NATURAL HISTORY QUERIES 
31 
465. Sparrows’ Behaviour to a Thrush.— Noticing a commo- 
tion amongst the sp.irrows in my l>ack garden, I saw that they were flying at a 
little dirty grey thing on the wall as if it was an owl or bird of prey. On looking 
at it through my opera glasses I saw that it was a young thrush with the yellow 
beak of a quite young or half-grown bird. It opened this widely at the sparrows 
when they came too near. I had to leave the house before watching the end of 
the affair, and do not know whether the mother came to fetch it or some of the 
many cats got at it. j, g LlTCllFIEI.D. 
heitstiigloit. 
460. Pythons. — In support of Mr. C. Nicholson’s note. No. 453, I may 
say that although it is well known that tigers {Felis tigris) do not inhabit South 
Africa, it is not at all unusual to read in the newspapers of these colonies 
accounts of the damage done to sheep by tigers, and of hunts organised for 
the destruction of the wild beasts in question. I have no personal acquaintance 
with Ceylon, but I know very well that the creature commonly called a tiger in 
South Africa is the Cape Leopard, a much smaller animal than the true tiger, 
though equally ferocious and destructive, and as well able to climb trees as the 
majoiity of the cat tribe. 
An artist in England commissioned to illustrate an article for some magazine, 
“On a Tiger Hunt in Cape Colony,” would, without special knowledge, be 
almost sure to depict the striped animal which he knows by that name, and 
would unwittingly mislead the reader by so doing. K. T. Lewis. 
467. Pythons. — The more the question of pythons attacking and swallowing 
large and dangerous animals like tigers is considered the more impossible it appears. 
Owing to the long and delicate backbone a snake is easily disabled. A blow 
from a tiger’s paw would cripple the largest and most powerful python, while 
its claws would cause fatal lacerations. In killing an ox, a tiger inflicts a bite 
in the neck which crushes the bones at the base of the skull, causing almost 
instant death. The bones of a snake, however huge, are far smaller and more 
easily crushed than tho.se of an ox. From the fact of three or four feet of a 
large snake having been found in a tiger’s stomach, we may conclude that tigers 
are not so averse to attacking snakes as is generally supposed. 
When referring to the snake story of “Three in a Tree,” Mr. Nicholson, in 
No. 453, says, “ If we substitute Leopard for tiger all difficulties vanish.” Do 
they ? There still remain these — the size of a leopard — the power of its paw ; its 
terrible claws that cut like razors to the bone ; and its formidable teeth. 
Southacre, S-,oaffham. Edmund Thos. Daubexy. 
468. Black Caps. — A large space in this garden is enclosed with wire 
netting to save the fruit from birds. No birds are so determined to enter it as 
black caps, which alone are successful ; though the smaller kinds of tits could 
get through the mesh if they persevered. A pair of black caps with their young 
managed this summer to squeeze in and out of the netting, and were very unkind 
to my raspberries. 
Southacre, Swaffham. Ed.MUND Thos. Daubeny. 
NATURAL HISTORY QUERIES. 
Answers. 
114. Birds’ Restaurant. — In answer to your correspond in Nature 
Notes (Query No. 106), the little baskets for holding hemp-seed for the tits can 
be very quickly and easily made. Take a piece of the stiff white millinery canvas 
of about the size of half a sheet of writing paper and join the ends so that it forms 
a cylinder. Then draw up the bottom to make it into a bag, run a ring of white 
cotton covered wire (also used in millinery) into the hem at the top, to keep the 
bag or basket wide open, and add a handle of the same wire by which to 
suspend it. C. G. Wood. 
115. Birds’ Restaurant. — A convenient method of feeding tits is to 
make one or more wooden discs about two inches in diameter. A piece of string 
with a knot at the end, passed, through a hole in the centre, serves to support and 
