226 
NATURAL HISTORY QUERIES. 
135 . Snakes. — I have had three young snakes brought to me about 4 inches 
in length and the thickness of a slate pencil. I am anxious to keep them under 
observation, and have placed them in a reversed bell-glass with soil and moss at 
the bottom. 
I should be glad of some information on the subject of how to feed' them. 
Will they hibernate all winter ? And how long will they take to attain full 
growth ? I believe them to be specimens of the common grass snake. 
Ltanbedr, Vale of Conway. Angela Brazil. 
[Young grass-snakes are hatched in late summer or in the autumn. They 
seem to live at first upon soft insects and worms ; but when a few weeks old can 
take baby frogs. The food of the adult is frogs, fish, newts and occasionally 
toads. They require to drink much and often, and will sometimes drink milk. 
When young they are easily drowned, even in a shallow tank. They hibernate 
in the ground until the end of March, pair in May or June, and lay their eggs in 
manure-heaps in July and August. They are readily tamed and continue to 
increase in length for some years. — Ed. N’.N.'] 
138 . Flight. — Mr. John Watson, in his book “ Woodland and Field Folk,” 
states (p. 215) that a race of 3 miles took place between pigeons and bees, and 
that the first bee came in a quarter of a minute before the first pigeon. 
Can you do me the favour to explain how this could be, as a bee is a heavy 
insect with short wings ? 
Southiown House, George II. Coukteny. 
Kenton, near Exeter, 
October 17, 1907. 
137 . Pond Lifo. — I have a small pond fed entirely by surface water from 
the road ; the bottom concreted, the top usually covered with duckweed. The 
only animated creatures that I know of in it are newts and waterman-beetles, &c. ; 
there are no fish, nor, as I believe, are there any rats or water-voles. But we 
often notice, as on November i, a number of tracks across the surface through 
the duckweed, I think certainly too narrow for rats. I think they are always 
(so far as we can see) made by night, and, I should say, by some creatures 
swimming on the surface. This is not, I suppose, a usual habit of newts. My 
man has suggested water snakes ; but I hardly think they would leave straight, 
narrow tracks such as these. Water shrews seem to me more likely, but I should 
be glad to hear the opinion of someone better informed. 
^Otham Parsonage, Maidstone, F'. M. Mii.i.ard. 
Novetnber 2, 1907. 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
Gilbert White of Selborne. By W. II. Mullens. 10 ins. x 6 ins., pp. 32. 
With 7 Plates. Witherby and Co. Price 2s. fid. net. 
This is a report of a lecture given to the Hastings and St. Leonards Natural 
History Society, and contains an accurate biography of White, with some account 
of his family and his correspondents, judicious extracts from the late Professor 
Newton’s Life and Mr. Warde Fowler’s Introduction, an excellent account of 
Selborne, admittedly based upon Dr. Bowdler Sharpe’s privately printed 
“Pilgrimage,” and a business-like bibliography of the earlier editions of the 
“ Natural History.” The seven plates comprise the Title-page and North View 
of Selborne Church fiom the first edition, the View of the Wakes from that of 
1813, and one of the house as it now is, together with a .somewhat unsatisfactory 
photograph of the Grave and a somewhat uninteresting interior of the Chancel. 
But we are especially indebted to Mr. Mullens for giving us photographs from 
the Parish Registers, which he allows us to reproduce iiere, together with the 
(juaint tailpiece from Olaus Magnus. With reference to Gilbert White’s heterodox 
theory as to hibernation of swallows, it is comforting — considering the stress laid 
