Queries and Answers. 431 



very much destroyed by maggots, aggravated by the ground being heaved by 

 frost ; and that the vermin were effectually destroyed by rolling. It is likely, 

 however, had the field been properly examined, that most of the damage 

 should have been ascribed to the heaving by frost. In dry springs like the 

 present we hear most of worming ; the complaint has been general in this 

 quarter, this season, of a bad braird of oats, and it has been generally 

 ascribed to worming, without any examination. The larva of the jenny nettles 

 is the most plentiful in this quarter under the name of cut-worm ; and any 

 plants it cuts are above ground, not below. When ground is worked wet or 

 in the time of frost, it is thrown together in large lumps ; though smoothed 

 afterwards on the surface, large apertures are left below, which, unless there 

 is much rain to wash down the particles of soil and feed the roots, must cause 

 them to fail if drought sets in ; and the plant will wither and die for want of 

 moisture, though the roots may not have been injured at all by vermin. If 

 the ground is too spongy and open from heaving by frost, or from its me- 

 chanical condition naturally, dry weather will have the effect of injuring there 

 also, and we need not wonder at the good effect of rolling. That vermin of 

 the sort abound more or less in many fields, and do a great deal of damage, I 

 have no doubt, but I think no great proportion of what they usually get 

 credit for ; and I doubt much if a roller will have much effect on maggots 

 buried 1 in. to 3 in. below the surface, as they always are during the day, and 

 come to the surface only at night. They form part and portion of the mass 

 of the soil, and may be squeezed a little further down in the soft yielding 

 earth, without much harm being done to them. Though some near the surface 

 may suffer, I question if rolling will ever extirpate them and clear a field. It 

 has been said that the grub or cut-worm never comes above ground, but if 

 searched for with a candle, at night, they will then be found at the surface. It 

 has been said they cut the root, not tops ; but I have always found the 

 plants cut exactly at the surface of the ground. — R. Lymburn. June 3. 1842. 



Cuckoo's Eggs in the Nest of a Hedge-Sparrow. — In reference to p. 257. and 

 in corroboration of the general opinion that the cuckoo lays its egg in the 

 nest of the hedge-sparrow, and also that the eggs or young of the last-men- 

 tioned bird are probably ejected, I beg to inform you that some years ago a 

 nest in the garden of Newhouse, near Downton, Wilts, on which a hedge- 

 sparrow was sitting, attracted attention from the circumstance of its contain- 

 ing one very large egg only. The young was hatched, and was seen daily fed 

 by the sparrow, until it became so large as to spread over the nest. As the 

 young bird was then ascertained to be a cuckoo, it was taken by the young 

 ladies of the family, from the supposition that it would ultimately kill its 

 foster-parent. The cuckoo was kept in a cage for some months, when in the 

 following autumn it escaped. — Geo. Matcham. Newhouse, near Downton, 

 July, 1842. 



Tlie Subscribers to Douglas's Monument, (p. 296. to 301., and p. 384.) — In 

 p. 300., and also in p. 384., for " Mr. Smith in a letter from Worcester, 

 61. 0s. 6c?.," read " Mr. Smith in a letter from Cirencester, by Mr. Ker of Fair- 

 ford Park, 6/. 0s. 6d." No subscriptions whatever, we believe, were sent by 

 Mr. Smith of Worcester. — Cond. 



Art. IV. Queries and Answers. 



The Raspberry Grub. — Mr. Gibson's query is thus answered by Mr. West- 

 wood, from whom a paper on the subject, illustrated by engravings, will appear 

 in our next Number : — The grubs which are found in the white central part 

 of the fruit of the raspberry are those of Byturus tomentosus, a small oval 

 beetle (i in. long), entirely clothed with deep ochreous, or slaty yellowish, 

 short pubescence, and having clavate antennas. It may probably be the Sflpha 



