NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
153 
manner his did upon the little snake. He also says, “ natural instinct has taught 
the tiger never to touch a snake.” Flower and Lyddeker are my authority for 
saying, “ from the fact of three or four feet of a huge 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.” Domestic cats sometimes kill snakes. I have 
known individual cats much addicted to this habit. 
Soulk-acre, Sxvaffham. Ed.munu Thos. D.aubkny. 
519 . A Few Nature Notes. — Half a century ago, as a boy lover of Nature, 
I roamed through the fields daily, wading in the brooks, breaking through the 
hedges and climiiing the trees. These experiences formed pleasurable incidents 
and sometimes provided interesting objects for study. The note-books I kept at 
the time have long since disappeared, but a few recollections are still vividly fresh in 
the memory. On one occasion I found a Carder Bees’ nest in a bank over- 
grown with long grass. The nest, enclosed in dried grass, much the same as that 
collected by field-mice, was fairly large. On being about to remove it I found 
two slow-worms snugly wrapped up in its outer layer. In 1858 I discovered 
a Humble-Bees’ nest in a hole in a steep bank bordering a brook. I proceeded 
to destroy the outside bees preparatory to digging oat the nest. I was surprised 
to have to encounter wasps as well as bees. On digging, I discovered the comb 
of a small wasp’s nest with queen, &c., complete. E.xcavating the run of the 
hole about a foot further I came upon the moss and interior cells forming 
the Humble-Bees’ nest. At various times I must have taken in the aggregate 
hundreds of nests of Wasps and Humble Bees, but never except on the solitary 
occasion alluded to found them inhabiting the same hole, and am inclined to 
believe that such a coincidence must rarely occur. During some ten years’ 
rovings in the western suburbs of Bristol, I only met with one instance of tree 
wasps. In this case the nest was suspended from the branch of (I believe) a fir 
tree at about twelve feet from the ground. We threw stones at the nest and 
knocked it off. Every summer it was my custom to bring both Wasps’ and Bees’ 
nests from the fields and place them in suitable holes dug for them in the back 
garden. My pet insects were, however, apt to become so numerous and so 
obnoxious that, towards the close of summer, neighbourly expostulations and 
parental admonitions prompted me to destroy them. With regard to the nesting 
of birds, I used to expect on March 20 or 21 to find a Song-Thrush’s nest with 
eggs in it ; and on one of the dates named I made it my annual practice to start 
on birds’-nesting expeditions and generally succeeded in meeting with the Thrush’s 
eggs. Sometimes, I also came across the eggs of the Robin, Blackbird, and 
Hedge-Sparrow on same dates. 
Bris'ol, W. F. Dunning, J'.R.A.S. 
June 20, 1907. 
520 . Wasps. — In answer to query No. 122, I have no doubt the Wasps 
were preying upon the caterpillars your correspondent noticed, as they feed freely 
upon insects as well as fruit. Perhaps Mr. Bedford may be interested in the 
following incident : I was sitting one day upon a garden seat, when my attention 
was attracted by a buzzing noise on the ground, and on looking down to discover 
the cause I found a wasp busily engaged in killing a large Bluebottle fly. He 
quickly despatched him and then proceeded to nip him in half at the junction of 
the thorax with the abdomen. He then flew away with the upper half, no doubt 
to his nest. I wondered whether he would return for the rest of his kill, and 
having moved it a few inches I sat still and waited. In about ten minutes back 
came Mr. Wasp, pitched on exactly the spot which had been occupied by his 
game, and seemed puzzled to find it gone. He searched about, however, and 
soon found and flew away with it. 
Chichester. W. S. CLE.-yiHER. 
521 . E. A. Bedford may be quite sure that the wasps, whose manoeuvres he 
witnessed, were preying on the minute caterpillars. I have before now seen 
Vespa vulgaris vanquish and fly away with a large blue-bottle, and on another 
occasion visit a fishmonger’s shop, where it quickly carved out and carried off 
a piece of salmon much larger than itself. 
Chartley Vicarage, Stafford. H. G. C. 
