HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



2I 5 



Arum maculatum. — A little girl, six years of 

 age, died this week in the neighbourhood of Liss, 

 from the effects produced by eating the spadix of the 

 arum. The child's mother was working in a hop 

 field, and took the little girl to help her, as she ex- 

 pressed it, " out of harm." The child went to pick 

 wild flowers, and finding some "lords and ladies" 

 ate several. She became ill, and after lingering for 

 some days died in great agony, medical aid not 

 having (I believe) been sought. I did not hear of the 

 case until after the little poor sufferer's death, and then 

 it was only incidentally mentioned, that "a child had 

 died from eating arum flowers." Country people are 

 so sadly ignorant of the poisonous properties of our 

 native wild plants, that I am surprised more deaths 

 do not occur. — Mrs. Alfred Wdtney. 



Natterjack Toad. — In reply to Mr. Perrycap's 

 query, I found the natterjack quite an interesting pet 

 and easily kept. I had him in a small fern case, in a 

 corner of which he took up his abode, scratching a 

 hole in the soil, in which he sat with his bright eyes 

 on the look-out for any insect or worm thrown to 

 him. When a worm was given to him he stood over 

 it much like a terrier over a rat, and with a snap 

 soon made an end of lumbricus. If the worm was 

 large and struggled violently, he assisted it into his 

 mouth with his hands (or hand, as he had at an 

 early age lost one). Insects he generally caught by 

 a rapid stroke of the tongue, but he declined any 

 that were dead ; in the winter, when insect food was 

 scarce, I fed him on little pieces of raw meat, which 

 he readily took if they were gently moved as if 

 endowed with life. When in the possession of his 

 former owner he once made a meal of a young snake, 

 eight inches long (see Science-Gossip for 1873, 

 page 93). He was also fond of a bath, and would 

 sit for hours at a time in a little pan of water placed 

 in the case beside him. He got so tame that he 

 would come to my hand, into which he would crawl 

 to be taken for an airing through the house, catching 

 the flies from off the walls. Last year " Diabolus " 

 (a name given him by a lady friend of mine) did not 

 seem so lively after his winter nap, and his tongue 

 seemed to have lost its cunning, and he with diffi- 

 culty took any food, till one morning I found him 

 dead in his corner. He was about ten years in con- 

 finement, and probably died of old age. If Mr. Perrycap 

 wishes any further information I shall be glad to give 

 it if he sends me his address. — J. M. Campbell. 



Books on Botany.— In the article on " Books on 

 Botany" in the August issue I find two mistakes. 

 According to the latest catalogues that I have seen, 

 the two volumes in Collins's Advanced Series by 

 Prof. Balfour are not yet published, and the transla- 

 tion of Le Maout and Decaisne is 3U. 6d. not 52.?. 6d. 

 Thome's "Botany," also, is not a book on a special 

 branch, but a general text-book, though not on the 

 usual plan. I think the idea of lists of suitable books 

 for students a good one. Brief lists, more compressed 

 on account of space, might guide students in their 

 choice.— A. Wheal ley. 



Register of Working Field Botanists.— It 

 has often occurred to me what a useful thing would 

 be a register of working field botanists, similar to 

 that of entomologists, published some 'years ago by 

 Mr. Stainton. There must be in every place at least 

 one working botanist who would be glad to place his 

 name on such a register as willing to help strangers 

 by affording information as to the local flora. I have 

 just again been reminded of this by a botanical visitor 

 to this town, whose acquaintance, to our mutual 

 regret, I only made a day or two before he left. Had 

 there been such a register, we might have had many 



pleasant rambles together. If I might suggest such 

 a thing, I should think a list, alphabetically 

 arranged as to towns, and published annually, say as 

 a supplement to Science-Gossip, and for which 

 some small fee could be charged, would meet what is 

 required. — Arthur D. Metvin. 



Robberies of Kestrels. — Many readers of 

 Science-Gossip must lately have noticed a series of 

 letters in the newspapers in which the amount of 

 good and evil done by our birds of prey is made the 

 object of discussion. Much of the correspondence 

 consists of examinations into the kestrel's claims to 

 a good character, and it must be confessed that the 

 bird has not come out of the affair quite so honourably 

 as we would have wished. It is certainly ungracious 

 in the kestrel, while his friends are defending his 

 reputation for good behaviour, to frustrate their kind 

 endeavours by carrying off young chickens and 

 pheasants to his nest, where the remains must be 

 discovered by the first unfeathered biped who chooses 

 to pay him a domiciliary visit. But the reports of 

 these discoveries in the Standard are only too con- 

 clusive, even if we had not evidence nearer home. 

 In this neighbourhood many chickens lately dis- 

 appeared. A hawk's nest close at hand, being fired 

 into on suspicion, was brought bodily to the ground, 

 and proved to contain two young kestrels and a 

 dead chicken. This is only a unit added to the list 

 of misdemeanours decisively "brought home" to the 

 kestrel during the present season. Unusual events 

 have not been scarce this summer, and in few cases 

 have attempts been made to account for them, 

 somehow or other, by the "lateness of the season." 

 It is worth inquiring whether the windhover may not 

 fairly claim this excuse for his singular violation of 

 the trust which naturalists have always placed in 

 him. The fieldmouse being the staple food of the 

 kestrels, it is presumably the chief diet in ordinary 

 seasons of the young birds in the nest, and as the 

 cornfields are the usual habitat of this animal, it 

 must be on these that the young kestrels depend in 

 great measure for their subsistence. In this county 

 (Wexford) where the bird is very common, I have 

 observed that it seems to take complete possession of 

 the fields as soon as they are reaped, scarcely a stubble 

 being not daily visited by it. It then presents a noble 

 contrast to the sparrow-hawk, which hardly ever 

 shows himself in such localities. When the young 

 kestrels are fledged, which does not take place till the 

 harvest has made considerable progress, the families 

 repair en masse to the stubbles, and must then do an 

 incalculable amount of good. But this year the bird 

 is in a predicament. The young are in the nest, and 

 must be fed ; but though August has begun, the corn 

 scarcely shows signs of ripening, and reaping is as yet 

 out of the question. Even the sharp eye of the 

 kestrel is unable to detect its prey among the green 

 waving fields of oats and barley, which everywhere 

 greet the eye, and it is not wonderful after all that it 

 should turn elsewhere to seek its food. In such a 

 state of things it occurs to me that our friend must be 

 even a worse depredator than that notorious robber 

 the sparrow-hawk. For the mouse-hunting instinct 

 of the former teaches it to seek its prey only on the 

 ground, and thus, in the absence of mice, the number 

 of pheasants, partridges, and chickens, which fall into 

 its grasp, would probably be much greater than would 

 be carried off by the sparrow-hawk, which seizes its 

 victims indiscriminately from the ground or from the 

 branches of trees, and often chases them on the wing 

 for considerable distances. If these conjectures are 

 right, the general character of Tinnunculus remains 

 unimpaired, and only for the present summer can he 

 be considered a public enemy.— C. B. M. 



