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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Poisonous Properties of the Yew-tree. — 

 I beg to supplement a few facts relative to the 

 poisonous properties of the yew-tree. Your cor- 

 respondent Dipton Burn has already given over- 

 whelming testimony to S. A. B., both as to the 

 fact of it having been regarded by ancients as 

 poisonous, and further by a modern professor, 

 when likely not to be poisonous, also to the fact 

 of the two bullocks having died through eating 

 the yew, facts which I think are pointed. Now I 

 would just supplement Dipton Burn with one or two 

 more facts. The "Annual Register" for May 1766 

 contains an account of a parcel of sheep belonging 

 to a farmer at Edmonton having eaten a quantity of 

 the bark of a yew-tree. Five of them died soon after, 

 the others, by proper care, were restored. Another 

 case is mentioned in the "Gentleman's Magazine" 

 for January 1781, of a Mr. Oakover, near Derby, 

 losing a valuable hunter through browsing on the 

 leaves ; one more case is mentioned in the same 

 journal. A gentleman having a horse disordered by 

 worms, was advised to give him some savines. " An 

 ignorant fellow," he says, " being employed to get the 

 savines, brought yew in its stead, which proved fatal 

 to the creature." He also says, that very little of the 

 blighted sort was found in either of the horses, so 

 that if the green succulent had not been poisonous, 

 neither of them probably would have died ; from 

 hence, it is evident that the more copious the sap, the 

 more poisonous the leaves. The question is whether 

 the tree that S. A. B. has been noting is blighted or 

 of poor growth through sterility of the soil, or 

 whether we must take the statement of Dipton 

 Burn, which seems most plausible, that is, the horses, 

 sheep, and cattle nibble it when they are full. 

 However this may be, S. A. B. may rest assured, 

 from the facts adduced, that the yew is a poisonous 

 plant, and though it is possible for horses or cattle to 

 survive it under certain circumstances, farmers would 

 do well to avoid it. — T. H., Blackburn. 



Early Flowers. — On February 5, I found in a 

 field near my residence, the red dead-nettle and hairy 

 bittercress in full flower. The former had even lost 

 the corolla in many cases, and must have been flower- 

 ing on the first day of the month, though I did not 

 happen to see it. This was near the shores of Lough 

 Erne, in County Fermanagh. And on the 10th I 

 found the lesser celandine, and on the same day (on a 

 bank on the roadside), I found, and have now before 

 me, a plant of the wild strawberry, with not only 

 some flowers fully developed, but in one with the 

 petals already fallen off and the fruit well formed. Is 

 this not very peculiar ? Last year I made notes of 

 the first appearance of the common wild flowers, and 

 none of these were in flower before the middle of 

 April. The temperature of the county is not excep- 

 tionally high, rather the reverse ; and as a general 

 rule, vegetation is counted to be about three weeks 

 later than in England. This makes the above 

 appearance all the more surprising. I am aware that 

 occasionally in paragraphs headed " Mildness of the 

 Season," may be read accounts of primroses in flower 

 at Christmas, and more of the same kind ; these might 

 be reckoned, however, just as well to the past as the 

 coming year, and were owing to the fact that there 

 had been in truth no winter. The present cases are 

 quite different Ten days earlier the lake was frozen 

 over, and every one was skating. Suddenly the frost 

 broke up, and a soft south wind blowing constantly, 

 these flowers came out in little more than a week. 

 They were in the strictest sense "spring flowers." — B. 



Mortality of Siirewmice. — Shrews are common 

 in my neighbourhood, and numbers are found lying 



dead by the side of hedgerows, &c. It is generally 

 known that cats kill them, but do not eat them, but 

 as they are found in parts where cats would be unlikely 

 to frequent, other causes must be attributed to explain 

 such numbers dying. I believe among their enemies are 

 stoats. I have an agricultural friend that has watched 

 a stoat kill a shrew and leave it ; weasels may do the 

 same. Jenyns says that " owls reject the shrew," so 

 probably they destroy them. I think this may be a 

 better solution of the mystery than that there is an 

 annual epidemic amongst them, or of their dying 

 from the cold. This latter cause is not likely to 

 apply to Cornwall, where bats may be seen occasion- 

 ally every month in the year ; and a tortoise in my 

 garden has not considered it necessary to entirely 

 disappear in the earth for many winters until this past 

 one.— Hamilton James. 



Mortality of Shrewmice. — In reply to Mr. 

 A. Malan's question in reference to the periodical 

 mortality of so-called shrewmice (Sorex araneus, 

 Bell), it appears to me, from the fact of the mortality 

 being so general at certain times, hardly probable 

 that they are killed by cats or birds of prey, but 

 seems rather to point to some other cause, such as 

 an unusually wet season, or possibly an untimely 

 frost. I am not able to speak definitely as to the 

 cause, but from the evidence which has come under 

 my notice, I am inclined to believe that shrews may 

 be, and often are, killed by damp or rainy weather. 

 I have frequently observed cats bring shrews home 

 to their kittens, although, in no instance, have I seen 

 them attempt to eat the dead bodies, but I question 

 whether even "well-bred cats" (to quote C. J. W. 

 in Science-Gossip, No. 183) would refuse to eat 

 them merely because they had not had the honour 

 of killing them. I was under the impression that the 

 flesh of shrews was rendered unpalatable — to cats, at 

 least — by the peculiar humour which exudes from 

 the sides of their bodies. Perhaps it was owing to 

 this fact that our ignorant forefathers regarded this 

 inoffensive little creature with such superstitious 

 prejudice. Rev. Gilbert White, in his "Selborne," 

 gives some very interesting particulars of a "shrew- 

 ash " which once existed " at the south corner of the 

 Plestor," at Selborne. — George Clinch. 



The Deal-fish. — Your correspondent was in 

 error as to the occurrence of the Yaagmcer near 

 Whitby. In the "Field" of February 21, he will 

 find it correctly described as a Banks' Oar-fish 

 [Regalecus Banksii). There is no doubt as to the 

 correctness of the determination. — T. Southwell. 



Query about Eggs. — With reference to J. G. 

 R. D.'s (Suffolk) query in April numbeT of SciENCE- 

 Gossip, as to identification of two eggs, it would be 

 hard to positively determine the species without 

 seeing the eggs. But from description I should say 

 the first is a robin's rather faded, if found near bottom 

 of a hedge ; the second a whinchat, or perhaps ■ a 

 stonechat. If J. G. R. D. found the eggs himself, 

 and would compare notes with Hewitson or Morris, 

 he would find by description whether I am right or 

 not. — John M. Vereker. 



Lily of the Valley [Convallaria majalis). — I 

 found several plants of the above, about seven years 

 ago, in Epping Forest, about half a mile south-east 

 of the King's Oak, High Beech, in a very secluded 

 part. Can any one tell me if it is still to be found, 

 or is it extinct, as I have hunted for it in vain since ? 

 The plants I found were placed in my garden, and 

 the flowers have increased greatly in size. — Saponaria 



