29 



LOCAL JOTTINGS.— No. 11. 

 DORCHESTER— DORSETSHIRE. 



BY JOHN GARLAND, ESQ., memb: ent: soc:, jiemb: wern: club. 



Instinct of Birds. — Among the many interesting anecdotes of Instinct 

 recorded by others and myself, I remember none more singular than the 

 following: — A friend of mine, a Clergyman, was walking with the boys of 

 his school near this town, when a boy threw a stick or a stone at three 

 birds, which were flying out of a hedge, and struck one of them. The wing 

 of the bird was broken, or otherwise so hurt as to impede flight. The bird, 

 a Sparrow it is believed, would have fallen to the ground, had not the others 

 supported him. They actually went one on each side, and with outspread 

 wings, carried the injured bird between them to a hedge some little distance 

 off. This was seen by many witnesses, and it strikes me as worth a '^Jotting." 



Fungus. — I am indebted to the same friend for the following singular 

 anecdote: — A person, a short time since, was gathering mushrooms, when he 

 observed a fungus, called in this neighbourhood ^^a toadstool," of singular 

 appearance; and on going up to it, he saw that it had grown up in the 

 centre of a small gold ring, and lifted the ring up with it. The ring must 

 have been dropped by some person, and most extraordinarily the fungus must 

 have risen exactly in the centre. 



A Hint to Naturalists. — I can scarcely say how much I was gratified by 

 the perusal of an article at page 275 of vol. iii. of ^'The Naturalist," headed 

 as above, and written by T. G. B. Atkinson, Esq. I think he deserves great 

 credit for having written it, and you for having inserted it in your most 

 useful and entertaining pei-iodical; and I trust the "hint" will not fall useless 

 to the ground. I am sure I have often felt the same sensations, and have 

 frequently hesitated about "speaking out" on the subject, but a foolish dread 

 of being thought "squeamish" has hitherto kept me silent. Another reason 

 why I feared mentioning the subject was, that the "Tu quoque" applied to 

 myself in a slight degree, as I am bound to plead guilty to occasional captures 

 of specimens of Entomology for my own collection. I cannot, however, help 

 thinking that it is much to be regretted that so many more are killed by 

 collectors than can be of use, except for the purpose of exchange. Even then 

 the cool confessions of many collectors of having taken the unfortunate animals 

 in such large numbers, and the cruel experiments tried on them, etc., damp 

 the pleasure of perusing many, in other respects, interesting articles in the 

 different magazines devoted to science. In all kindness, therefore, to my 

 brother naturalists, I will point out one or two cases in which, although I 

 know the "heads and hearts" of the writers are right in every sense of the 

 word, the above circumstances mar, to a certain extent, the gratification the 

 perusal of their works would have otherwise afforded. 



I allude first to a valuable contribution, called a "Note on the supposed 



