Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/111

Rh What I said is, I think, true of Finches, but it can only be extended to other genera with care. Mr. Fox will, I hope, see in another article some notes I had prepared on the other subject he mentions towards the conclusion of his paper, for the kindly criticism of which I am very grateful.— (Lincoln College, Oxford).

Toad in Nest of Titlark.—On the 14th June last year, when exploring some sandhills in the island of Vlieland, in North Holland, I put a Titlark (Anthus pratensis) off her nest, and, on examination, found it contained three eggs, and also what at a first glance I took to be a young bird, and, from its size, perhaps a Cuckoo. On stooping down to examine it closely, I discovered that it was a Toad, and that the bird's eggs were lying on its back. The Toad, on being touched, slowly and deliberately crawled out of the nest, the eggs slipping off its back into the hollow below, and began to bury itself in the sand outside. Inside the nest was an inner rim or ledge, which, from its appearance, looked as if the Toad had rested there some time. Curious to know the effect produced on the eggs, which formed the middle part of this strange sandwich, lying between the breast of a warmblooded bird and the back of a cold-blooded reptile, I broke one of them, and found it nearly fully incubated and healthy. The Toad was a Natterjack (Bufo calamita).— (Row, Doune, Perthshire).

A Monstrous Dinosaur.—Assistant-Professor W.H. Reed, of the Geological University of Wyoming, has made a great discovery by unearthing the petrified bones of the most colossal animal ever taken from the earth's crust. This fossil monster was a dweller in the Jurassic age, a Dinosaur, measuring nearly 130 ft. in length, and being perhaps 35 ft. in height at the hips and 25 ft. at the shoulders—an animal so terrible in size that its petrified skeleton alone is believed to weigh more than 40,000 pounds. Prof. Reed made the great find last August while prospecting for fossils ninety miles north-west of Laramie, and during the time which has elapsed since then the members of the University have been secretly at work in its restoration. The skeleton of the animal is so vast that its smallest bone yet found is more than a man can lift, and, with two men constantly at work, it is believed that many months will be required before the monster can be placed on the campus at Laramie. Although its restoration is as yet incomplete, still enough of its bones have been disinterred to establish its zoological position, and to place it in geological history as the king of all animals restored from fossil fields. In comparison to a Mammoth, this animal was in size as a horse to a dog. In the known fossil world there is