Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 3 (1899).djvu/210

184 the increased scarcity of certain species of birds in the "Broads" district:—"To say nothing of what has been done to compass their destruction by a well-known dealer in birds' eggs in the West of England." As Mr. Gurney has since stated that this refers to me, I cannot allow a statement calculated to bring me into contempt with the better class of naturalists to remain uncontradicted. Of the six or seven species tabulated as having decreased so much, I have never asked for or received a single egg from East Anglia, except of the Bearded Tit. Of this species I did obtain a large number in one year (about 1885), but far more were sent me than I asked for or desired. I wrote to a correspondent in Norfolk for "a few sets," to which he replied by sending a large consignment, and though I wrote him at once to stop collecting, the birds must have been so common that even in the time occupied by exchanging letters he got a lot more. During the last ten years I have had almost no eggs from this district—possibly thirty or forty a year—comprising usually one, two, or three (three only one year) sets of Bearded Tits, and the rest Water Rails or a few common things. I was once offered a clutch of Garganeys, which I did not buy. These are the facts; I think any remark of mine is needless.— (40, Triangle, Clifton).

[No name was mentioned in the disputed statement of Mr. Gurney, who, however, has since frankly owned that he referred to Mr. Marsden. Under these circumstances, and at the request of both Messrs. Gurney and Marsden, the above note appears, though it is of a more personal than zoological character. This discussion is now considered as closed in these pages.—]

Great Wood-boring Wasp (Sirex gigas) in Ireland.—I should be glad to learn if these insects are on the increase throughout the country. They first appeared here in 1893 or 1894, and now every fallen fir tree in my woods and nearly every paling and gate-post is riddled by them. I watched a female boring into a larch-post last summer for fully ten minutes, a most curious sight. She stood up on the tips of her toes, and stuck out her ovipositor at right angles to her body and into the bark of the post. Then she wriggled and worked very hard, but did not revolve as I expected she would, as the ovipositor has a regular screw like an auger at the end. I was foolish enough to grow impatient and catch her before she finished the operation.— (Black Hall, Drogheda).