NATURE NOTES. 
198 
Good News from Russia. — News comes from Russia of the intervention 
of the authorities on behalf of nightingales. The police of Kiew found some 
birdcatchers. who were on their way to Moscow with six hundred nightingales 
in cages. The birdcatchers were captured and fined, and their little victims 'were 
taken to the Botanic Gardens and released. It is said they rose in the air in 
song, which was responded to by the other birds around. — Alhenattm, July l. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Bird Tapping at Window (pp. 96, 117). — I noticed this with regard to one 
of the beautiful little Australian robins \Petroica multicolor). He was evidently 
incensed at seeing his own reflection in one of the windows of my cottage, and 
forthwith laid siege to the offending pane with the utmost vigour and tenacity. 
His perseverance was truly admirable. Day after day (Sundays not excepted), and 
week after week, he was there, flying at the pane and pecking it with all his pigmy 
strength, until his poor little beak w.as quite blunted. We repeatedly drove him 
away, hurling chips and bits of mould and other harmless missiles after him, but it 
was of no avail. Several times he came inside, probably with a view to attacking 
the foe in the rear. On these occasions he would be captured, petted a little, and 
then put out at the front door, but in a few seconds he was again at the back window, 
attacking it with redoubled fury. At length the dauntless little warrior succumbed 
to the inevitable, viz., a charmer of his own species, who converted him to a more 
amiable frame of mind, and we trust they “ lived happy ever afterwards,” for 
he troubled us no more. 
IVaratah, Mt. Bischoff', Tasmania. Hamilton' Stuart Dove. 
Leaf-cutter Bee. — The “ Bees’ Nests” mentioned on page 158 were un- 
doubtedly the leaf-constructed cells of this bee. I have in my garden a rose bush 
of the kind known as the “Seven Sisters,” and this has during May and June 
of the present year been greatly frequented by the Leaf-cutters. It is marvellous 
to see these little insects cutting out their ovals and circles from the rose leaves. 
They also resort to the laburnum and even the lilac for this purpose. The majority 
of the bees had their burrows in the mortar covering the top of the garden wall. One 
individual, however, took a fancy to a large flower pot, in which a Christmas 
rose and some lilies of the valley were growing, and having burrowed a short 
distance below the surface was observed soon after conveying pieces of rose leaves 
into the burrow. Five of the ingeniously constructed cells were afterwards taken 
from the pot. A name which I once heard applied to this liee, viz., “Scissor 
bee,” struck me as being by no means inappropriate. A good popular work on 
British wild bees is still a desideratum. 
Fyfield, Abingdo)i. W. H. Warner. 
Dog and Kittens. — A lady living at Dartford has a female dog and also 
a she cat. Not long ago the cat kittened, and a day or two after this the dog, 
observing the kittens, carried them off, one by one, into her own bed, washing 
and nursing them as though they were her own pups. The strangest part of the 
story is that the dog had not then or recently pupped. She h.ad had several 
litters before, and no doubt her maternal instincts were strong. The supposed, 
but quite unproved natural antipathy between dog and cat was here quite at fault. 
The cat, however, asserted her rights, and, watching her opportunity, carried the 
kittens all back again by degrees. But the rival mothers did not fight about it. 
Robert biMPSON. 
A September Horse-chestnut. — I think it may interest your readers to 
know that there is a Horse-chestnut tree with fresh flowers and some very fresh 
green leaves in a lane leading from Campden Hill Road towards Holland House. 
The tree has otherwise the colouring of late autumn, and has lost most of its 
leaves. Louisa E. Ross. 
The Dogwood. — Apropos to the second blossoming of the pear tree recorded 
on p. 179, I should like to mention that during a ramble in this neighbourhood 
on August 29th I came upon several bushes of the dogwood in bloom, the 
