Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/241

Rh only species not British I have taken are Anthocharis belemia and Syrichthus laverteræ. Larvae of P. cratægi, B. neustria, D. cæruleocephala, E. lanestris, and an unknown 'egger,' are very numerous, and I daresay a few 'blues' and grass-feeding Satyridæ will turn up later on. The weather here is very unsettled: one day it is bright and hot, with scarcely any wind, and the thermometer up to 70°, and the next day it is cloudy, cold, and blowing, with thermometer down to 55°. I have written to my agents to send me out a breech-loading walking-stick gun, with dust-shot and cartridges, as I should like to skin a few of these small birds while they are in their summer plumage; but this is a tiny den of a place; it is most difficult to do anything, or to stow away things."— (The Vicarage, Bishop's Lydeard, near Taunton).

—When amusing myself not long since in the British Museum Reading Room, I took down from one of the shelves a volume entitled ' Notitiæ Ludæ; or, Notices of Louth.' It was published anonymously in 1834, and I have no idea who was the author. At page 283 is a. list of the birds of the district, prefaced by this remark:—"I observe no other order than that by which I became acquainted with them. Game and such birds as are common I omit; nor is it pretended that I have become acquainted with all the birds which may be seen in the neighbourhood." Amongst the species named are the following:—Long-legged Plover, Crane, Soland Goose, Hoopoe (rare), Egret, Avoset, Gaubet [quære Gambet, i.e. Redshank], Dotterel (plentiful), Spoonbill, Black Wren [quære Black Tern], Shrimp-catcher or Shoveller, Poppinjay [?], Stork (three times in ten years), Ospray, Ptarmigan [!?], Sarcelle (rare) [!]. This book having been privately printed is probably not well known to ornithologists, and for this reason, no doubt, escaped the notice of my friend the author of ' The Birds of the Humber District.' It is to be regretted that the writer "omitted such birds as are common," for it is always interesting to compare the former zoological aspect of a district with its present fauna; and birds that may have been common enough in the neighbourhood of Louth forty-four years ago may be rare, or even unknown there at the present time. With regard to some of the names above given one can only speculate as to the species intended. For example, it is by no means clear what birds are referred to under the names "Poppinjay," "Ptarmigan," and "Sarcelle." The "Poppinjay," I believe, is generally identified with a Parrot of some kind, and in Heraldry is always so represented; but the author of ' Notitæ Luda ' may have bestowed this name on the Jay, possibly under the impression that the name Jay is an abbreviation. Were I not writing these lines away from home and all my books and papers, I might be able to refer to a memorandum of having somewhere read a description or allusion to the Poppinjay which pointed to its identity with