NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES, 
could discover that the willows were quite black with them. We clapped our 
hands, and for a moment the buzz ceased and every bird was silent, but only to 
burst out again in universal chorus.” 
A Sea Mouse. — My children found a little sea mouse on the shore rather 
more than a fortnight ago. They brought it home, and we have kept it ever 
.since. It is in a bottle of sea water, with a great deal of sand at the bottom ; when 
we take it up to show our friends it seems quite uncomfortable, and gradually 
settles itself by a slow peculiar motion in the sand, till it is covered right over. It 
is evidently Aphrodita hystrix, being only two inches long. Its bristles are beau- 
tifully iridescent. I should be glad if any of your readers could give an idea of its 
food, habits, ivc. We have also found a small pipe rish [Syngnathus ophution), 
which is very peculiar. It is about six inches long, and its snout is very similar to 
that of the sea horse. I should be glad to know something about it too. 
Bournemouth. M. E. Cowi.. 
Jackdaws Tamed by Jackdaws. — A curious thing, which may interest 
some of the readers of Nature Notes, happened with regard to a pair of jack- 
<laws which we had here about twenty years ago. We had had them from the nest, 
and during the first summer we had slightly clipped their wings ; but after this 
their wings were allowed to grow, and they lived at full liberty in the garden. 
They were perfectly tame, and would come at call and feed out of our hand, would 
come into the house, and in the morning knock at the windows to ask for some 
breakfast. In the spring they used to fly away and join their wild companions, 
make their nests, and rear a family ; but when this was over they came back to 
the garden again, fed from our hand, and were as tame as ever. But the curious 
thing was, that after one or two seasons they brought another jackdaw with them, 
presumably the young of one of them, which was just as tame as themselves, 
although we had never done anything to tame it, so that we could not tell which 
were our original favourites, and which was the new one. And moreover, when, 
after a few years one of these jackdaws was accidentally killed, another was 
brought by the other two, so that they seemed resolved that we should always have 
three tame jackdaws in the winter. 
Modlntry Vicaraf^e, S. Devon. G. C. Green. 
Swifts and. Swallows. — The swifts left us last summer unusually late, not 
till September 9th. A late brood of swallows remained until .September 28th, 
and a solitary one was seen on November 8th here in Berks. 
M. S. Vou.NC.. 
Ivy. — lias anyone noticed the exceedingly sweet fragrance of young ivy 
shoots? For many years we have lived in a house with a great deal of ivy over 
two gables, and every spring after it has been cut and is making its spring growth, 
the rooms round the windows of which it grows, and even the passages, are filletl 
with a sweet odour quite as sweet as violets. It seems to proceed from the young 
mealy leaves of the ivy, and is not at all like the natural odour from bruised leaves. 
I have never met anyone who has noticed it, but there can be no doubt about it, 
for I have noticed it elsewhere, and have investigated the neighbourhood to see if 
any other fragrant plant could have been the cause, but have found none. 
North Morcton Vicarage, IVallingford. M. S. VoUNC. 
A Nest-building Robin. — Is it usual for a cock robin to build a nest be- 
fore taking to himself a mate ? Through February a cock robin has been observed 
busily engaged in building a nest in the ivy on the wall of a house near Oxford. 
When the snow came he suspended operations, but recommenced them when the 
weather improved. A. L. M. 
A Jackdaw Query. — I am anxious to domicile some jackdaws in a disused 
clock tower over my stables. I can get young ones. What is the best food, and 
am I likely to succeed ? Where is the place to get breeding boxes for birds, to hang 
under the eaves of buildings ? E. II. S. 
British Butterflies. — Are the following species of butterflies, which 
have of late years been taken in Britain, to be admitted into our list as “ British ”? 
Or, if not all, which of them? P. Apollo, Parnassius Delius, Danaiis Archippus, 
Melihca didyma, Polyommalus Atnynlas, Pamphila lineola, Argynnis Niobe, Colias 
Philodice. F. O. Morris. 
[Mr. W. F. Kirby kindly answers Mr. Morris’s question for us as follows : — 
P. Apollo, P. Delius, Mcliteca didyma, accidentally introduced, if met with at all. 
