168



Correspondence.



days, under a fierce sun. the pool lay dry—all but a muddy runnel—and every

fish was lost. One trout of lbs. threw himself on to the mud, and by the time

I got him (to be accurate, her) into a bucket ,was beyond all help, while two,

although we moved them successfully into a tiny pool above, were not to be seen

the next day, being probably taken by the otter that then was working the

stream (judging by his “ seal ” or footprints, this otter used to execute a moon¬

light hornpipe on the mud of the emptied pool). Every minnow or stickleback

that had not escaped down the sluice was dried up by the sun or choked in the

thick water. The Kingfishers have not been there since (nor for that matter

the Dabchick, though he does not properly come into the tale).


Some two hundred yards above this is another and a very much larger pool

full of sizeable trout. It is connected with its spring by a tiny streamlet up

which the trout run to spawn. They will very soon be there now (February),

and presently this little thread of shallow water will harbour shoals of trout-fry.

But though a Kingfisher may be seen going over it like an arrow, never in my

observation will it stay to fish. So I have come to think that the Kingfishers

like coarse fish best, and I should like to stock that garden pool with sticklebacks

and minnows. But I do not know how to do it.


AUBYN TREVOR-BATTYE.


“DO FIELD VOLES IF GIVEN TO BIRDS AS FOOD

CAUSE A WASTING DISEASE?”


SIR,—I have often thought of asking a question in the Avicultural

Magazine that seemed a stupid one, but may not be so very stupid after all.

The question is “ Do field voles if given to birds as food cause a wasting disease?”


In this part of the country there is a prevalent idea that they do cause a

wasting disease, and that cats that take to eating them soon get thin and die.

I cannot get my aviary man to give voles to any birds, though he will give as

many house mice as he can catch. If I point out that the Cranes catch and

eat numbers of voles I am met by the reply, “ Yes, but a Crane is not a Greater

Bird of Paradise.” I asked one day what was wrong with a fat, healthy vole.

The reply was “ Weel, there will be a something in the head o’t, do ye no think

sae yer s’el? ” Now, this reply as to there being something in the head of the

vole made me think there might be something in the argument that field voles

cause a wasting disease.


It may be that these animals are often the host of tape or other intestinal

worms, which, of course, would account for birds or cats wasting away if they

became infested. Perhaps some scientific member of the Avicultural Society will

reply to this suggestion and say whether field voles are safe food or not. It is

curious that on two occasions, when I have killed voles and given them to birds

the birds have died ; just a lump of bones and feathers two or three weeks after.

One bird was an Occipital Blue Pie, the other an Apoda (Paradise Bird).


Hoddam Castle. E. J. BROOK.



