Queries and Answers, 383 



bable, as the hare, regardless of mypresence, continued to advance towards 

 me, right across the river ; and, after having received the contents of the 

 gun, actually landed on the bank, in a wounded condition, close to the spot 

 where I was standing. It seems probable, therefore, that she was endea- 

 vouring to escape from some imminent danger from the opposite shore. I 

 have occasionally, when snipe-shooting, found hares lying in very wet 

 marshes, much wetter, indeed, than one would suppose they would volun- 

 tarily select for that purpose. Yours. — B. Coventry^ May 10. 1831. 



The Snipe's Beak. (Vol. III. p. 449.) — Sir, I beg to assure J. Hay- 

 ward, that snipes do actually bore in soft mire for their food. Like 

 Mr. Hayward, I had an opportunity of watching two through a powerful 

 glass while feeding close to the edge of a small lake, and I distinctly saw 

 them pushing their bills into the thin mud, by repeated thrusts, quite up to 

 the eyes, often, as your correspondent observed, drawing them back with 

 great quickness, and every now and then shifting their ground a little. I 

 may also mention that snipes arrive in Southern India very lean, in pro- 

 digious numbers, about the end of October, and depart fat in March. 

 Stragglers, however, remain the whole year, and during the hot months are 

 to be found ; for I have often seen them, not in marshes, but on dry stony 

 hills or high grounds thinly clad with withered grass and leafless bushes, 

 without one drop of water near. This shows that snipes, like the wood- 

 cocks mentioned by Mr. Hayward, may and do support themselves where 

 food is not to be obtained by boring. I am, &c. — A Subscriber. March 16. 



Poisonous Plants, (p. 188.) — If I remember rightly. Smith combines the 

 character alluded to with another, viz. that the plant is of the artificial 

 class Icosandria, which i)aphne is not. — J. S. Henslow. Cambridge^ 

 April 9. 1831. 



The Sandstone of the Isle of Sheppey (p. 137.) I presume to be the em- 

 bedded ferrugineo-calcareous nodules from which the Parker's cement is 

 made. There is no sandstone in Sheppey, but the above nodules abound 

 in the clay. — Id. 



The Potato-stone of the Mendip Hills (p. 190.) is a nodular concretion of 

 an impure kind of cherty-chalcedony, studded with crystals of quartz on 

 the inside, among which are occasionally seen crystals of carbonate of lime. 

 — Id. 



The Constituents of Bezoar. (p. 287.) — Sir, One little word in my 

 article, misprinted by you, makes a very great error. You say, line 17., 

 " the gall bladder of a mare," which animal has no gall bladder : I wrote 

 the gail bladder of a man. — H. T. C. East Bergholt. 



Calendar of Nature in England for 1830. — In the table, p. 168., the 

 columns representing the rainy and snowy days are evidently misplaced in 

 reference to the headings they bear.— J. S. Henslow. Cambridge, April 9. 

 1831. 



Art. IV. Queries and Anstoers, 



Additional Facts on Goitre, (p. 86—90.) — Sir, A. B., a woman living 

 on the borders of Derbyshu-e, had, when a girl, the glands of her neck 

 somewhat enlarged, which have gradually increased to the present time. 

 She is now thirty years old. The enlargement is greatest on the right 

 side, and protrudes of the size of her fist ; on the left side not so much. The 

 whole, she remarks, is larger at some times than at others ; but how far 

 this is correct I am not able to say. It causes her to cough and breathe 

 thick, but has no farther inconvenience. She enjoys good health. All the 

 usual remedies gave no relief, nor did they appear to check it in its growth. 

 She has had four children, the whole of whom when born had the neck 

 swelled, and as large as her own, in proportion to their size ; they exhibited 



