282



Correspondence , Notes, etc .



countries that border the Mediterranean, extending northwards as far as

Germany, etc., and eastwards to Southern Russia, Asia Minor, and perhaps

farther.


To what extent it is a genuine visitor to England, or resident, is not

known, as numbers of imported specimens have been set free, notably by

the late Lord Lilford, Mr. Meade-Waldo, and I believe by Mr. St. Quiutin.


As long ago as 1853 or 1854, my brother and a companion took a

solitary egg from a hole in a pollard willow in a little coppice in Worcester¬

shire. I saw the egg within two minutes of its having been taken, and on

a later occasion visited the nest-hole. I have the egg now, and suppose that

it belongs to this species.


It makes an interesting and absurdly comical pet, and in some of its

ways reminds me of the Burrowing Owl.


It is a useful bird to the farmer, killing mice, voles, insects-and


birds I regret to say ; and the species has not become well established in this

country generally, Mr. Meade-Waldo’s neighbourhood, -where it is “quite

common ” as a wild species (VII., p. 112), being I fear the exception and not

the rule. It is a misfortune, therefore, that the bird should have been

slaughtered, as doubtless the pair were about to breed, or perhaps were

breeding, for they should have had a nest by this time. However, if I may

judge by the plumage and its general poor condition, an attempt was made

to keep this bird alive, and the breaking of the wing may not have been

quite recent.


Reginald Phillipps.



HEMP SEED.


One of our members has recently lost some valuable Parrakeets from

fits, and we suggested that hemp seed may have been the cause. The Rev.

Professor Henslow seemed to think that as “ bhang,” which affects the

heads of the natives of India so powerfully, is obtained from hemp, it might

be that hemp seed may excite the brains of birds and thus provoke the

fits. Most kindly he has obtained for us the following communication from

an analytical chemist to whom the question was put, who wrote:—“I do

not think that any analysis yet published of hemp seed —wherever growu—

shows the presence of any toxic or medicinal principle. Still one would

expect that where the plant produces, in tropical countries, the active

principle which characterizes “bhang,” etc., the seeds would contain at

least traces of this substance. But this argument will not affect the case of

hemp seed grown in Europe. I have also been in the habit of looking

upon the oil in hemp seed as the offending constituent. It amounts to

33—36 per cent., and is, in some animals at least, found to be less

digestible than the oil of some other oleaginous seeds and grains.”



