374 Zoology. 



prussic acid which she found in his laboratory. It is needless, however, to 

 waste words in illustrating human mistakes of this kind, as it is an article 

 of popular belief, and supposed to arise from the artificial habits acquired 

 in social life; whereas, the same popular creed would have us believe that 

 wild animals never mistake poison for food, and that their instinct is infal- 

 lible. 



How universally soever this doctrine may be believed, there can be no 

 doubt that it is founded in error ; for, as 1 have said, numerous instances 

 could be given of the mistakes of instinct. I shall content myself with men- 

 tioning one or two. 



The common earthworm (Zumbricus terr^stris) is instinctively afraid of 

 moles ; and, no sooner does it hear any subterranean noise, or feel any 

 tremhlement de terrcy similar to those indicative of the approaching move- 

 ments of its enemy, than it makes a speedy escape to the surface. Every 

 boy knows how to take advantage of this, to procure fish-baits, by thrusting 

 a spade or a stake into the ground, and moving it backwards and forwards, 

 to imitate the advance of a burrowing mole in search of prey. The worm, 

 unable, with all its instinct, to discriminate between its subterranean enemy 

 and the spade, darts into daylight, and is instantly captured for the boy's 

 bait-bag. The lapwing (Trlnga Vanellus), it is said, is aware of this instinctive 

 fear of the earthworm of subterranean concussions or noises; and, when 

 it cannot find sufficiency of slugs, &c., above ground, it pats the ground with 

 its feet, till the earth-worms, mistaking it for an advancing mole, come 

 forth to be feasted upon. I cannot, on my own knowledge, vouch for the 

 authenticity of this ingenious device in the lapwing ; it is stated, however, as 

 a fact, by Dr. Anderson, in his Bee. 



It is well known that, whenever a hawk appears, he is immediately sur- 

 rounded by a host of small birds, particularly swallows, which dart at him 

 and tease him, for the purpose, as it is supposed, of distracting his attention, 

 on the principle that " Wealth makes wit waver." Be this as it may, the 

 cuckoo, which bears a strong resemblance to the hawk when on the wing, 

 is certain of a similar retinue of small birds wherever it flies. In the north, 

 this is so commonly observed, that the cuckoo is vulgarly believed to be 

 always attended by a titling or pippet (^lauda minor, or A. prat6isisZ*fw«.), 

 which, it is further imagined, has been its stepmother and nurse from the 

 egg. This, indeed, is the bird whose nest the cuckoo most frequently selects 

 to deposit the eggs which she so strangely and unnaturally abandons ; though 

 it is not on this account, but because she appears to be a hawk, that the 

 pippet and other small birds persecute her. 



An instance similar to that of the flies mistaking the Rafflesia for beef 

 occurs in our country, where the common flesh-fly (ik/usca vomitoria) lays its 

 eggs in the fetid sorts of Phalli and ^garici, apparently under the notion 

 that these are genuine carrion. 



If I may be allowed an example from domesticated animals, Linnaeus 

 records, in his Lachesis Lapponica, that, at Tornea, there is a meadow or bog 

 full of water-hemlock (Cicuta virosa), which annually destroys from fifty to 

 a hundred head of cattle. It seems that they eat most of it in spring, when 

 first turned into the pasture, partly from their eagerness for fresh pasture, 

 and partly from their long fasting and greediness, the herbage being then 

 short. Besides, from the immersion of the hemlock under water, it may 

 not have the proper scent to deter them. A similar destruction of cattle 

 from the same cause, occurs in the wide meadows of Leinings. — J. Rennie. 



The Hawfinch's Nest. — On the 14th of iMay last, the nest of a hawfinch 

 (Fringilla Coccothraustes Temm.) was taken in an orchard belonging to Mr. 

 Waring, at Chelsfield, Kent. I have seen the nest and eggs, and also the 

 old female bird, which was shot on the nest. As the nest differs from the 

 descriptions of the naturalists whose works I have referred to, and as, I 

 believe, it is only within the last few years that the hawfinch has been 



