THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



371 



was shortly directed to a large gathering of 

 these peculiar-looking birds, in a field some little 

 distance c If. Knowing their tin id character, he 

 approach* I as near as he could \v thout being ob- 

 served or sxciting alarm, and, hi ling himself be- 

 hind a tree, noticed all their proceedings, which 

 were of a most remarkable character. After a 

 great deal of noisy clamour, they formed them- 

 selves into a circle, in the centre of which one of 

 their number was left standing alone. Again 

 there wasaconsiderableamountofscreechingbird 

 oratory, when suddenly all the birds Hew on the 

 unhappy solitary one, and literally tore him to 

 pieces." 



Another letter followed signed J. 

 Edmund Cox, D.D. , who gives a 

 description of a scene of which he was 

 an eye witness. He says : — 



" On a sultry summer afternoon I was riding- 

 leisurely on horseback along a quite road in Nor- 

 folk — not many miles distant from Norwich— 

 when I was startled by hearing an unusual com- 

 motion, within a short distance, amongst the 

 dwellers of an adjacent rookery. Quietly 

 tying up my horse to a gate, I crawled some 

 hundred feet or more to a gap in the hedge of 

 a grass lield. where a rook "trial by jury" was 

 going on. The criminal — as undoubtedly he 

 was — at first appeared very perky and jaunty, 

 although encircled by about forty or fifty of 

 an evidently indignant sable fraternity, and 

 assailed by the incessantly vehement cawing of 

 an outer ring, consisting of many hundreds, 

 (fcai h and all showing even greater indignation 

 than was manifested by the more select number. 

 ►Some crime or other had evidently been com- 

 mitted against rook-law. Scouts, too, were 

 hovering in all directions, but so absorbed were 

 they that my vicinity was unheeded. After a 

 very few minutes the manner of the criminal 

 suddenly and wholly changed. He bent his 

 head, cawed weakly, as it were imploringly, and 

 drooped his wings, as if pleading for mercy. It 

 was useless. The select circle went in at once, 

 and, picking him to pieces, left a mangled 

 carcase in less time than I write of it. Then 



they and all the rest, scouts as well, set up a 

 sort of exulting screaming, and flew away, 

 some to their neighbouring home, and others — 

 the greater number I may say — across the fields. 

 On picking up "the remains'' 1 found a shape- 

 less mass, but was able to discern that it was a 

 male bird." 



Nothing is more difficult to prove than 

 a negative, and though neither we nor 

 you ever saw such a trial, the 

 accumulation of credible testimony 

 almost compels us to go back to an old 

 belief in the truth of these stories. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Dear Sirs, — Could you kindly make out the 

 three larva enclosed in box. One was found 

 last Autumn in a hedge on Hawthorn, but it 

 never fed well : Green, speckled with white 

 dots, &c. The others were found at Dulwich, 

 near Camberwell, on some railings, but I 

 could not find anything they would eat. I 

 am sorry they are nearly dead. I have some 

 hairy larva that are thriving well on apple 

 leaves. I will send you them when they get 

 a little larger. The pupa of Adippe is 

 described in Colmans's B.B. as " reddish, 

 spotted with silver." I should suggest an 

 index when Vol. i is completed, as it would 

 be very useful for those who intend having 

 the Y. N. bound (extra with last No). I am, 

 Yours truly, H. Andrews, Aldborough. 

 [The larva you obtained from Hawthorn is 

 not that of a moth, but one of the larger saw- 

 flies— Tricossoma lucorum. Of the other two 

 the smaller one is Acronycta tridens, and 

 should have been fed on white thorn or 

 black thorn, and the larger one is Pygara 

 bucephala, and would have eaten oak, lime, 

 relm, &c. — Eds.] 



