NATURAL HISTORY NOTES, QUERIES, &c. 179 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES, QUERIES, &c. 
A Pyramid Snail. — Mrs. H. D . Rawnsley sends us the following interesting 
extract from a letter just received from Egypt: — “One hot afternoon when we 
were in Egypt, my sister and I picked up a number of little white snail shells, 
which we found among the sand and rocks near the Great Pyramid. We brought 
them to England in a cardboard box, and there they have been shut up for nearly 
eighteen months on a large tray, with all the other Egyptian ‘ anticas.’ About 
three weeks ago they were all arranged on shelves with glass doors, and the lid 
was taken off the snail box. I was startled one morning by the housemaid asking, 
in an awe-struck voice, whether I thought there was ‘anything alive among those 
queer things?’ I decidedly thought so when I looked and found that one of the 
snail shells had walked out of the box and was sticking to the glass ! 
“ His habits are very interesting to us. Sometimes he does not stir for days, 
but we occasionally find him in a new place. He always walks in the middle of 
the night, and we have only once seen him rapidly moving along about 11.30 p.m. 
A very vigorous, sand-coloured juicy-Xodking little fellow, with horns out and eyes 
that apparently see nothing, as they took no notice of a lighted candle put close 
to the glass. We call him Cheops, and as he apparently lives on nothing, and 
goes to sleep for eighteen months at a time, he may have seen the Pyramids built ! 
We can find nothing he will eat, so we can do nothing for him. I have tried my 
best by surrounding a piece of the limestone casing of the Great Pyramid with 
sand, thinking he might like to bury himself, but he did not appreciate my efforts.” 
A Swallow’s Nest. — I was surprised to find, on the 31st July last, the nest 
of a swallow, containing young birds, near Chagford, Dartmoor, in a hole in a high 
wall bounding one side of a road along which 1 was walking. Having never seen 
a swallow’s nest in such a situation before, I should be glad to know if any of the 
readers of Nature Notes have ever met with a nest of this bird in such a place. 
J. M. Voss. 
A Captured Daddy-long-legs. — The other day I noticed one of the 
smaller species of the Tiptilidee, vulgarly called “daddy-long-legs,” struggh'fig 
violently, as though held fast, at the end of the frond of the common Lastrea fern 
(Z. Filix-mas). Upon breaking off that portion of the frond with the insect, and 
examining it under a glass, I found that the withered point of the pinna tightly 
held the leg just above the joint of the tibia and femur. It .seems very extraordin- 
ary how the insect could have got into this position, unless the leaf curled up just 
at the moment the insect’s leg was there. R. M. W. 
Largesse (p. 150). — The custom of asking “ largesse ” of visitors still pre- 
vails among the workers in the Suffolk crag pits. Most of these pits are between 
Ipswich and Felixstowe J. E. Cooper. 
A. B. B.— Wayfaring Tree ( Viburnum Lantana). 
Miss H. — The plants are : Sea Purslane {Arenaria pepleides). Sea Milkwort 
(Glaux maritima), a Scurvy-grass {Cochlearia), and a Sea Sandwort (Spe>_:^ularia). 
For purposes of identification it is best to attach a number to each specimen. 
E. H. H. — Jacob’s Ladder {Polemonium cccruleum). 
M. Lee. — (2) Corydalis daviculata ; (4) Hypericum pulchrum ; (5) Autumn 
Gentian {Gentiana Amarella ; (7) SvindQw (Drosera rot undifolia) ; (to) Wood 
.Sage {Teucrium Scorodonid) ; (ll) Figwort [Scrophularia nodosa). 
What is Foxwort? — A writer in the National Observer of August 13th, 
gives some interesting extracts from “ a farmer’s note-book ” kept early in the 
last century. He says “ Nearly all [his recipes] are compounded from such well- 
known herbs as foxwort and dandelion,” &c. The name foxwort does not 
occur in the Dictionary of English Plant Names, so that it can hardly be very “well 
known.” Can any reader of Nature Notes tell me what plant is intended ? 
G. S. R. 
An Oversight. — We omitted to mention last month that we were indebted 
to the kindness of Sir John Lubbock for the use of the two cuts illustrating Mrs. 
Brightwen’s paper on “.Seedling Trees.” The cuts are taken from Sir John’s 
important work on .Seedlings, which will shortly be published by Messrs. Kegan 
Paul, Trench & Co. 
