160 THE QUERIST, 



Having taken some eggs that 1 am not acquainted with, I shall feel obliged to j'ou if you 

 will, through the medium of "The Naturalist," inform me what they are from the following 

 description: — The nest was built something like that of a Thrush, on the bow of a fir tree, 

 growing near the water, and about fifteen feet from the ground; the eggs are blue, resembling 

 in size and colour those of the Thrush, but instead of the black spots, they are marked witli 

 small reddish brown ones all over, but chiefly at the larger end. — II. Buckley, Calthorpc Street, 

 Birmingham, May 13th., 1853. 



Wood Anemone, (Anemone nemorosa.) — Seeing a difference in "The Naturalist," between 

 two correspondents on the subject of the general colour of the Wood Anemone, 1 beg leave to 

 forward observations which I have made on that subject. — I have watched from their first 

 appearance a great quantity of the Wood Anemones which cover the banks of a stream, running 

 at the foot of a wood, in Callaghan's Glen, near this city. There are also large quantities 

 of the pictty flowers in the "Groves of Blarney," and woods in the vicinity. All, without 

 exception, are white, or have so pale a flush of lavender on the under surface of the petals, 

 that they may be considered as such. I remember that the Anemones in Devonshire are more 

 deeply tinged with lavender or purple, unless they have changed since last spring, than those 

 in the neighbourhood of Cork. I cannot therefore account for this diff'erence in colour, since 

 both kinds were growing in most luxuriant soil : the climate of Cork approaches nearer to that 

 of Devon than any other county of Ireland. — Thos. G. B. Atkinson, Cork, May 14th., 1853. 



Common Reed, (Arundo Phragm'tes.)— In reply to the query, page 64, how to propagate 

 and cultivate the Common Reed. This well-known grass is the tallest of the British Graminece, 

 growing naturally by the banks of rivers and edges of pools ; but it grows to the greatest per- 

 fection on rich alluvial deposits which are occasionally flooded by fresh-water tides. On the 

 north banks of the Tay, in the Carse of Gowric, Scotland, there, as well as in many of the 

 low lands of Huntingdon, Cambridge, and Lincoln, it constitutes the crop of the soil, and is 

 harvested with much care; and from these places it is exported to the neighbouring counties 

 to be made use of for thatch for barns, cottages, and out-houses, and is perhaps the most 

 durable vegetable-covering for roofing that is employed. Your best plan to be successful with 

 it will be to secure large batches of soil, containing its powerful creeping roots, in autumn, or 

 early in spring, making holes round your pond, and insert these batches of plants in them, 

 covering and surrounding them with some good alluvial soil; by this simple process you will 

 perfectly succeed. In this manner we have succeeded with it round ponds of a gi-avelly and 

 chalky bottom in the counties above-named. The injury that is done towards the end of 

 autumn to this crop by birds is so great, that the farmers of these reedy districts, we are 

 informed, are obliged nightly to despatch boats with fire-arms to frighten them away. As 

 evening advances, it is no uncommon occurrence to see clouds of Starlings, (Sturmis vulgaris,) 

 approaching from every quarter to pass the night in the reeds, upon which, after Aarious 

 arrangements, similar to the Rooks, they alight in myriads, bearing the reeds down by their 

 weight into the water; and though the guns of the boatmen destroy many, the survivors arc 

 so drowsy that they remain stationary, or rising, settle immediately again over the bodies of 

 their slaughtered companions, returning evening after evening in numbers not apparently dimin- 

 ished. Foxes collect in the reeds to diet on the poor Starlings, catching them on the roost, 

 as well as the dead and disabled ones. The panicle of this grass continues through the winter, 

 affording food to the beautiful Parus biarmicus, or Bearded Tit, and many other seed as well 

 as insect-eating birds. The Bearded Tit feeds mostly upon its minute seeds, and insects. The 

 panicle of this grass will dye wool of a greenish colour. When once this grass gets thoroughly 

 established, it is the most troublesome to eradicate, as may be seen in some of the best alluvial 

 soils in the Carse of Gowrie, which have been under cultivation for more than a century, and 

 yet the Arundo Phragmites, or Phragmites communis, grows as luxuriantly amongst the culti- 

 vated crops as it did at the first.—/. Md Intosh, 5, Middle Street, Taunton, March 4th,, 1853. 



I have lately had some chrysalides of the Swallow-tail Butterfly, some of which were of a 

 dull cream-colour, with blackish brown marks and streaks on the wing cases, sides, and head: 

 and others of a greenish yellow, the wing cases light green, and a row of dots of the same 

 along the sides. — What is the account of this? — F. 0. Morris, Na ffcrton V icarage, Driffield, May 

 24th., 1853. yl^K^-'^fSf^ 



