Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/477

Rh believe, seeing how unobservant most people are; but no ornithologist could mistake it: besides the Crested Lark is a somewhat smaller bird—Temmiuck says half an inch shorter than the Sky Lark: this tallies with my observations, as recorded in 'The Zoologist,' 1874, p. 3946. It being a common, though not numerous, species in the North of France, the wonder is that so few cross the channel. A writer quoted by Yarrell says, "I am convinced I have frequently met them in the furrows and meadows of Dublin." Yarrell, apparently, was convinced too. According to old authorities there are two species; but Temminck (and seemingly Le Vaillant) considered the Grosse Allouette hupée a mere variety, saying, "Ce n'est qu'une variété constante du Cochevis ordinaire." With regard to the Greater Crested Lark I can say nothing, never having met with it. The Crested Larks seen in Brittany were decidedly smaller than the Sky Lark; so is this bird.— (Ventnor, Isle of Wight).

—As there has been some little correspondence in 'The Zoologist' respecting the existence of Toads in this country, it may perhaps interest some of your readers to hear that when I was in Kerry, about three months ago, I discovered the Natterjack, Bufo calamita, at Ballycarberry, near Caherciveen, which is quite a new locality for it. I brought two specimens away, and have them now alive beside me in a large box, and they appear to be doing well upon the worms that they are fed with. The only other place where, I believe, they are known to exist is at a distance (over a mountainous road) of about twenty miles, in the same county, from Ballycarberry. They there extend from the sandhills of Inch and Rosbegh to Carrignaferry, a distance of about ten miles in length and breadth. At Ballycarberry the tract they occupy does not exceed one mile in extent, as far as I could make out from the appearance of the ground. Whether the Toad should be considered indigenous to Ireland or not, is a vexed question, as there is an old tradition that some ship brought a lot of them which were liberated in Dingle Bay.— (Castle Connor, Ballina, Co. Mayo).

—At the end of August and beginning of September a number of Sunfish (Orthagoriscus mola) were observed about the mouth of the Bristol Channel. Some were seen close in by the harbour at Ilfracombe. A gentleman fishing for bass on Bideford Bay observed a couple basking on the surface of the water, and another was reported to have been seen on the same day from another boat. These fish are called "Herring Hogs" by the trawlers.— (Bishop's Lydeard).

—On the 10th August last Mr. John Holman, of Topsham, was fishing, with a party of friends, in the estuary of the Exe, off Powderham, which is about three miles from the sea, when they caught in the net a small specimen of the Short Sunfish, Orthagoriscus