160 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Clifton, whose feet were gnawed into holes by rats, the grisly portion 

 being completely eaten away while she was asleep, but whose life 

 was saved by removal from the rats. Mr. Buckland was very fond of 

 trying experiments of what he called 'the law of eat and be eaten.' 

 He tried a hedgehog with a viper. The viper struck the hedgehog 

 two or three times in the face, where there are no bristles. Mean- 

 while the hedgehog munched up the viper's tail. The hedgehog did 

 not suffer in the least ; on the contrary, he ate up the viper in the 

 course of the night, not leaving a trace of him. A gentleman of 

 highest repute for biology in Oxford, who is at the present time 

 Acting Professor, comments thus on Mr. Langdale's letter : — ' Bell's 

 British Quadrupeds, 2nd edition, has no mention of any such fact. 

 Bats are very destructive to eggs and young animals. They have 

 been known to exterminate rabbits and puffins on an island, and they 

 have even under force of hunger slain men. The hedgehog habitually 

 eats toads, among other things. Dogs, of course, find the skin 

 secretion very disagreeable. The secretion of the glands, especially 

 about the head in salamanders, causes epileptiform convulsions when 

 injected into the blood of small animals. The toad's secretion is 

 poisonous to a less degree.' " — ' West Sussex Gazette,' May 9th, 1889. 

 " Selborne Column," conducted by the Bev. H. D. Gordon. 



[The above is interesting in connection with the question on the 

 subject asked by Mr. J. Steele Elliott (Zool. 1912, p. 231).— Ed.] 



