9<d The Field Naturalist's Quarterly Feb. 



as to their mixing with Rooks. I entirely agree with your editorial as to 

 the lack of knowledge of general scientific principles among members of 

 field clubs. I never knew any one attempt to give the members of a 

 club any idea of the general principles of zoological or botanical 

 relationships. Too many clubs spend their time in splitting one species 

 into a hundred, or going miles to uproot a rare plant in its 'only British 

 locality.' We should study plants and animals alive, and see how they 

 work out their life-histories, acting and reacting on one another. This 

 is the true interest of Biology, and the means of study lie at our very 

 doors." — H. E. FORREST, Shrewsbury. 



Dead Field-Mice on Footpaths. — " In the last F. N. Q. a cor- 

 respondent wonders why dead Field-mice are found so commonly on 

 the footpaths across fields. I would suggest that this extraordinary 

 fact is due to precisely the same reason that anything else lying motion- 

 less in a field is more likely to be found if it happens to be on the foot- 

 path. I confess that it seems to me just as pertinent to inquire why 

 more half-crowns are found on a footpath than in the grass ; the answer 

 to the riddle being that they are there more in the line of vision." — 

 " Obvious." 



Pheasant reproducing a lost Beak. — " The enclosed head of a hen 

 Pheasant is from a bird shot at Ewyas Harold, Herefordshire. The 

 beak has evidently been cut off in some manner, probably by a trap. It 

 is apparently in process of being re-constituted. Naturally the bird was 

 very thin, as it must have had great difficulty in feeding, but it flew 

 fairly well. The contents of the craw were berries. I send the speci- 

 men as an instance of the extraordinary vitality of some animals and 

 their organs." — W. Steward, Pontrillas, Hereford. 



(A most interesting specimen. The puzzle is how the bird could 

 have managed to eat for a time. Probably she did not, but went very 

 near to perishing of starvation ; but the great recuperative power of the 

 tissues produced a stumpy, rounded, beak-like projection — more like 

 horny lips than anything else — just in time to enable feeding to be 

 resumed and life prolonged. The beak was cut off or shot off, leaving 

 the original base, from which the new growth started. — Ed. F. N. Q.) 



Parasite on Birch-Tree. — "The enclosed photo was taken on the 

 wooded slopes of Wharncliffe Chase, near Sheffield. My eye was 

 attracted by a white blotch on the dead stump of a birch-tree, and on 

 approaching closer I found the object to be a large fungus growth, 

 evidently fresh. It is plainly visible in the lower part of the photo- 

 graph. Its surface was perfectly smooth, and it was of a light creamish 

 colour. Higher up on the stump, also seen in the photo, was a similar 

 growth of older date, the top skin or outer skin peeled into little 

 blackened shreds, giving the growth a remarkable resemblance to the 

 birch-bark itself. At a short distance this old growth looked like a 

 mere excrescence of the wood. I should like to learn whether the 

 fungus is peculiar to birch." — A. E. Johnson, London. 



