58 
NATURE NOTES. 
scientific and gardeners’ journals. One circumstance that may have to do with 
it is the slow growth of the larva, which is supposed to be three years — some 
think even more — in attaining its full size. 
Gravesend. J. R. S. Clifford. 
Squirrel Mobbed by Birds (p. 38).— -The squirrel is often set upon by 
birds when he strays from his usual haunts. I have seen one mobbed by sparrows 
when in this predicament. The reason for this dislike on the part of the birds 
arises, I believe, from the squirrel’s penchant for robbing nests. Talking to an old 
gamekeeper last year, he said that he once saw a squirrel cross a woodland path 
carrying an egg in its mouth ; he shouted, which caused the little animal to drop 
the egg, which proved to be a pheasant’s. 
I-y/icld, Abingdon. \V. H. Warner. 
Natterjack Toad. — I should be greatly obliged to any reader of Nature 
Notes who would inform me of localities where this interesting amphibian is still 
to be found. I greatly fear that, like many of our birds and insects, the species is 
gradually disappearing. Twenty years ago the natterjack abounded on a small 
heath about two miles from my present residence. It gradually decreased in 
numbers year by year till it became quite extinct, though the situation is unaltered. 
I saw my last specimen in the spring of 1890. 
Fyjitld, Abingdon. W. H. Warner. 
Birds and Lighthouses (p. 37). — The work suggested by Mr. W. Denne 
in Nature Notes for February has been done. One of the lighthouse keepers 
at Hurst Castle recently lent me a copy of the Report for 1886 issued by the 
Committee of the British Association appointed to enquire of the lighthouse 
keepers. A schedule was sent out to lighthouses round the coast of the United 
Kingdom to be filled in with the names of the birds observed, their numbers, the 
(late, weather, wind, &c. It was, however, issued to Hurst Castle only for one 
year. The head keeper of the lighthouse wrote to say that so few birds were 
attracted to the light that it was hardly worth while furnishing the schedule ; it is 
a comparatively low light at the end of a shingle beach stretching into the Solent, 
and only shines seawards. He told me that in the thirteen years during which he 
had been at Hurst, he had not seen as many birds at the light as in any three 
years at his former station, Flamborough Head. 
Milford, Lymington. Herbert E. U. Bull. 
May I refer Mr. Denne to the Reports of the Committee appointed by the 
British Association to examine into the migration of birds. This Committee con- 
tinued its researches for some years, and put itself in communication with the 
keepers of light-houses and light vessels all round the coast, who filled up forms 
supplied them. I think these Reports prove beyond all doubt that — strange as it 
may seem — nearly all our wild birds are migratory. Indeed, to quote the words 
of the .Sixth Report (for 1S84), p. 69: “With very few exceptions, the vast 
majority of our British birds, such as are generally considered habitual residents, 
the young invariably, the old intermittingl}-, leave these islands in the autumn, 
their place being taken by others, &c.” Blackbirds, larks, sparrows, robins, 
chaffinches, yellow hammers, &c. , are included in the published lists, and their 
course seems principally across the German Ocean, and not, as one might expect, 
across the far narrower English Channel. These Reports are sold by R. II. 
1 ‘orter, 6, Tenterden Street, W. , price 2S. This strange migration may help to 
answer the “ Robin Query,” of the Rev. J. A. Kerr (p. 36), and may account for 
what I think I have noticed, the very slight increase in the number of our smaller 
wild birds since the passing of the Gun Act and the Wild Birds’ Preservation Act. 
Costock Rectory, Loughborough. C. S. Millard. 
Popular Science. — The Speaker for February llth contains a notable 
example of the “popular science” article, in the form of a paper on the Snow- 
drop. All the usual unauthenticated traditions are found in it — the procession of 
“girls dressed in white” on Candlemas Day; the “monkish legend” already 
called in question in these pages (Nature Notes, 1892, p. 154); the “curious 
ceremony” (rightly so styled) which involved the removal of the “image” of 
“the Virgin” from “above the altar,” and the strewing of snowdrops in its 
“empty place;” an “old legend,” recorded on the high authority of Mr. 
