'^S\Blf Queries and Atiswet'S, 



Imistaken. I shall, therefore, feel obliged if any of your correspondents can 

 inform me whether the tree creeper is regularly a migratory bird, or whether, 

 from its retired habits, it does not spend the winter in our woods. It is a 

 very rare bird here, and the specimen I saw might have been of a late 

 brood, and too weak to join in the general flight, if migratory. Yours, &c. 

 — TV. H. White, H.M.CS. Bedford^ Feb. 1. 1831. 



The Habits of the long-legged ivhistling Ducks of the West India IslandSy 

 and the Habits of the Sheldrake. — Sir, I shall feel particularly obliged to 

 any of your readers who can furnish me with some information on the 

 manners and habits of those long-legged whistling ducks found in the 

 West India Islands, which are said to perch upon trees, and live more 

 upon land than in the water. What I want is, information from those 

 who have seen these birds in their native country, or who have watched 

 them in a state of domestication. A similar original history of the com- 

 mon sheldrake (^^nas Tadbrna) would be valuable and interesting, touch- 

 ing its respective powers of walking, swimming, and diving, in comparison 

 to those possessed by the common duck. Yours, &c. — W. Swainson. 



The Fijpe for blowing Eggs, (fig . 25. p. 145.) — " An Observer of Nature " 

 would oblige me, and doubtless many other lovers of oology, by inducing 

 the manufacturer of his invention to place some pipes on sale at some shop 

 in London, and in making known to us what shop, and the price, through 

 your Magazine. — Henry Turner. Botanic Garden, Bury St. Edmund's. 



Snakes taking the Water. — Sir, At p. 279, 280. there are references 

 -to the question, whether the common land snake will take the water. I 

 was not aware until I read the articles on this subject that any doubts had 

 been entertained respecting it. Snakes will not only enter freshwater 

 ponds and rivers, but will cross considerable channels of the sea. About 

 thirty years since, during my first excursion into North Wales, I met by 

 accident at Caernarvon with the Rev. W. Bingley, author of Animal 

 Biography ; we engaged a fishing-smack, to sail for a day on the southern 

 coast of Anglesea, and to land us on those parts we wished to examine. 

 It was a brilliant cloudless day, in the month of August. On our return 

 in the evening, I was surprised by a sudden cry of the boatmen, when, 

 about fifty yards south of the vessel, we saw a snake, with its head raised 

 about one foot above the water, progressing rapidly towards the Isle of 

 Anglesea : the snake was then in the broadest part of the Menai, nearly 

 a mile from land on either side of the strait. The head and neck had 

 an oscillatory motion. One of the men in our vessel threw out a small 

 cork boat, and with oars and the most dreadful imprecations hastened to 

 arrest the progress of the poor animal, which appeared to have no power 

 pf escape by diving. After a few strokes with his oar, the man succeeded 

 in wounding the snake, and bringing it into our vessel. It was nearly a yard 

 in length, and differed in no respect from the common snake. Mr. Bingley, 

 who was well acquainted with that part of Wales, said that snakes 

 abounded in the southern part of the Isle of Anglesea; and were fre- 

 quently seen crossing thence to the Caernarvonshire coast. The common 

 people entertain many superstitious notions respecting them, and their 

 association with demons and wizards : this, he told me, was the cause 

 of the rage with which our Welsh boatman pursued the snake we had 

 just seen him kill. It is difficult to imagine how an animal like the 

 snake could first ascertain the existence of land across a strait so broad 

 as the Menai on its southern end ; and by what instinct it was first im- 

 pelled to undertake so long a voyage of discovery. I am, Sir, yours. 

 Sec. — Robert Bake well. Hampstead, June 7. 1831. 



P. S. — The frequent passage of snakes across the Menai, to and from 

 the Isle of Anglesea was further attested by fishermen whom I questioned 

 respecting it. They said that the snakes generally deposited their eggs on 

 the low grounds on the Anglesea coast. — B. B. 



