476 Queries arid Answers, 



all its parts yet entire, but those buds with which its ct<fpy 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 thuig 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 Prunus and Pjrus 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, I should be happy, if in 

 error, to be convinced that I 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 MissendeUy February \5, 1830. 



Wasp^s Nest. — I 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 Fespa 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 recommendatiorf 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 obtained 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 attached to a 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 



