154 
NATURE NOTES 
that the writer did not reveal the exact spot. I recall a similar nesting-place, a 
low sandbank on the shores of Lincolnshire, only a short two miles from a 
popular watering-place. Yet the Lesser Terns take no notice ; their eggs are in 
less danger from a thousand excursionists than from one rabid collector. 
Walter Johnson. 
385. Pythons. — In a museum which I have lately visited, one of the 
principal attractions, judging by the attention paid to it, was a glass case con- 
taining a full grown tiger in the coils of a huge python, which was crushing it to 
death. The snake had seized it by the throat, from which blood was flowing 
copiously. Pythons do not attack such large animals as tigers, and could not 
swallow them if they did; but confine their attentions to small deer, kids, hares, 
and the like. The idea of a snake being powerful enough in the jaw to seize a 
tiger by the throat, and cause the blood to flow, as it the throat were cut, is 
ridiculous. Absurdities in our museums are not uncommon. Why perpetuate 
them ? 
July, 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
386. A “Plague” of Caterpillars. — A so-called “ plague” of cater- 
pillars, though in reality the very reverse of a plague, has been going on near 
here for some days past. I went along half a mile of road covered by them in 
such numbers as to be unable to avoid crushing them with my bicycle. They are 
the larvae of the Cinnabar Moth (Callimorpha jacobaa. ) Having devoured the 
plants of ragwort and groundsel on which they were born, they are roaming all 
over the district. If found by them not one of these noxious weeds will escape 
destruction. As their numbers are great, and the supply of their food does not 
equal the demand, these hordes of caterpillars are doomed to starvation. Being 
conspicuous and gaudy they are protected from the attacks of birds by their 
nauseous taste. 
July, 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
387. Hearing in Insects. — Mr. Avery’s query* as to the behaviour of 
certain caterpillars, opens a much debated question, and it may be of interest both 
to him and to other readers of Nature Notes if I venture a few words upon the 
subject. It is one upon which a very great deal has been written by a whole 
legion of authors. As a matter of fact, however, all that can be said upon it is 
entirely negative. A true sense of hearing is possibly possessed by a few of the 
Orthoptera. Huber, Perris, Duges, Avebury, and Forel, have all tried the pro- 
duction of every imaginable sound, but so long as precautions have been taken 
to avoid the communication to them of mechanical vibrations (to which they are 
extremely sensitive), the insects experimented upon have appeared absolutely 
deaf. Avebury used sounds too high to be perceived by the human ear, but no 
insect reacted to them, and he was forced to agree with the opinions expressed by 
Huber, Perris and Forel, that hearing cannot be demonstrated in bees, wasps, or 
ants. Dufour considered that he had demonstrated hearing in crickets and in 
Anobium, because those insects ceased their note when he moved a chair or struck 
the ground ; he apparently forgets that deaf-mutes feel the rolling of a carriage at 
a distance, although they cannot hear it. The same may be said of the experi- 
ment quoted by Avebury in “ Ants, Bees and Wasps” (page 226). 
In dealing with hearing in the lower animals (especially among invertebrates) 
it must be remembered that the sense in question is a physical one. All sonorous 
waves, especially those of low sounds, are much more akin to large mechanical 
vibrations than luminous, caloric, or electric waves. The origin of hearing, 
therefore, must be connected with touch. There is, however, a distinct difference 
between the perception of a very low sound (such, for example, as that of a 1 C 
16 tuning fork) by touch and by hearing. It must not be forgotten that the 
specialisation of hearing has reached a delicacy of detail in man which is not found 
in the lower vertebrates. It is probably the sense w'hich most separates us from 
the lower animals. Even in fish the auditory nerve is confused with other nerves, 
and the cochlea — that part of the labyrinth which has especially to do with 
hearing — has not yet appeared. 
Nature Notes, July, 1906, page 129. 
