226 
NATURE NOTES 
tion and properties of the elements and their chief compounds is supplemented by 
a short account of the principles of analysis. If any “general reader” wishes 
for an example of the achievements of chemistry as an exact science, we would 
commend to his notice the remarkable results tabulated on p. 173. 
Received : — KnorvleJge, Science Gossip, The Naturalist, The Irish Naturalist, 
The Animal World, The Animals' Friend, Our Animal Friends, Humanity, and 
The Agricultural Economist for November. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Cat and Dog". — We have a mongrel pug with a respectable straight nose, 
a lively young rascal about six months old. We have also a dark tortoiseshell 
cat with whom he is on the best of terms. The two sleep together in a small box 
in an outhouse, nestling close to keep each other warm. A fortnight ago pussy 
deposited four kittens in the box, of which two were at once disposed of in the 
usual way. Pug was greatly interested and puzzled with the two which remained. 
He touched them and sniffed at them, but made no protest. Two days later, 
however, he rushed into the kitchen in great glee with a kitten in his jaws, shak- 
ing it and tossing it as if it were a rat. The kitten was dead and he was severely 
reprimanded, but a few hours after he came in again playing the same pranks with 
the second, which he had also killed. Puss seemed a little disconsolate for a day 
or two, but has quite got over it, and is as happy as ever with her children’s 
murderer. F. T. Mott. 
Birstal Hill, Leicester. 
How Rats carry Eggs. — The discussion referred to by Mr. Read as to 
how rats carry eggs was started by me in consetjuence of a number of lien’s eggs 
being found in holes in a ditch at a distance from where they were laid. Several 
of these eggs were brought to me, and 1 could detect no breakage or puncture in 
them. Is it possible for a stoat to carry a hen’s egg in its mouth without breaking 
aw'ay the shell after piercing it ? One would imagine that the weight of the egg 
alone would be sufficient to tear it from the creature’s fangs ; and could a stoat open 
his mouth wide enough to grip a domestic fowl’s egg in the way the moor hen’s 
egg was treated, as related by Mr. Read? 
Market Weston, 7 'hetford, Edmunu Thos. Dauheny. 
November, 19CO. 
Bat. — I saw a bat in full flight at II. 45 in the forenoon to-day (November ii). 
I should be glad to know w'hether you or any of your readers have ever observed 
one flying about in the very middle of the day. As in most mild autumns, they are 
a common sight at dusk now. 
Dunwich, Suffolk. M. E. B. 
[The occurrence is not, I think, very unusual. — E d. N.N.~\ 
Simulation of Injury in Birds. — The observation made on the nightjar 
in regard to this habit, appearing in the “ Natural History Notes” of the curreni 
number, recalls to my mind two similar instances which have come under my' 
notice on two different occasions. 
The actor (or actress) in the one case is a closely allied genus, the “ tawny frog- 
mouth ” of the latest “Vernacular List of Australian Birds” (Fodargus strigoides), 
better known as the mopok, but quite similar in habits to the European goatsucker. 
It happened on the lower Moorabool, not far from Geelong, where I was one 
day in search of young parrots. I had climbed a gum-tree on the edge of a 
lagoon, when the biid dropped to the ground, from the branch I stood on, like 
a stone, and with as audible a thud too, where, moreover, I had not expected any 
other living being. My surprise was considerable enough on this account alone, 
but did not diminish when I reached the ground myself (a proceeding which 
I performed in a more orthodox style than the one set me an example in by the 
bird) to see the latter hobble and flutter away, all the time counterfeiting the 
