NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
371. Stoats Carrying Eggs.— So far from thinking Mr. Daubeny 
“unkind,” I am glad that he has replied to my little note in the June num- 
ber. May I first observe that I have never myself seen stoats carrying eggs in 
the manner described, nor had I before heard of it. I merely told the tale as 
related by a village lad. I have now sent Mr. Daubeny’s note to Mr. Turner, 
our C.E. schoolmaster, who takes a keen interest in natural history, and 
encourages the children to do the same. He says, “ I questioned the three boys 
very closely about their accounts of stoats and rats carrying eggs, and each 
one declared they had seen these animals in the position described. Walter 
Kemp said his father had several times seen rats being dragged along. Dunford 
said the rats he saw were taking a fowl’s egg from a nest near the ‘ H.H.’ 
stables.” These are truthful straightforward lads whose word we have no reason 
to doubt. I should be extremely glad to hear more upon this subject, as I agree 
with Mr. Daubeny as to the difficulties of accepting the dragging-by-the-tail 
theory. 
Marie Sophie IIagen. 
Ropley, July II, 1906. 
372. Rats and. Strawberries. — Our gardener has just killed a rat which 
was under the net on the strawberry bed. It had a blackbird in its mouth which 
it had just killed, and was so intent on its prey that it allowed the man to get 
quite near. Two or three years ago we were also troubled with rats eating our 
strawberries, and we found large piles of green strawberries which they had 
stored apparently in hopes of their ripening for future consumption ! 
Radwinter Rectory , Saffron Walden , Agnes M. Bullock. 
July, 1906. 
[May this have been the work of voles? — E d. N.NP\ 
373 . Squirrel Swimming.— On June 26 I was sitting on the low bank of 
the Upper Dart, where the river, some fifteen or sixteen yards across, runs over 
boulders in a deep glen, and looking up the stream I noticed a squirrel on a 
boulder stone near the middle of it. I did not see how he got there. He leaped 
from stone to stone to the further shore and disappeared, but returned almost 
directly, and came leaping back over the stones, till — perhaps a little more than 
half way across — they no longer afforded a bridge. The squirrel then put his nose 
down into the water, apparently to try the force of the current, which was very 
strong — instantly turned round, leapt back across the stones, ran a little way down 
the shore, coming towards me, and sprang over another bridge of stones, tried the 
water again with his nose, decided it was not safe, and repeated the whole pretty 
performance, running down the shore a little nearer to me. I think it was after 
his fourth trial that he at last plunged into the water and swam to shore, coming 
out a small draggled object. His anxiety to cross, his quick decision and alert- 
ness and grace of movement in the setting of this lovely reach of the Dart, made 
one of the prettiest and most interesting sights I have witnessed, and, not 
knowing that a squirrel could swim, I felt anxious for his safety, which he himself 
probably did not feel in the least. 
Alice A. E. Fowler. 
Kingham, July 9, 1906. 
374 . Cuckoos and their Young. — I am afraid Mr. F. M. Millard 
(ante, p. 128) and Mr. E. Kay Robinson, who refer to my note in the “ Country- 
side,” have misunderstood me when I said that the pair of cuckoos that circled 
round me used “violent cuckoo language.” From what they write I believe they 
think that I meant that the two adult birds said “cuckoo” in a violent manner ; 
but whatll wished to imply was that they used the violent language of the cuckoo 
when threatening or scolding, that is to say, a peculiar chuckling noise which 
would be hard to describe. I heard one make a similar noise this spring soon 
after their arrival. It flew up to a tree upon which a flock of starlings had con- 
gregated, and was either startled by seeing such a number of birds together, or 
wished to frighten them away. At any rate, it “chuckled ” at them and they all 
