415 
therefore does not attempt to lay any more eggs, but takes her 
departure. To keep gentles for the winter, Mr. Davy looks out for 
October fly-blows. He deposits the mature maggot in damp sand, 
and buries them in bottles in the ground. He finds this plan 
has the effect of preventing them from changing into the chry- 
salis state. By this means he is never without gentles for his 
birds summer and winter. An immense trade goes on in gentles 
for fishing-tackle shops ; they are of nominal value in hot weather, 
but in early spring they are sometimes worth one penny a dozen. 
Maggots aie easier of digestion by soft-meat birds than 
meal-worms. The skin of the meal-worms is hard, and contains 
much silica. Again, birds find gentles in a state of nature, but 
they do not find meal-worms. 
Peacocks, p. 126. — I hear that peacocks are grand things to 
kill snakes and even vipers. My friend, Mr. A. D. Berrington, told 
me of an estate in Wales where vipers formerly abounded, and 
were a great nuisance till peacocks were turned down. These 
birds shortly killed off all the vipers. The peacock runs smartly 
in upon the viper, hits him hard vrith his beak and retires 
before the viper has a chance of striking with his fangs. 
Calculi, -p. 126. — I have three fine calculi which I obtained 
from the colon of a brewer's horse. They are worn to fit each 
other ; each is nearly the size of a cocoa-nut. The nucleus of one 
is a small piece of iron. I believe its composition is triple- 
phosphate. Hair-balls from the stomachs of cows are not un- 
common ; I have several specimens, one especially from the 
stomach of a kangaroo. In the College of Surgeons is a hair 
calculus from the stomach of a young lady. This lady had long 
and beautiful hair; she was in the habit of biting oft her hair 
and swallowing it; these hairs formed a calculus in her stomach, 
from which she died. 
The bezoars of the ancients Avere taken from the true or 
fourth stomach of a kind of goat, the Cajjra Ckcucasia of the 
British Museum Catalogue. 
Starlings Boosting, p. 132.— The Bev. B. S. Baker thus writes 
in Land and Water : — " Near my house (Hargrave, near Kimbol- 
ton) is a fox cover of five acres, the favourite rendezvous and rest- 
ing-place of myriads of starlings, whither they have resorted now 
for several years in the winter months, beginning pretty early 
in the autumn. They gather here every evening about an hour 
before dark, coming in, in flocks of various sizes, from north, 
east, south, and west. Unless anyone saw them they would 
scarcely credit the myriads whicli assemble. There must be 
