242 
NATURE NOTES. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Nuthatches (p. 201). — P ew birds are more interesting, or greater favourites 
with those who have watched them, than nuthatches ; and many readers will be 
grateful for Mrs. Downing’s paper. I may say, I hope without any breach of 
confidence, that several years ago I received a letter from the Rev. J. C. 
Atkinson, describing his own experiences with nuthatches. These were very 
similar to Mrs. Downing’s ; for he too had shot nuts for them “as a boy shoots 
a marble,” and the nuthatches caught them in the air. One plan of his was to 
fix nuts on the trunk of a tree, with hammer and tacks. The nuthatches got to 
know the sound, so much so that if Mr. Atkinson wanted to show them to 
visitors, he had only to tap the tree with his hammer, and they would come 
round. I think he also said that at one house they learned to come for nuts 
nailed on the window-ledge. I have myself had them come close under a window 
for maize put out for fowls. There is one sentence in Mrs. Downing’s paper, 
about which, if I may venture to say so, further information would be very 
acceptable. “This [nut] he struck deliberately, several times in succession 
against the masonry of the chimney, until he had no doubt sufficiently cracked it.” 
Now a nuthatch’s ordinary method has been described for us by our master, 
Gilbert White, in his one hundredth letter : the nuthatch “ picks an irregular 
ragged hole with its bill ; but as this artist has no paws to hold the nut firm while 
he pierces it ” [White had just before spoken of the squirrel and mouse] “like 
an adroit workman he fixes it, as it were, in a vice in some cleft of a tree, or in 
some crevice ; when standing over it, he perforates the stubborn shell.” I speak, 
of course, under correction, but I would respectfully express a doubt whether a 
nuthatch could crack the “stubborn shell” of a sound nut by striking it even 
against stone. Somewhat curit'usly, I happen to remember once reading what 
professed to be a description of a thrush’s manner of breaking a snail’s shell. 
“ He places it between two stones, and hammers it with his bill till he breaks it.” 
I need not say that this is what a thrush (ordinarily at any rate) does not do ; for 
he holds the snail in his beak, and easily breaks the thin shell by banging it on a 
stone. But what is easy with a snail-shell will be found by experiment very 
difficult with a nutshell ; and many no doubt could by their own oirservation 
confirm the accuracy of White’s description of the nuthatch’s usual way of going 
to work. 
Otham, Maidstone. F. M. Millard. 
Earwigs (pp. 157, 179). — I have more than once seen earw'igs attempt to 
use their tail forceps as weapons. One, which we caught on purpose, succeeded 
in pinching my brother’s finger, though the pinch was so slight that he hardly 
felt it. Evelyn Talbot Bonsonby. 
Late Flowers at Hindhead. — The following is a list of garden and wild 
Howers which I have noticed about Hindhead during this month (October), some 
in large, some in small quantities. In our garden we have had white and yellow 
broom, weigela, auricula, the large perennial oriental poppy, an annual poppy 
{I'apaver umbrosiiDi). Iceland poppies, dahlias, pansies, phlox, spiderwort, pinks, 
perennial lupin, white campanula, a blue campanula {latifolia) also abundance of 
mignonette, and of the white sweet-scented candytuft. In the lanes, &c., I see 
Herb Robert and another geranium, the common red campion, the w'hite 
lychnis (L. vespertina), a stork’s bill (Erodium cicutarium), a small stellaria, the 
Avhite and the common red dead nettle, bramble flowers, &c. A great deal of 
gorse is in flower, and a profusion of it coming on. There is still an extraordinary 
abundance as well as a great variety of fungi. Mushrooms were plentiful until 
the middle of the month. I hear of dishes of raspberries, and of strawberries 
being gathered in gardens near Haslemere. At Willesden Green a lime tree put 
on a fresh suit of leaves in September. 
Hindhead. E. C. W. 
Late Swallows. — Yesterday, November 5th, I saw a number of swallows 
busily working in a field here, near the farm buildings. They flew very low, 
and so near to me that I had a full view of them. They had no appearance of 
young birds, but were well grown and in full plumage. Previously, I have seen 
