156 
NATURE NOTES. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
A Wasps’ Nest. — A short time ago I spent a few days with some friends in 
Staffordshire, who have shooting rights over some three thousand acres of well- 
kept woods and lands. One day we had a drive to this shooting ; my friend said 
to me, “ Come here, and I will show you something worth seeing,” and he took 
me to a very secluded spot, and there, hung on the branch of a yew tree, he 
pointed out a well-formed and well-made wasps’ nest, about twelve inches round 
in the middle, tapering off to two or three inches at the bottom ; the shape was 
something like a well-formed large turnip, and there it hung quietly and safely 
from the branch of the yew. The puzzle to us was how the wasps had so well 
and so dexterously hung their nest so prettily and firmly to the branch — perhaps 
.some of your readers will enlighten us. My friend being anxious to get the nest, 
the keeper thought he could manage it by cutting off the branch when the wasps 
were at rest at night, in which I hoped he would succeed, as it would be an 
interesting object. 
IxA IMellor. 
A Cuckoo. — An adult cuckoo, that had flown straight into a dwelling house, 
was brought to me to-day for preservation, its captors not even knowing what bird 
it was ; they thought it was a hawk. Its beautiful eyes seemed to appeal in a 
piteous way for mercy, and I eventually succeeded in persuading its captors to 
give it its liberty. The long-continued drought is very trying to these birds, 
which are never so happy as after a steady rain, when the budding foliage of the 
hedges glistens with rain drops, and the succulent herbage of the fields bends 
under the heavy moisture, which brings out the numerous species of larvm 
upon which they principally feed. These have now — alas 1 for the poor birds — 
sought the more deep recesses of vegetation, thus depriving them of their 
sustenance. 
Hampstead. J. E. Whiting. 
Birds and tho Drought. — The long drought has made many of our 
garden birds quite exceptionally keen for fruit. The blackbirds never left the 
strawberry bed unless driven away, and blackbirds and thrushes “ worked ” — as 
they say here — the currants constantly. But the rooks — “crows,” they call 
them — in the “garden-field,” having finished the peas, actually grubbed up and 
ate the potato crop. 
Hulcolc, Aylesituy. A. W. H. 
Owls and Rats.— A pair of very sage-looking owls used to inhabit the 
belfry of our ancient parish church when I first came to Liss, several years ago, 
and they brought up a large family in there. I was accustomed to watch them, 
season after season, flying round the fields in front of my windows as soon as it 
began to get dusk, seeking food for their young. There is a large yew tree in the 
churchyard. It is not so line a specimen as the one in Selborne Churchyard, but 
it is probably as old, for it was doubtless planted when St. Peter’s Church was 
built. This tree, and a group of three oak trees in the corner of the field next my 
residence were the favourite halting places of the owls ; perhaps they were spots 
from whence they took olrservations, for I often noticed them fly direct from the 
church to these trees, and then, in a little time, skirt the hedges, and skim the 
fields, hunting for small prey. We had few rats then, but alas, the owls departed 
— were driven away, I imagine. I was absent from Liss for several months, and 
found on my return the owls gone, and rats have ever since been fearfully on the 
increase. I use the word fearfully, because their numbers are truthfully very 
great. They walk about the garden paths of an evening, run up the ivy on the 
walls, and even enter the kitchen if the door is open, and my cats are not on 
guard. I do not poison them lest they should come in to die between the hollow 
walls of my dwelling house, and so prove worse pests when dead than alive; but I 
wish it were possible to get a pair of owls to take up their abode here. 
Berry Grove, Liss. Helen Watney. 
