﻿162 FTF.T.n AND FOREST. 



Tuesday the pain became intense. ^the virus, working its way into his 

 legs, causing the veins to swell very much. We applied turnip poul- 

 tice to the wound, and when taken off, a quantity of black fluid came 

 from the sore. During the afternoon the pain in the legs and big toes 

 still continued. Dr. Mohnbeer prescribed a liniment, which after 

 rubbing well into the legs, caused a black, inky colored fluid to emit 

 itself through the pores of the skin in large drops, from which my son 

 began to improve, and has continued improving ever since, but suffers 

 much from weakness. From the time he was bitten on the Monday 

 till the Friday following he lost twelve pounds in flesh. I forgot to 

 state that when he first was bitten, I gave him small doses of brandy 

 at intervals during the first two days, which seemed to have the effect 

 of greatly relieving the pain. I am informed by Te Hemera, native 

 chief here, and also by other natives, that many fatal cases among 

 their ranks have, taken place by the bite of the " kapito ; " they also 

 believe the sufferer is sure to die if they cannot find the spider ; but 

 on the contrary, if they find it and burn it in the fire, the patient gets 

 well in three days. If they cannot find the insect, they set fire to the 

 house and burn building, effects and everything else. In this case the 

 spider was found and preserved in spirits. 



Sense of Hearing in Birds and Insects. — Mr. G. J. Romanies 



in a recent number of Nature presents the following suggestions on 

 this subject : 



I do not know whether ornithologists are acquainted with the peculiar 

 manner in which curlews frequently obtain their food on sandy flats which 

 have been left bare by the tide. The birds force their long bills into the 

 wet sand as far as the nostrils, and then again withdraw it, leaving a 

 small hole, which, when probed, is found to be only just large enough 

 to have taken in the bill. The animal, therefore, can only have made 

 a single prolonged push without adding any lateral or exploring move- 

 ments of the bill, as birds which feed in mud may be observed to do 

 Now it cannot be supposed that curlews adopt this mode of feeding 

 without obtaining from it some degree of profit. Neither can it be 

 supposed that they make their thrusts into the sand at random ; for, 

 their bills being so pointed and slender, the birds would usually re- 

 quire to make a vast number of ineffectual thrusts before they happened 

 to hit upon a worm or other edible object. The question therefore is, 



