Field Notes. 365 



Formica fusca, which was not uncommon where my capture 

 was made. There is a figure of it, along with some notes, 

 in a paper on ' Insect Oddities,' by Mr. E. A. Butler, in 

 Knowledge for 1902, p. 258. There is also an indifferent 

 figure of it in Buckton's ' British Cicadae,'— Jas. Murray, 

 2 Balfour Road, Carlisle. 



BOTANY. 



Hedge Bedstraw in Wharfedale. — A funny — and punny 

 —lapse was made by me, writing current e calamo in The 

 Naturalist for October (p. 329), when I stated that the great 

 Hedge Bedstraw had ' got ' up Wharfedale per vias naturalibus, 

 possibly fodder waggoned too, to ' Coniston Cold.' Meeting a 

 formerly fellow, who seemed to be a resident near the Bridge 

 lane by Kilnsey, I asked him the name of the hamlet I saw 

 couched on the north bank of the river, and he replied, I thought, 

 ' It's cauld Coniston.' He meant — called, and I imagined it 

 was ' Cold,' whereas it was I who was ' cold ' as the children's 

 ' findy ' game has it. Mr. C. Cheetham detected the slip, and 

 points out that Coniston Cold is near Malham, in Aire-Craven. 

 Mr. J. Beanland adds that now this hedgebank straw grows as 

 high as Hubberholme in the bed of the dale by Buckden, at 

 quite 850 feet altitude. I quite credit it ; in nature no zonal 

 limit is a rigid barrier line. Ascending species, and Des- 

 cending species overlap and bypass a given figure based on 

 averages with plus-minus modifications in vegetative ' charac- 

 ters.' — F. A. Lees. 



BIRDS. 



Starlings and Berries. — My elderberry trees, which were 

 covered with fruit, have again been completely stripped by the 

 starlings, which appear to relish the juicy fruit, for as fast as 

 the berries have ripened they have cleared them. Several 

 Mountain Ash trees were also covered with fruit, these too 

 have also been quite cleared by the starlings. — R. Fortune. 



Fowls and Aeroplanes. — We have aeroplanes almost 

 daily over my house, sometimes a dozen at a time. It is very 

 interesting to note the effect they have on my fowls. When the 

 hum of the propellor is first heard, though the planes themselves 

 cannot be seen, the birds bolt, helter-skelter, for cover under 

 some large elderberry trees, remaining there until the last 

 sound has been inaudible for some time. — R. Fortune. 



Starling v. Blackbird.— A friend of mine living in 

 Duchy Road, Harrogate, informs me that a Blackbird en- 

 deavoured to build a nest in a Yew Tree, opposite his dining- 

 room window. The foundation of the nest was laid several 



1917 Nov. 1. 



