NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
67
Birchanger. This neighbourhood seems to be well visited by the Woodpeckers,
as during the last three or four years I have seen the Green, the Great Spotted,
and the Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers, and one of the latter I shot in the winter of
1889. In the spring of 1887 I assisted in taking a nest of the Hobby (Falco
subbuteo), an egg from which I have in my collection. The eggs were laid in a
nest from which we had taken Kestrels' only a fortnight before."
Waxwings (Ampelis garrulus) at Harwich.—Mr. F. Kerry records in the
"Zoologist" for April, that on February 23rd a Waxwing was shot at Harwich,
whilst feeding on privet berries. "It was either very fearless or stupid, for it
allowed several persons to place their hands within a few inches of it. On dissec-
tion it proved to be a female bird, and it has five wax-like appendages on each
wing. On March 4th another was killed by a boy with a stone. This was a male,
and is the finest bird of four killed in this neighbourhood, the wax-like append-
ages being larger than in any of the others, and numbering six on the right wing,
and five on the left." The Waxwings killed at Great Oakley (see E. N., ante, p.
23) were male and female, with four wax tips to each wing. Mr. Kerry has pur-
chased them, and they are now in his collection. Many records of Waxwings in
other parts of the country appear in the various natural history journals.
Helix Lapicida (Linn.) at Colchester.—When I wrote my account of the
"Land and Fresh-Water Mollusca of the District around Colchester" ("Trans.
Essex Field Club," vol. ii.) I mentioned (at page 95) the fact of finding a dead
shell of this species at Layer de la Haye. I thought then that it would probably
be found somewhere in this part of the county. I have to-day seen two speci-
mens that Were taken by my little friend, who has, at my request, given me the
following note : "I found two specimens of this snail crawling on hedge-rubbish
on the Myland Road, Colchester, between the church and the rectory, about the
last week in September, or the first week in October, 1892.—Philip Harwood,
2, Brooklyn Villas, Colchester." The small boy's eyes are, I suppose, sharper than
mine ; anyhow, I am glad to be enabled to add Helix lapicida to the list of Col-
chester snails.—Henry Laver, F.L.S., Colchester, April 19th, 1893.
Hesperia Lineola, Ochs., in Essex and Elsewhere.—Mr. Charles G.
Barrett, in his fine work on the "Lepidoptera of the British Islands," now in course
of publication, gives the following information respecting the occurrence of this
butterfly, which is a species so interesting to the Essex naturalists. The infor-
mation may be taken as supplementing that given in Essex Naturalist, vol.
iv., p. 191; vol. vi., pp. 43 and 141.:—" Of species now known to exist as
British, the present is the latest addition to the British fauna. In July, 1888,
Mr. F. W. Hawes, desiring to improve his series of H. tinea, collected a number
of specimens in Essex, and, among them, brought home three which, after having
been for some time supposed to be varieties of that species, were ultimately
recognised as belonging to the present. In the following year specimens were
taken by Mr. J. T. Carrington, who had assisted Mr. Hawes in identifying the
species, and it has in the subsequent years been taken in plenty, the most
favoured locality being along the north bank of the Thames, at Leigh, Southend,
and Shoeburyness. Upon the publication of this discovery, much examination
of the specimens of H. linea in collections ensued, with in some cases satisfactory
(?) results. Mr. J. Jenner Weir found that it had been taken many years ago in either
Kent or Sussex ; Mr. H. W. Barker had found it in Sussex, on chalk formation ;