476 Queries and Answers. 
all its parts yet entire, but those buds with which its crop, the passage 
thence to the gizzard, and the gizzard itself, were completely filled, appeared 
to consist only of the future fruit, with the stamens and pistils attached to 
it, but stripped of calyx and petals, and of its own internal covering. The 
anthers, large in comparison with the rest, and nearly as large as they would 
have been had the flower been suffered to open, were even in that state 
curiously and beautifully apparent ; and, on a careful examination beneath 
a microscope, no vestige of any thing like disease or insects could be dis- 
covered. Beneath the trees themselves the ground was thickly strewed, 
with the parts of the flower rejected by these nice and accurate dissectors, 
which parts invariably consisted of the calyx and petals, yet remaining 
attached together. It appears to me that the buds are destroyed for the 
sake of the interior parts of the fruit and flower, by these enemies to trees of 
the Prinus and Pyrus kinds ; as cowslips and primroses are by other birds, 
for the purpose of devouring their minute and yet imperfect seeds. As, 
however, I would not willingly accuse the innocent falsely, and as I have, 
besides, some partiality for the race of bullfinches, f should be happy, if in 
error, to be convinced that —F am so, by any who, in the same way or 
otherwise, may think it worth the trouble to make experiment.— Corylus. 
April 16. 1830. 
Tomtit destroying Bees. — Sir, I heard the other day a circumstance con- 
nected with the habits of the common tomtit, of which I was totally unac- 
quainted, never having seen it noticed in books of natural history. It is 
that of its propensity to destroy bees: which it effects by rapping with its 
bill at the entrance of the hive, and killing the insects as they come out. 
I was informed that in this manner a whole hive has been quickly destroyed 
by this tiny depredator. Perhaps this is not new to some of your corre- 
spondents, who may be able to give a more distinct account of this circum- 
stance, and to state if the bird destroys the insects to satisfy hunger, or 
merely to gratify that love of mischief for which they are remarkable. 
Yours, &c.— H. Great Missenden, February 15, 1830. 
Wasp’s Nest. —1 beg to inform your correspondent, G. M. of Lyme 
Regis (p. 94.), that the nidus figured by him is the production of a spe- 
cies of social wasp. This kind of nest does not appear to be described 
either by Kirby and Spence, or in the Insect Architecture (which latter 
work I would strenuously advise every lover of nature to possess himself 
of). It has, however, been figured and described in the Journal of a Na- 
turalist as the nest of Véspa campanaria. It is to be regretted that your 
correspondent did not furnish you with more specific details respecting the 
nest. Indeed, had he waited for a few months, and profited by your often 
repeated recommendation of that spirit of observation and investigation so 
essentially necessary to the success of every one aspiring to the rank of a 
naturalist, he would doubtless have himself obtaimed a reply to his own 
question ; and the answer would at the same time have been accompanied 
with no slight degree of interest, arising from the probable discovery of 
some new fact, or the impression on his mind of some new observation 
respecting the natural habits and characters of the insects under investiga- 
tion ; since it cannot be doubted that, if at the present time (notwithstand- 
ing all the observations of Reaumur, the Hubers, &c.) fresh facts and 
observations upon the hive-bee are daily presenting themselves, the less 
known insects will afford the attentive observer a fund of novel amusement 
in the investigation, which will amply repay him for his most sedulous atten- 
tion. —J. O. Westwood. February 7. 1830. 
The “ Nidus aitached toa Reed” (p. 94.) is certainly the nest of a wasp 
similar to that figured in plate 7. of the Journal of a Naturalist. —W.C.T. 
January 28. 1830. : 
Flies and Butterflies. — A few years ago I observed some of the greenish 
and black-marked worms which are found on cabbages, &c., take up their 
