NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
37 
A Dog Story. — Here is a story showing the sagacity of the dog, vouched 
for by the IMsure Hour : — “On the high road between liordeaux and Arcachon 
a certain mongrel collie is known to, and much respected by, hundreds of people 
on account of its almost human intelligence. It invariably accompanies a couple 
of bullocks that draw a cart loaded with charcoal into Bordeaux, and returns 
with it empty to the locality where the wood is burnt. Although the cart is in 
charge of a man, the oxen are practically in charge of the dog. The animal 
walks on ahead leading the bullocks, and always strictly observing the rules of 
the road. When the slow-moving beasts have to turn to the right, the dog 
barks on that side of them, and when to the left he barks on the other side, 
the oxen having perfectly learnt their part, and being quite willing to obey a 
quadruped many times smaller than themselves. The dog learnt his business by 
observing his ma.ster, who was much surprised one day to find his companion so 
accomplished. To lead a bullock-cart, and to know exactly what to do on 
meeting other traffic, seems as near an approach to human reasoning as can be 
attained by the intelligence of the brute.’’ 
Tameness of Birds. — I have read the robin story in the December number 
of Nature Notes, and can give another and similar instance of trustful friend- 
liness on the part of a bird. In 1896, being at the time without a cat, I became 
intimate with a family of sparrows. The hen-bird made the first advance, 
venturing to take some crumbs off a rug which covered my legs as I lay on a 
couch in the garden. Some little time afterwards she came into my sitting- 
room through the French window, and was soon followed by her spouse and two 
young birds. This happened many times, the sparrows appearing to know 
perfectly well that I had early dinner at one. Conway Dighton. 
2, Blenheim Terrace, Cheltenham. 
London Birds. — On December 4, I watched for some moments a nuthatch 
in Victoria Road, Wimbledon Park, within two and a-half miles of “ the busiest 
railway station in the world ’’ — Clapham Junction. It ran up and round an oak tree, 
finishing by scaling a brick v\-all. I would add that a fortnight ago a great tit 
appeared in the garden here, about 150 yards from the station referred to. Truly, 
there are great delights in store for Londoners if only the raiders will leave the 
birds alone. W. Johnson. 
Clapham Junction, 
A Curiously-Marked Spotted Flycatcher.— On Sunday morning, 
August 13, 1893, I had an opportunity of examining closely a very strange- 
looking bird as it perched within a few' feet of me and remained motionless for 
several seconds. It then flew across the garden, settled on a clothes-line, and 
gave me another good view. It was a jotted flycatcher, with a broad white 
mark on the nape of the neck narrowing towards the eyes and giving the bird 
a most curious hooded appearance. The next year, in another Cheltenham 
garden, I saw the same bird. He was then catching flies wherewith to feed a 
young one perched on the garden railings, and I particularly noticed the white 
mark on his neck. Conway Dighton. 
2, Blenheim Terrace, Cheltenham. 
Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra). — In the Morning Post for November 22, the 
occurrence of several of these birds at Bournemouth is recorded, and we hear 
also of its being seen in the New Forest. It has, we believe, for some years bred 
in this neighbourhood, where its food, the seed of the pines, is so plentiful. 
Hawk. — Our garden boy found a dead hawk hung in a tree the other day, 
apparently caught and strangled between two twigs. Can anyone explain this 
circumstance? A. M. B. 
G-reen Woodpecker. — One day, the end of November, while at luncheon, 
a green woodpecker came within about fifteen yards of where I was sitting, and 
searched the lawn for food. He found an ants’ nest, which had been under one 
of the flat irons that supported the pole of the lawn tennis net. Though the ants 
had retreated for the winter, the woodpecker’s powerful bill had no difficulty in 
piercing the ground to where they were lying. He drove it into the earth almost 
