NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Long-tailed Field Mice. — It may interest Mr. Daubeny to know that my 
long-haired cat has a regular preserve of the above in the garden here, and kills 
them as much, and hunts them as eagerly as he does the house mice, and in some 
cases I have known him eat them. And some friends of mine in this neighbour- 
hood have had two long-haired cats die from a surfeit of field mice. Is it that 
these cats kill and eat whaf the short-haired cat will not? 
Lamorna, Torquay. Lydia Pengelly. 
Squirrels and Rooks. — That squirrels eat the eggs of small birds I am 
well aware, but I never before knew of one having the impudence to rob the nest 
of a rook. About a month ago a lad in my garden saw a squirrel deliberately 
run up a big elm, and, in spite of the remonstrances of the owner, abstract, and 
devour, an egg ! By the way, a small colony of rooks that nested in the beeches 
close to the house have this year deserted me. Why is this ? I feed them twice 
a day, and they evidently know me well. 
Nascott House, Watford, George Roofer. 
May 3, 1900. 
Do our Bats eat Birds ? — Walking through a Suffolk cover with the 
juvenile daughter of my host on Good Friday, I was shown a wren’s nest, out of 
which she had the day before extracted a bat. Not caring to again undergo the 
clammy sensation, but anxious to know if the animal had returned to its strange 
retreat, she asked me to investigate. This I did, and pulled out a dead, half- 
eaten, young, unfledged bird. Do you think this was the work of the bat ? 
West Lodge, Blackheath, Jos. F. Green. 
May 16, 1900. 
[The pipistrelle, our commonest bat, when in captivity, will eat flesh. — 
Ed. N.N.I 
Are Woodpeckers Ovivorous ? — Last week I received a perfect dead 
specimen of a mature Great Spotted Woodpecker (Picus major). It came from 
my brother-in-law, who occupies Benacre Hall, Wrentham. and was a surprise, as 
I know how carefully he protects all rare birds on his estate. It appears, how- 
ever, that one of his keepers noticed three eggs had gone from a pheasant’s nest, 
so set a trap, and unfortunately caught this woodpecker. Curiously enough, no 
eggs have disappeared since, but I should hardly think the bird was the culprit. 
P. viridis and P. minor are exceedingly common at Benacre, but I have never 
seen P. major. 
JVest Lodge, Blackheath, Jos. F. Green. 
May 20, 1900. 
Cuckoo Sucking Eggs. — Mrs. Randles, of Bryn Afon, Wrexham, sends 
eggs, from two nests, which have undoubtedly been sucked, with the query 
as to whether it is the work of a cuckoo. It is an old superstition that the cuckoo 
sucks eggs to clear “ her ” voice ; but this is calumny. 
Mimicry in Starling, &c.— In reference to note on this subject in the May 
issue of Nature Notes, I may state that, at least since I came to reside here over 
five years ago, a pair of starlings have made the place their permanent home. They 
construct a nest in a wooden ventilator that projects a few inches outside a stable 
wall, and there rear two and even three broods yearly. The power of imitation 
of the male bird is very extraordinary, and is exercised at all seasons of the year, 
whether the birds imitated are in song or not. His mimicry of the twittering of 
the swallow is so perfect as to deceive a practised ear. He is an adept in repro- 
ducing portions of the song of blackbird, thrush, robin, &c. 
Bridgetown, Wexford, PAUL F. KeHOE. 
May 7, 1900. 
