NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 107 



therefore does not attempt to lay any more eggs, but takes her 

 departure. To keep gentles for the winter, Mr. Davy looks out for 

 October fly-blows. He deposits the mature maggot in damp sand, 

 and buries them in bottles in the ground. He finds this plan 

 has the effect of preventing them from changing into the chry- 

 salis state. By this means he is never without gentles for his 

 birds summer and winter. An immense trade goes on in gentles 

 for fishing-tackle shops ; they are of nominal value in hot weather, 

 but in early spring they are sometimes worth one penny a dozen. 

 Maggots aie easier of digestion by soft-meat birds than 

 meal-worms. The skin of the meal-worms is hard, and contains 

 much silica. Again, birds find gentles in a state of nature, but 

 they do not find meal-worms. 



PEACOCKS, p. 126. I hear that peacocks are grand things to 

 kill snakes and even vipers. My friend, Mr. A. D. Berrington, told 

 me of an estate in Wales where vipers formerly abounded, and 

 were a great nuisance till peacocks were turned down. These 

 birds shortly killed off all the vipers. The peacock runs smartly 

 in upon the viper, hits him hard with his beak and retires 

 before the viper has a chance of striking with his fangs. 



CALCULI, p. 126. I have three fine calculi which 1 obtained 

 from the colon of a brewer's horse. They are worn to fit each 

 other ; each is nearly the size of a cocoa-nut. The nucleus of one 

 is a small piece of iron. I believe its composition is triple- 

 phosphate. Hair-balls from the stomachs of cows are not un- 

 common ; I have several specimens, one especially from the 

 stomach of a kangaroo. In the College of Surgeons is a hair 

 calculus from the stomach of a young lady. This lady had long 

 and beautiful hair; she was in the habit of biting off her hair 

 and swallowing it ; these hairs formed a calculus in her stomach, 

 from which she died. 



The bezoars of the ancients were taken from the true or 

 fourth stomach of a kind of goat, the Capra Caucasia of the 

 British Museum Catalogue. 



STARLINGS ROOSTING, p. 132. The Rev. R. S. Baker thus writes 

 in Land and Water : " Near my house (Hargrave, near Kimbol- 

 ton) is a fox cover of five acres, the favourite rendezvous and rest- 

 ing-place of myriads of starlings, whither they have resorted now 

 for several years in the winter months, beginning pretty early 

 in the autumn. They gather here every evening about an hour 

 before dark, coming in, in flocks of various sizes, from north, 

 east, south, and west. Unless anyone saw them they would 

 scarcely credit the myriads which assemble. There must be 



