NATURE NOTES 
168 
pack.’ The sound is sometimes called Gabriel Ratchet, or Gabble Ratchet, 
and is considered in many parts of the North of England as a sign of ill-omen. 
Mr. Hall should read Wordsworth’s sonnet (Miscellaneous Sonnets, Series II.) 
headed — 
— “ gives to airy nothing a local habitation and a name,” 
in which there is an interesting allusion to Gabriel’s Hounds. 
51, Gloucester Terrace , Hyde Park , IV., A. Holte Macpherson. 
August 3, 1906. 
394 . Woodpeckers’ Love Call. — I think we must look for something 
else to account for the tapping of the Woodpecker than their love call, or the 
frightening of insects. I had a Greater Spotted Woodpecker last year from the 
nest and it tapped from the first, and has continued all along, more or less. As 
to insects, it has not got one by its tapping, what few it has had having been 
taken from my fingers. Certainly it has tapped my hand a time or two. We 
must look at the way it has to take its food. It cannot hold it with its foot : 
its bill is not made to crush it, and it has to be taken above ground. So it is 
continually making pockets, in which its food can be placed to be broken up 
without falling to the ground. I am about to make a new cage and will note the 
tapping and the making of pockets, &c. 
1 14, Upland Road, East Dulwich. JOHN ACUTT. 
395 . Robins. — Robins are astir more hours out of the twenty-four than any 
birds with which I am acquainted. Their voices may be heard directly it begins 
to get light on a midsummer’s morning ; and they continue to be on the move 
long after other birds have retired to rest, as late as 9.30 or 10 p.m. 
August, 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
396 . Thrushes.- — Few birds are so put upon by other birds as thrushes. 
They allow themselves to be robbed of their food by almost any bird that takes 
the trouble to steal it from them. If they unearth a worm, the nearest black- 
bird or starling rushes up and eats it. Sparrows may frequently be seen taking 
almost out of its mouth, the chafer or some such beetle the thrush has dug out of 
the ground ; and the stupid bird has not the sense to resent the robbery. A 
starling here preys upon a thrush’s weakness in quite an unusual manner. 
Wherever the thrush goes the starling follows : when it finds a worm or other 
food, it is immediately robbed. This robbery is so barefaced that, but for my 
intervention, members of my household would take the starling’s life. 
August, 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
397 . Needless Slaughter.— An incident which occurred within the past 
week at the small village of Brompton Ralph, near Dulverton, goes to show 
that snakes are by no means uncommon yet in Somerset. A snake having been 
seen near a stump of an old tree in a meadow, some haymakers close by set to 
work with pickaxes, and soon unearthed a regular hot-bed of the reptiles. In all 
about ten snakes, most of which were over forty inches long, seven slow-worms, 
and about 1 50 eggs were destroyed. 
398 . Peacock Butterflies. — In the autumn these butterflies may be 
heard uttering a faint clicking noise. How it is produced is quite beyond me ; 
and it occurs when several are together sporting in the sunshine from flower to 
flower. I have not noticed it in the spring ; and conclude it to be a sound 
emitted in play unconnected with sex or love. These insects settle their matri- 
monial arrangements after hibernation in the spring. 
Southacre, Swaffham, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
August, 1906. 
399 . Caterpillars and Nettles. — May I take this opportunity of thank- 
ing your correspondent, who wishes to be called “ Ignoramus,” for pointing out 
my grievous error, or rather slip? “White Nettle ” should read Nettle, viz., the 
real nettle. I have since tried his often repeated experiment and have found the 
anticipated result of failure. Even larvae, which have not been fed for three days, 
will not eat it. 
Broxbourne, Herts. 
W. E. Avery. 
