SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES 
219 
direction, I saw apparently the same pair flying from the grounds of Sir Maryon 
Wilson’s house to a tree on the Heath, and was so close to them as to be able to 
distinguish that they were of a light green colour, with small heads and hook-bills. 
Seeing a constable close by I enquired if he had noticed them and he said he 
had seen one of them before, last winter, in Gainsborough Gardens. Is it possible 
for these, birds to breed and survive a winter in this climate ? 
3, Mount Vernon, Hampstead, N. W. S. G. Edwards. 
October'^, 1900. 
Butterflies and Birch-Sap.— Last August my son and I spent a fortnight 
at Goslar, in the Harz Mountains, a quaint old city which was once the resi- 
dence of the Hohenstaufen emperors. The adjoining mountains are covered 
with pines. There is very scanty animal life. One day we saw some butterflies 
fluttering around a tree in one of the glades and went up to examine it. It 
proved to be a birch, the sap of which had exuded abundantly, and had 
apparently undergone fermentation. On the stem, and on the rocks or grass 
around were scores and even hundreds of gorgeous butterflies, gloriously drunk, 
so that they could be easily picked up by the hand. Peacocks were the most 
numerous — say about 150 ; next came the Ked Admirals, some fifty or sixty ; 
lastly, of Camberwell Beauties there were twenty or thirty, with a few wasps. 
I saw no white, or others of the more common kinds. 
Now the spot was two or three miles from the town, tw'o from the open 
country. Except heather, the forest contained hardly any flowers. The Cam- 
berwell Beauty flies about among the pines, but the Peacocks and Ked Admirals 
must have been attracted from a considerable distance. 
We visited the tree on several occasions, always finding the same state of 
things exactly. None but the species above seemed to take part in the debauch. 
The large Venus Fritillary was plentiful in the neighbourhood, but I do not 
remember seeing one in the company. We noticed a similar phenomenon 
elsewhere, with a young birch-tree which had exuded a small quantity of sap, and 
so had one or two butterflies fluttering about it. 
I should be glad to know if this has been previously noticed. If not, a 
knowledge of the fact would be useful to the collector. 
6, Gloucester Place, IV. Herbert Snow, M.D. 
Spiders. — I should be so much obliged if you or your readers could advise 
me as to how to exterminate spiders. I have lately built a room which is practi- 
cally almost lined with Spanish chestnut wood, but even that seems of no avail. 
Homeclose, A Ires ford. 
[The notion that certain roofs exempt from spiders are of chestnut wood is 
unfounded. Such roofs in England invariably prove, on examination, to be oak. 
—Ed. W.W.] 
Ivy injurious to Trees. — I was very interested in Mr. Rooper’s notes 
hereon in the October issue. Cannot someone let us know whether ivy growing 
on, or up, or round, trees, does do them harm, and if not we can make an effort 
to induce landowners to stay their hands in this direction. 
October 6, 1900. W. Percival Westell, M.B.O.U. 
[One of the best authorities on the dangers of woodlands. Dr. Fiirst of 
Aschaffenburg, in his edition of Kauschinger’s Lehre von IValdscliutz (1889), 
merely says of ivy that it is “no parasite, for it derives all its nourishment from 
the soil, and all the rootlets appearing on stems and branches are merely support- 
ing rootlets.” We seldom or never see horizontal branches of ivy embrace a 
stem, nor does it become embedded in and distort the tree as honeysuckle distorts 
hazel ; so that on the whole, I think that the war waged upon it is largely 
prejudice.— Ed. JV.N.'] 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES. 
Council Meetings. — The next Council meetings will be held at 20 
Hanover Square, W., on Tuesdays, November 6 and 20, at 5.30 p.m. 
