NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
179 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
The Kingfisher {p. 139). — I have met with an occasional bird skimming 
small rivulets in the neighbourhood of Rhyl, my experience coinciding with 
Mr. Warde Fowler’s as to their being generally found in proximity to still water. 
So far as my observation goes, they have not by any means been numerous 
here during the last twenty years, and seem to be diminishing in number, but 
this impression may be due to the fact that I have not frequented their haunts as 
often as in former years. 
Rhyl. \V. Lester Smith. 
Pear Tree blossoming in August.— I send you a twig from a pear tree 
growing in the open air, which you will see bears upon it a spray of blossom and 
also a pear. The whole tree is covered in this manner with pears and blossoms, 
showing an effect of the warm rains after a long drought, which is also noticeable 
this month in some of the evergreens as well as the deciduous trees. 
Shute House., Weston-super-Mare. Thomas Pole. 
Earwigs (p. 157). — I have a small vegetable garden quite infested with 
earwigs, and I have adopted the following plan to capture them. I get two or 
three newspapers and fold them up in several loose folds. I then fasten these in 
<lifferent parts of the garden hedge, and in the course of ten or twelve days I shall 
have scores, and even hundreds of earwigs captured in different folds of the papers. 
I convey some of these to an ants’ nest (I have several colonies of ants), and 
making a hole in the ground about two inches deep and almost perpendicular sides, 
so that the earwigs cannot easily escape, I open one of the main thoroughfares 
leading into the ants’ city and send one or two earwigs in. These soon return, 
followed by hundreds of enraged ants ; I then throw in ten or twelve earwigs, 
when a pitched battle between the ants and earwigs immediately takes place. In 
these combats I noticed the earwigs using the tail forceps as a weapon, for they 
will frequently spear and impale the ants on their sharp extremities. The ants 
are martial little fellows, for they will rush to the attack in the most determined 
and valiant manner, while the earwigs, though of heavier build, will decline the 
fight and make their escape as fast as their legs can carry them. They have no 
chance of defeating the ants, for reserves and reinforcements are constantly com- 
ing up to their assistance, and the earwigs are invariably overpowered by numbers 
thus verifying Napoleon’s war dictum that “ victory leans to the side of the big 
battalions.” All the earwigs that cannot escape are killed, for the ants “give no 
quarter,” and the slain are removed into the interior of the ants’ city, no doubt to 
undergo the process of scalping. A piece of folded paper or linen cloth laid in the 
corners of the windows will catch any earwigs intended to enter the room in that way. 
Blachwater, Enniscorthy. J. T. Byrne. 
[We are not quite sure that Mr. Byrne’s action will commend itself to all 
•Selbornians, but it supplies the information for which Mr. Clifford asked. 
—Ed. W.W.] 
The pinching of earwigs by the tail forceps is, I believe, not uncommon. 
A few years since my forefinger was severely pinched by a large specimen. I had 
pushed the finger into a nosegay to ascertain if there was enough water in the 
vase, and feeling a sharp prick, withdrew it quickly with the earwig hanging to 
the tip. The pain was severe for half an hour, but was relieved by hot water. 
A small blue mark remained for several days. I saw our man nipped sharply by 
an earwig that fell inside his collar when he was engaged in thinning grapes. 
It is generally supposed that our ears are naturally protected from the entrance 
of insects, earwigs especially, but there is no rule without an exception. I only 
know of one instance of an earwig getting into a person's ear ; this was told me 
by a neighbour (a surgeon), who was applied to in the difficulty. He did not 
believe the boy’s story, but to satisfy him put in oil — and forth came the earwig. 
It was a solitary instance in a long practice. 
Clifton. M. R. F. S. 
The Royal Buckhounds. — Just as we are going to press we note a para- 
graph in various papers stating that in all probability the post of Master of the 
Buckhounds will be abolished at an early date. We trust the report is accurate. 
