2nd s. No 48., Nov. 29. '66.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



435 



into each lobe, the petioles very small, of a red- 

 dish green. The best account of both these 

 British oaks that has ever been written is given 

 in Mr. Loudon's Arboretum et Fruticetum Britan- 

 nicuvi. In that excellent work Mr. Loudon has 

 brought together and arranged everything that is 

 known at present respecting the geography, his- 

 tory, biography, properties, uses, propagation, 

 culture, statistics, &c., of this " King of the Fo- 

 rest," with descriptions and portraits of all the 

 most remarkable specimens of it. The British 

 oak alone occupies 112 closely printed pages. 



Much valuable information also may be ob- 

 tained from Dr. Withering's Botanical Arrange- 

 ments, seventh edition, and from Miss Kent's 

 Sylvan Sketches. W. Collyns. 



Chudleigh. 



" CARMINA QUADEAGESIMAIilA.." 



(2""^ S. ii. 355.) 



The information, which our correspondence has 

 elicited, concerning the authorship of these poems, 

 is a proof of the great advantage of such a pub- 

 lication as "N. & Q." I beg to thank B. IST. C. 

 for the lists which he has furnished ; but I must 

 express a hope that something more may yet be 

 found. There must be other copies of these books 

 in existence, containing the names of the authors. 

 I am not disposed to let the matter rest without 

 another effort to get more information. It is very 

 desirable to reduce the long list of anonymous 

 poems ; and also to clear away, as far as possible, 

 the variations between B. N. C.'s lists and my 

 own. The name which I wrote as Tubb may be 

 Jubb, as it appears in B. N. C.'s copy. The ini- 

 tial letter in mine may be taken either for J. or 

 T. It is written, however, exactly in the same 

 form in the name of Thomas, No. 41. It was 

 this that made me decide in favour of Tubb. 



These poems must now be getting scarce. 

 Would not a new and neat edition of them be 

 acceptable ? They were much used in the school 

 here in my time. W. H. Gunner. 



Winchester. 



CAN INCUBATING PARTRrOGES BE SCENTED BY 

 DOGS ? ^ 



(2°^ S. ii. 350.) 



Although an old sportsman I have never known 

 this question raised before.* I can easily see, 

 however, that dogs may have great difficulty in 

 scenting a partridge whilst sitting on its nest, be- 

 cause it has long remained without moving from 



* In my experience it has ever been the practice not to 

 permit any dog to beat any field during the breeding 

 season. 



it. I have often noticed the difficulty dogs have 

 in finding a bird which has been killed so per- 

 fectly dead as not to move after it has fallen. 

 Where a bird has spired (i. e. gone straight up 

 into the air) in consequence of being wounded in 

 the back, and fallen dead, I have many a time 

 seen it lying on the bare ground, and have seen 

 my dogs pass and repass close to it without scent- 

 ing it at all ; indeed, I do not remember a dog 

 ever finding such a bird, unless he actually saw it.* 

 In these cases it may be said the bird is dead, and 

 therefore there is no scent ; but every sportsman 

 knows how frequently dogs pass close to hares in 

 their forms without perceiving them, especially in 

 the earlier part of the season. I never have been 

 able to determine with certainty on what scent 

 depends. I suspect it is left by the feet of 

 animals and birds on the ground as they move. If 

 it were their breath, on a windy day it would be 

 carried away. 



On sundry occasions I have remarked that par- 

 tridges make their nests by the sides of public 

 roads. I remember a nest in a small patch of 

 gorse between the footpath and carriage track of 

 the same public road, and two years ago I had 

 one covey bred in a hedge by the side of a foot- 

 path, and another in the hedge by the side of a 

 carriage road. Partridges, however, are not sin- 

 gular in this respect. Magpies, chaffinches, yel- 

 low-hammers, and other birds, seem equally prone 

 to prefer the proximity of a public road for their 

 nests. C. S. Greaves. 



I am very sceptical on this subject. As an old 

 sportsman, I know a good dog will often go 

 within a very short distance of a single bird, when 

 perfectly still, without winding it. I have often 

 seen this with wounded birds. A bird moving 

 seems to give more scent. After all no one 

 knows anything about scent : it is beyond the 

 knowledge of the oldest sportsman. " A southerly 

 wind and a cloudy sky " will not always prove a 

 hunting morning. A. HoiiT White. 



elephants exasperated by blood of mul- 

 berries, ETC. 



(2"'^ S. ii. 388.) 



Your correspondent Belphos inquires for the 

 authority of Dr. Henry More for stating, in his 

 Enthnsiasmus Triumphatus, that elephants in bat- 

 tle are provoked by spreading before them the 



* Birds spire from two causes, a wound in the head, 

 and a wound in the back ; in the latter case they bleed 

 internalh', and always fall dead ; in the former they seem 

 to fall dead, but after falling nearly to the ground skim 

 along the surface to some hedge, &c., and are generally, 

 if not always, found alive. I once saw a pheasant spire. 



