. Like the Thames the Colne is noted for the fine trout it produces.

20. Rainbow Trout. Salmo irideus, Gibbons.

This fish has been introduced into the Thames comparatively recently, and it is difficult to say yet whether it will remain in its new quarters. As fish culturists find it a somewhat easier fish to rear and breed than Salmo fario it is possible that it may breed in the Thames to a greater extent than the native trout.

21. Grayling. Thymallus vulgaris, Nilss.

This is a very uncommon fish in the county. One straying from a Berkshire tributary is occasionally found in the Thames.

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Rh produced very remarkable trout, remarkable, that is to say, having regard to the size of the little stream. The fish, which have a high reputation among owners of trout streams, have been sent to various parts of the kingdom, and many have been turned into the Thames.

It is a matter to be proud of that Buckinghamshire produces, so far as it is a riparian county, some of the finest river trout of Great Britain; for those found in the Thames are far superior to those bred in any other home river, and to find their rivals or superiors we have to go to the great rivers of the antipodes which have been stocked by eggs sent out from England and Scotland, or to some of our great lakes. Another feature of the county connected with fish life is the large barbel which are found in the Thames. These fish are, on the other hand, almost absent from the Ouse; we say ' almost ' because they have only been introduced there within living memory and are still scarce. But the slow flowing river produces huge shoals of bream, which are wanting in most parts of the Thames, and are only found in any quantities in the lower waters. Some have been introduced in the neighbourhood of Henley, and there are indications of an increase in the upper Thames. Now and again one is caught by an angler not fishing specially for them.

Next to the Thames the most important river in Buckinghamshire is its tributary the Colne, which produces exceptionally large roach, dace and chub, and beautifully marked trout, all being noted for the excellence of their condition. The feeding for fish in the Colne is, as a matter of fact, somewhat superior to that in the Thames; but pollutions from paper mills and other sources have unfortunately much injured this fine tributary river.

Tench are comparatively common in the Thames, but are not often caught by the angler. Now and again carp are taken, but these are probably scarce. They are more of a lake than a river fish, both they and the tench usually attaining considerable size. The rainbow trout (Salmo irideus) has been placed in the Thames and in a few private sheets of water; in these latter it flourishes exceedingly well, grows rapidly and is excellent on the table. What its future will be so far as the Thames is concerned it is impossible at present to say. In many rivers where it has been placed it has forthwith disappeared, but the experiments with it have not been carried out on a large scale. Owing to its being a rapid grower and enormous eater it sometimes travels in search of food far from the place where it was turned in, and like the brown trout of some rivers it gradually drops down to the sea. There is such a large quantity of food in Buckinghamshire's chief river that we may hope this very beautiful fish will be satisfied with Father Thames's commissariat, and remain with us. The fish is a native of the United States, and is closely related to the steelhead salmon. It may be known by its being for the most part a silvery fish covered with a very large number of small spots, while along its lateral line is a broad translucent rose-coloured band.

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Rh little white and blind lodger in ants' nests, Platyarlhrus hoffmannseggii, Brandt. Mr. Webb has found it at Langley. Sars ascribes to the short flattened second antennas a ' flagellum only consisting of a single joint.' Bate and Westwood speak of this flagellum as having ' a slight indication of a joint at its base.' Budde-Lund more correctly describes it as twojointed, with the explanation that ' the first joint is very minute, scarcely conspicuous, very much shorter than the second.' This joint is in fact quite distinct, but apt to be obscured by telescoping into the preceding joint of the peduncle. In this species the inner branch of the uropods projects much beyond the apex of the body.

In the family Armadillidiidas, so well known from their habit of rolling themselves up into neat little globes with a pill-like appearance, the customary Armadillidium vulgare (Latreille) has been sent me from Eton and Lane End, the latter locality furnishing large and brightlymarked specimens and some of a clear brown in the ground colour.

For the Entomostraca of the county I have to rely exclusively on lists of names. But as these have been supplied me in the most obliging way by Mr. D. J. Scourfield it would be superfluous to wish for and difficult to find a better authority on which to place reliance. The catalogue illustrates, though very unequally, all the three orders of this great group, the ' gill-footed 'Branchiopoda, the 'shell-enfolded ' Ostracoda, and the ' oarfooted ' Copepoda. Of the first the only sub-order to come under notice is that of the ' antlered ' Cladocera. Of these Mr. Scourfield has identified thirteen species, a satisfactory instalment for the encouragement of future research. They are distributed between two families, the Daphniidæas and the Chydoridæas. One of the marks separating these two consists in the fact that the latter have a looped intestine, while in the former this convolution is not present. In both cases a glassy transparence of the chitinous envelope implies that one may without rudeness inspect the internal mechanism. Besides the simpler form of their inward parts, the Daphniidæse have one branch of the second antennas four-jointed and the other three-jointed, to distinguish them from the Chydoridæ, which have both branches three-jointed. Three species representing as many genera of the Daphniidæ have to be named. Ceriodaphnia quadrangula (O. F. Müller) was obtained from the lake in Stoke Park, Stoke Poges. In the genus to which this tiny species belongs there is no distinct rostrum. In the next two genera that feature is distinct. Simocepbalus vetullus (O. F. Müller) was found both at Stoke Park and in a pond at Burnham Beeches. Its generic name, being preoccupied, has recently been changed by the Rev. Dr. Norman, F.R.S., so that the species must henceforth be known as Simosa vetula. The second of the localities just named yielded also Scapholeberis mucronata (O. F. Müller). In the latter genus the valves have the junction of the hinder and lower margins marked by an acute process, or at least a more or less acute angle, whereas in Simosa the meeting of the margins is rounded off.

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Rh Of late years they have been introduced into the Colne in the neighbourhood of Rickmans- worth, where small fish have been taken recently by anglers, thus indicating that this species is breeding in that locality. The late Mr. Panmure Gordon introduced them into the Chess, a tributary of the Colne, whence no doubt some have dropped down into the larger river.

22. Eel. Anguilla vulgaris, Turt.

The eel fisheries of the Thames used to be of considerable importance, for the little elvers from the sea found their way (and still find it, though in decreasing numbers) up the whole length of the river and its various tributaries. Many of the huge baskets known as eel bucks, which were used in catching these fish, have now been dismantled, and owing to the pollu- tion of the estuary, so it is believed, there are not so many eels as formerly. At the same time the eel is a very common fish in the Thames and the Colne, and is still more plentiful in the Ouse. There is only one species found in British rivers, the difference between eels with broad nose or pointed nose being merely one of sex.

23. Lampern. Petromyzon fluviatilis, Linn.

The Thames lampern fisheries were at one time famous, over a million of these fish a year being captured between the estuary and Taplow ; but the modern system of locks and weirs has placed difficulties in the way of their ascent, over-fishing has left its mark, and very few are now taken above the tideway. Now and again a specimen is found in an eel basket.

24. Mud Lamprey (Pride, Blind Lamprey and Fringe-lipped Lamprey). Petromyzon branchialis, Linn.

This curious little fish is still found in the Thames, but not in large quantities. It is to be seen in the spawning season on the shal- lows of clear running brooks flowing into the main river.

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Of the ChydoridjE our list contains ten species distributed among seven genera, in the first five of which the head is not carinate above, in contrast with the other two in which it has a high thin keel. In Chydorus, Leach, from which as its oldest genus the family properly takes its name, the general form of the body in the female seen in profile is rounded or more or less globose. This character is further alluded to in the specific name of C. sphæricus (O. F. Mller), which is regarded as absolutely the commonest of all our British Cladocera. It was taken at Stoke Park and Burnham Beeches, and also in a pond on a common near the beeches. At the last of these localities there occurred with it llC. latusll, Sars. Among the distinctions between these two species the microscopist will be interested to observe that in C. sphæricus the length of the female is less than half a millimetre, whereas in C.latus it is equal to or a little greater than that half. The female therefore of the smaller species is less than a fiftieth of an inch long ; the male in each case is smaller than the female. Peracantha truncata (O. F. Müller) was taken both at Stoke Park and Burnham Beeches, Alonella rostrata (Koch) at the park, A. nana (Baird) at the beeches. In these two genera the fe- male seen in profile is not rounded, and while her rostrum in Peracantha is long and very acute, in Alonella it is not long and little acuminate. It must not however be dissembled that a beginner attempting to dis- criminate genera by help of one or two characters will find various stumbling blocks in his path. For instance, Professor Lilljeborg, from whose fine work on the Cladocera of Sweden these distinctions have been borrowed, says when describing the species A. nana that the general form of body in the female seen in profile is roundly subovate or sometimes almost rounded. Between the rounded Chydorus and the almost rounded Alonella the difference appeals to considerable acuteness of observation, when in one genus we are dealing with a species about a fiftieth, in the other with one about a hundredth, of an inch long. Again, we find Lilljeborg admitting that there was some reason for transferring Koch's rostrata to Alonella, though he himself prefers to place it in Alona, but is not satisfied that it stands well in either genus. When the seers are thus undecided their disciples are left in the lurch. Graptoleberis testudinaria (Fischer), taken at Burnham Beeches, Alona rectangula, Seers, from the same place, and A. quadrangularis (O. F. Müller) from Stoke Park, illustrate two genera which have the hind margin of the valves nearly equal to the greatest height of the valves, in contrast with the three preceding genera in which the hind margin is much less than that height. The altitude, it should be observed, is measured not from head to tail, but between the dorsal and ventral margins.

In Alona the rostral part of the head when seen in profile is narrowed and more or less acuminate. In Graptoleberis on the contrary this part from the same point of view is broad and rounded, so as to have a very characteristic appearance. Camptocercus rectirostris, Schöd-

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There are few if any published records of the occurrence of even the commonest species of reptiles and batrachians in Buckinghamshire, but enquiries made of observers in different districts show that of our six species of native reptiles five are to be found within the confines of the county. The absentee is the smooth snake (Coronella lævis), whose claim to be considered a British species is now generally admitted, but, although common on the continent, it is of rather rare occurrence in this country. There is, I think, no reason why it should not be found in the county, for I am informed by Mr. M. D. Hill, B.A., F.Z.S., President of the Windsor and Eton Scientific Society, that both the smooth snake and the sand lizard have been reported from the Ascot district of the adjoining county of Berks. Of the tailless batrachians admitted to the British list three are said to occur, the fourth, which is the edible frog (Rana esculenta), being an introduced species now naturalized in the Fens and other localities in the eastern counties. The three British caudate batrachians have been observed.

It is an unfortunate fact that our reptiles are gradually disappear- ing. Snakes are usually killed at sight, probably through inability on the part of most people to distinguish our one venomous species, the adder or viper, from its harmless relatives. Old inhabitants inform me that half a century ago the common ringed snake and the slow-worm were abundant in many parts of the county where they are now infre- quently seen or have altogether disappeared. The adder, too, is far less often met with than in days gone by, when these creatures were a real danger in the places which they frequented. Mr. T. D. Phillips of Aspley Heath informs me that in the Woburn Sands and adjoining dis- tricts, lying on the borders of Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, very few reptiles are now found. He recollects when a boy that a different state of things prevailed, and that he and his companions used to organize snake-hunting excursions, seldom returning home without having accounted for four or five of one species or another. Once in early March, when out rabbiting with his father and others, they found such a number of adders in a disused sand-pit that it became necessary to call off the dogs and go to another part of the wood. The same observer con- tributes an interesting personal experience on the vexed question of the female adder swallowing her young for purposes of safety. He states that on the occasion just referred to he actually witnessed this phenomenon,

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Rh and after the creature had been killed by one of the keepers it was opened and the young ones were found to be alive and well. An old labourer, now in my employ, named Arthur Figg, who was born at Ascot near Princes Risborough, and spent his early days in that locality, tells me that when a boy he used to catch vipers in a curious way. A red rag was tied at the end of a stick, and with this the reptile was teased until it became cross, when it would strike at and seize the rag in its mouth and was then easily despatched. If vipers became particularly abundant in any spot they were killed by setting fire to the bushes and undergrowth. The farmers had a habit of feeding them to keep them from attacking the cows. It is to be feared, too, that the popular belief that lizards and newts ' dry efts ' and ' wet efts,' as they are called by the country people can sting is responsible for the destruction of a great many of these harmless creatures. Especially is this true in the case of the lizards, which are now comparatively rare in Buckinghamshire.

1. Common Lizard. Lacerta vivipara Jacq.

There can be little doubt that this is generally distributed over the county, but I am only able to mention two localities in which it has been seen. Mr. T. D. Phil- lips of The Woodlands, Aspley Heath, records that it is to be found in dry summers in that district. Arthur Figg informs me that it used to be abundant in the neigh- bourhood of Hampden Park, darting about the hedge-banks or basking on stone heaps by the wayside.

2. Sand Lizard. Lacerta agilis, Lichtenst.

Mr. T. D. Phillips reports this species as occurring ' not commonly,' and Mr. Alfred Howard of Luton, formerly of Chesham, informs me that it is to be found on Amer- sham Common.

3. Slow-worm or Blind-worm. Anguis fragilis, Linn.

This harmless creature is the most common reptile in many parts of the county. Although a lizard, it is generally looked upon by country people as a snake and destroyed. Instead of being a foe to man it is really a good friend, its food consisting of slugs, worms and insects, and for this reason alone deserves to be spared. Mr. Alfred Howard says that it is plentiful on the baulks near Chesham ; Arthur Figg used to find it in the neighbourhood of his old home at Ascot, and Mr. Phillips states that it is the commonest reptile on the Bedfordshire border, but that in 1903 he only saw two specimens.

4. Common Ringed or Grass Snake. Tropidonotui natrix, Linn.

Arthur Figg tells me that he used fre- quently to find this snake in the district lying between Princes Risborough, Ellesborough and Little Missenden. Mr. Phillips says the species is by no means common in his neighbourhood. Mr. Elliman was shown by a gamekeeper two or three years ago three fine specimens of the ringed snake strung up in a hedge near Chesham, his record of its occurrence in that neighbourhood being con- firmed by Dr. Churchill of the same town, who speaks of both this species and the viper occurring there. Mr. Alfred Howard men- tions the neighbourhood of Amersham as a locality for Tropldonotus natrix.

5. Viper or Adder. Vipera berus, Linn.

This reptile appears to be generally pre- sent, though as before mentioned it is not now common. Mr. E. George Elliman of the Broadway, Chesham, writes that in the summer of 1893 he disturbed three adders lying together sunning themselves at the edge of a clump of beech trees on the Aston Hills. He killed one of them which measured about twelve inches long, the two which escaped being about the same length. Mr. T. D. Phillips remarks that he has mostly noticed

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Rh adders basking in the month of March. This observer attributes their decreasing numbers in some degree to the woods and heaths, their usual haunts, being more frequented by people than formerly, and consequently they are killed in larger numbers. Mr. Alfred Howard says that adders are to be found on Amersham Common.

1. Common Frog. Rana temporaria, Linn.

This species is abundant everywhere in damp places. All observers report its common occurrence.

2. Common Toad. Bufo vulgaris Laur.

This also is of general distribution in Buckinghamshire.

3. Natterjack Toad. Bufo calamita, Laur.

Mr. T. D. Phillips informs me that the natterjack toad, though far from common, is to be found in certain places on the north- eastern borders of the county. It is locally known as the ' golden-back ' from the bright yellow or cream-coloured line down the centre of the back.

4. Great Crested Newt. Molge criitata, Laur.

This appears to be abundant, though probably less so than the common newt. Mr. T. D. Phillips states that both these ' efts ' are to be found plentifully in the ponds near Woburn Sands and Aspley Heath.

5. Common Newt. Molge vulgaris, Linn.

Abundant in ponds and ditches throughout the county.

6. Palmated Newt. Molge palmata, Schn.

This species is not of very common occur- rence in the Aspley Heath neighbourhood, where Mr. T. D. Phillips records its presence. Mr. M. D. Hill reports that the three species of Molge are to be found in the county.

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 The list of the birds of Buckinghamshire does not compare very favourably with those of many other counties. It is an inland county, and therefore the numerous birds frequenting or occasionally visiting our coasts are absent or scarce. Compared with many other counties the number of collectors and field-ornithologists is small, and it seems to us that the country people generally are less observant than they are in some other parts of England.

On the other hand it has a variety of scenery, which has an impor- tant influence on the number of species of its birds. Most of the southern portion of the county is hilly. The ' Chiltern Hundreds ' and ' Chiltern Hills ' are dry, chalky hills, partly wooded, although in places rather bare, and are the home of cirl buntings (Emberiza cirlus), long-eared owls (Asio otus) and others.

The southern line of Buckinghamshire is separated by the Thames from Berkshire, and this river of course adds many species which would otherwise not occur in the county. The Vale of Aylesbury and- the flat, for a great part grass-covered, northern portion are very fertile, and possess streams and reservoirs, beautifully wooded parks and gardens, which are well stocked with birds.

We cannot avoid mentioning the Tring reservoirs, which comprise the large reservoirs near Marsworth, Little Tring, and Wilstone. These reservoirs were until quite recently large sheets of water, and they have always been visited by many water and shore birds, otherwise rare and unknown in the neighbourhood. They are well known as places where the great crested grebe (Podiceps crisfatus), numerous ducks and other birds breed. They have not been neglected by ornithologists. In for- mer years the late Rev. James Williams took some rare eggs on and near the reservoirs, which are now mostly in the collection of Miss Ellen Williams of Tring. The Rev. H. Harpur Crewe collated many notes on the birds frequenting these waters, which are mostly included in Mr. Clark Kennedy's book, and more recently the late Mr. J. E. Littleboy published many notes on birds from this neighbourhood supplied him by Mr. Rothschild ; Mr. Alan F. Grossman also has often visited the reser- voirs and obtained notes from the keeper Street. While the Rev. H. H. Crewe claimed the notes on birds recorded from the reservoirs for Buck- inghamshire, and Kennedy incorporated them in his Birds of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, Littleboy and Grossman have given all their notes in

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Rh but as both the Marsworth and Wilstone reservoirs are hard on the borders of Buckinghamshire, they must be taken into consideration when treating of the ornis of this county, at the risk of being accused of overstepping our boundary. We are very sorry to say that owing to the drought of the last three or four years, and the fact that the canal company are pumping out the water in great quantities, the Tring reservoirs are decreasing in volume at an alarming rate and are being abandoned by some of the more interesting breeding birds; and it is to be feared that very shortly nearly all the ornithological interest attached to these waters will have entirely vanished. A very fine place for water birds is the Halton (or Weston Turville) reservoir, which has so far retained its former volume of water.

We are very much obliged to a number of friends and correspondents who have most kindly supplied us with notes of their observations on birds. The Rev. Hubert D. Astley, until recently residing at Chequers Court, gave us notes on the birds of that district. Mr. A. Heneage Cocks supplied us with records from the neighbourhood of High Wycombe and the Thames. Mr. Alan F. Grossman supplied us with some observations made in south Buckinghamshire, and from Messrs. Heatley Noble and Charles J. Wilson we received several interesting communications.

Colonel Goodall of Dinton Hall extracted most valuable information from an old manuscript work at Dinton Hall, in which birds obtained in that neighbourhood are well figured and described. This work was commenced by his great grandfather, Sir John van Hatten, in 1772, and the notes are continued by the Rev. W. Goodall into the beginning of the nineteenth century. Both authors of this treatise have been permitted to look over the work and have verified the statements made in it.

Only one book on the birds of the county exists at the present. In 1868 appeared a handsome little volume of 232 pages entitled The Birds of Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, by Alexander W. M. Clark Kennedy, ' an Eton Boy.' This is a very praiseworthy little book, full of carefully collected and valuable information, though not without its faults. The author was not more than sixteen years old, and it is a pity that he did not endeavour to improve upon this work later and with a more mature experience.

We have strictly followed the nomenclature of Mr. Howard Saunders's list by the editors' request, but in a few cases where we consider a different nomenclature preferable we have, with the permission of the editors, added a note to that effect.

1. Missel-Thrush. Turdus viscivorus, Linn.

Not at all scarce, breeding in all suitable woods, parks and gardens. In autumn and winter they go about in flocks, many of which are doubtless migrants from north Europe.

2. Song-Thrush. Turdus musicus, Linn.

Very common and, like the missel-thrush and blackbird, a very early breeder. The majority of thrushes in the midland counties do not migrate, but stay throughout the

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