NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
195 
thrusting his powerful beak under each piece and forcing it upwards, hut did not, 
while I was watching it, appear to find any insect food under the moss. I know 
of no other British bird than this which can run with ease head foremost down a 
perpendicular surface; it being the common habit of the woodpeckers and also 
of the tree-creeper, when searching for insects, to alight low down on a tree trunk 
and make their way more or less directly upwards. A pair of nuthatches have 
for many years come to our window in the winter to be fed, devouring indis- 
criminately nuts, hempseed, maize and bread. Bits of hard crust they carry off 
to a large elm close by, pushing them into crevices in the bark as they do 
nuts, and then pecking at them. One winter some food was placed daily on the 
ground near where a stake happened to have been driven into the earth. Instead 
of approaching the spot in the usual manner of small birds in general, the nut- 
hatches must needs first alight on the top of the stake, and then run down it to 
the ground. G. T. Rope. 
552. Sheldrakes. — While staying recently on the Ayrshire coast with a 
very intelligent fisherman, he told me he had eight sheldrake eggs brought him, 
which he hatched under a common fowl, and all thrived. He prevented them 
from flying away by cutting one of their wings. A trip came to the place and the 
trippers stoned seven of them and smashed their bodies to pulp. The eighth was 
taken by his boy in a basket to a farm house one and a half miles away, he 
walking with it along the railway line. The bird, although unable to fly, reap- 
peared the next day, having been seen to walk back exactly the way it was taken. 
It is now able to fly, roosts with the fowl, and has never been known to enter the 
sea. W. B. 
553. Starlings and Caterpillars. — Amidst bad conditions at my back 
door my boy planted a few cabbages. The white butterfly found them out and 
the caterpillars were legion. Yesterday a flock of starlings were noticed on the 
cabbages busy at something. Now there are no caterpillars. W. B. 
554. Pierced Eggs. — Some time ago a pseudo-naturalists’ paper asked for 
notes re the hatching results of pierced eggs. A friend of mine pierced eggs in 
three nests, two of which he did not keep under strict observation. The third 
one, although they were far advanced towards hatching and pierced so that blood 
issued, were duly hatched, and he tells me he could perceive no difference in the 
appearance of the young birds, which duly fled away. W. B. 
555. A G-arden Full of Birds. — I am glad to find Mr. Donald Matthews, 
in No. 538, can “go one better” in the number of birds his garden contains. 
When, however, he extends the radius to 450 yards from his house, I fancy I 
can turn the tables and beat him. Within that distance of me, besides those 
already named as living in my garden, some, by no means all, of the birds, that 
occur, most of which breed here, are as follows : — 
Peregrine (occasional). 
Kestrel. 
Sparrow Hawk. 
Brown Owl (dozens). 
Barn Owl (many). 
Long-Eared Owl. 
Short-Eared Owl. 
Scops-Eared Owl (a colony near). 
Little Owl (turned down). 
Green Woodpecker. 
Greater Spotted Woodpecker. 
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. 
Heron. 
Kingfisher (dozens). 
Norfolk Plover (vast flocks). 
Green Plover. 
Ring Plover. 
Gad wall. 
This little lot is hard to beat, in 
extended. 
South-acre, Swaffham. 
Wild Duck. 
Canada Goose (come and go). 
Teal. 
Snipe. 
Jack Snipe. 
Redshank (many) 
Water Rail. 
Moorhen. 
Coot. 
Dabchick. 
Green Sandpiper (common). 
Black-Headed Gull (thousands). 
Nightjar. 
Hawfinch. 
Crossbill. 
Reed-Sparrow. 
Reed-Warbler. 
Nightingale. 
quality at all events, and might be greatly 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
