1SS 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- G S SIP. 



[Aug. ], 18G9. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Nightingales appear to be creeping further 

 ■west in Devonshire. Eor some time past they have 

 been occasionally met with on the eastern borders, 

 but this year a pair have taken up their quarters at 

 Broadclist, near Exeter. 



Yiolets and Ash-trees (pp. 91, 166).— The 

 Violet to which Mr. Tennyson alludes is evidently 

 V. odorata, not V. canina, or rather V. sylvatica, 

 which I suspect " H. S. M." intends by the former 

 name. Eor Mercurialis annua (p. 166), M. perennis 

 should surely be substituted. — James Britten. 



Flora of Bucks. — Mr. James Britten publishes 

 in the. current number of the Quarterly Magazine of 

 the High Wycombe Nat. Hist. Soc., the first instal- 

 ment of a revised list of Buckinghamshire plants, in 

 which the plants peculiar to the north or south of 

 the county are indicated. The number of species is 

 raised to 808, of varieties to 30: the list published 

 in November, 1867, contained only 777 species, and 

 22 varieties. 



Fay-berry (p. 162). — My colleague Mr. Holland 

 will, I know, excuse me for doubting the accuracy 

 of his derivation of Eay-berry, although I have no 

 supposition to offer in place of his. The word is 

 given by Dr. Prior in the following forms : — Eeabe, 

 Fape, Eabe, Thape, Theabe, De-, Eae-, Eea-, or Feap- 

 berry; and it is evident that Eay-berry is but another 

 spelling of Eabe-, Fape- ; or Eae-berry. We want to 

 find out which is the original form of the word ; and 

 whether that in which the "e" or the "a" is 

 sounded, is the more ancient. The occurrence of 

 the name in Lancashire is interesting, as Dr. Prior 

 says it "seems to be confined at present to the 

 eastern counties." "Eayberry-pie" becomes "Thapc- 

 pie" in Norfolk. — James Britten. 



Vagrant Cockatoo. — A few days since I was 

 walking across the Green Park, when a noise over- 

 head, strange to me, attracted my attention. At 

 first I thought some water-fowl were making a jour- 

 ney from the ornamental water in St. James's to the 

 Serpentine; but on looking up saw a rose-coloured 

 Cockatoo Hying high from the direction of Park 

 Lane. It settled in the group of trees in the hollow 

 near ihe sheep-trough, but 1 had no time to watch 

 what became of it, neither could I say whether it 

 had just escaped, or was living in the park in a 

 semi-wild condition. Other readers of Science- 

 Gossir may also have observed it. — R. McLachlan, 

 Lewisham, July 3rd, 1869. 



Why do Insects Ely to the Light?— J. G. 

 Odea's experiment with the denizens of his aqua- 

 rium no doubt shows that non-vegetarian creatures 

 are attracted by light as well as the nectar-loving 

 moths, and I have formerly noticed the same thing 

 when I had an aquarium. The Chinese too, 1 be- 

 lieve, attract fish with lanterns. My suggestion 

 was but a suggestion. Still, in the matter of the 

 owls and nightjars, I must be allowed to be scepti- 

 cal as to their being attracted by light, and fancy 

 that a moth attracted by light was the object of 

 pursuit, and cause of their collision with the win- 

 dow-pane. Flycatchers and other birds will thus 

 ily against a window by day. 1 cannot think an 

 owl would be such an owl as to be attracted by light. 

 I readily giant that there is something we do not 

 yet understand about the attraction which light 



possesses for many creatures. In possible relation 

 to this subject, I would ask why are light nights 

 bad for moth-collecting and vice versa? That they 

 are so every collector knows. — W. H. 



Bees. — Permit me to ask whether it is necessary 

 to have twins or sticks put into 1he hive prior to 

 the swarm being'shook into it. I ask the question 

 as, on the 29th of June last my servant girl, in my 

 absence, shook a swarm from a gooseberry bush 

 without placing sticks. The bees, however, seem 

 to have taken to the hive, and are very busy. I 

 may add that this girl did it without the protection 

 of any gauze dress : she was not stung, which to me 

 seems miraculous. — Joseph Lloyd Phelps. 



Cats. — The letter of my friend Mr. George 

 Guyon, at p. 161, reminds me that when I was in 

 Berkshire, as a boy, more than twenty years ago, 

 I knew a large black cat who particularly affected 

 snakes as his diet. I have seen "Tom" trailing 

 some four-and-twenty inches of Coluber Natrix after 

 him over a gravel walk, he having previously con- 

 sumed the upper part of the wretched reptile. I 

 never knew even him, though, touch any of the 

 Batrachia proper ; in fact it must be a matter of ex- 

 perience with every one that cats fight very shy 

 indeed of frogs and toads, and notably of the latter. 

 While on the subject of cats it may perhaps be 

 worth while to put on record one or two instances 

 of their sagacity which I have myself witnessed ; 

 and firstly, with regard to a little cat I have called 

 "Brownie" (who is veiy well known to Mr. 

 Guyon), and whom 1 believe to be one of the 

 cleverest of her species that I have ever met with. 

 To say that she begs for food like a dog, goes in to 

 meals incontinently on the ringing of the hall bell, 

 fetches my wife and me from our dressing-rooms if 

 we do not enter the dining-room at once, growls 

 like a clog at beggars and tramps if she sees them 

 in the carriage-drive, &c., would be only to give her 

 credit for what many other sharp cats do ; but one 

 proof of her reasoning powers is I think worth 

 narrating: — My dining and drawing rooms are on 

 opposite sides of the hall ; which has, of course, to 

 be crossed to go from one to the other. Now, one 

 day the ladies of my family had gone in to luncheon 

 just before me, and had closed the dining-room 

 door ; Brownie, it would seem, had not been quite 

 quick enough in following, for she was shut out in 

 the hall ; and when I opened the drawing-room 

 door, to my exceeding astonishment, I saw her on 

 her hind legs, with one paw on each side of the 

 handle of the dining-room door, trying to turn it 

 round. Had she been merely shaking it, or clawing 

 it, I should have thought very little of it ; but she 

 was making as deliberate an attempt to twist it 

 round as 1 could have done. 1 ought to have waited 

 and seen whether she succeeded, but I foolishly 

 opened the door for her. I will say, quite candidly, 

 that had I read this in a book instead of seeing it, I 

 should have thought it a gross exaggeration. 

 Secondly, I had another cat, named "Muff," who 

 used to perform rather a clever trick. He would 

 get upon the back of one of the cows (they did not 

 seem to object to it) while they were grazing, and 

 so got earned into the midst of the flock of starlings 

 &c, which always follow cows when they are 

 feeding: then selecting his bird, he would suddenly 

 pounce upon it from the cow's back, and carry it 

 off. Poor Muff! it was his one accomplishment. 

 He ultimately came to grief in a trap, through his 

 insatiable appetite for game. — William Noble, Forest 

 Lodge, Maresjield, Sussex, July 6th, 1S69. 



