NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
191 
414. Can Swifts take Wing from the Ground. --The letter from 
W. S. Cleather in your August issue seems to me to correctly sum up the ques- 
tion of Swifts taking wing from the ground. I, too, like Mr. Cleather, proved by 
actual experiment years ago that they could rise from a level surface, and I have 
noticed that none of those who mention a case of a Swift being found which 
required to be thrown into the air, add that they actually saw it come to the 
ground. I have seen this : only a few months ago I saw a Starling and a Swift 
fighting. When they finally came to grips they fell from the eaves of a high house 
on to the lawn below. The Starling at once darted off, and the Swift followed 
more slowly. I was not surprised at this ; I was only astonished after hearing the 
thud when they struck the ground that either of them had any breath left in their 
bodies. Some years ago I saw a pair of starlings fighting for possession of a 
dovecote, and they came to the ground in the same way, both of them being so 
stunned that I captured the pair, yet this did not lead me to conclude that star- 
lings could not rise from a level surface any more than I should be likely to say 
that human beings could not get up again after I had seen a stout person step on 
a banana skin and sit down suddenly. In this case as in so many others, it all 
depends upon circumstances. 
Worksop, September , 1906. J. T. HOUGHTON. 
415. Pythons. I was looking for some comments in the current issue 
on the letter No. 385 which appeared in your August number. In his letter 
Mr. Daubeny says: “Pythons do not attack such large animals as tigers, and 
could not swallow them if they did.” Unfortunately, I have never had the 
pleasure of meeting a python in his native home, hence I cannot speak with 
any authority on the point, but I should like to ask Mr. Daubeny if this state- 
ment is based upon his own observations or is taken from books. Briefly put, 
my reason is this : By a strange coincidence another magazine published at the 
same time as yours (the Wide World , for August) contained an article entitled 
“ Three in a tree,” by the Rev. E. C. Wilson, late Church of England missionary 
in Ceylon. It was accompanied by a sworn statement by him as to its accuracy, 
and described how a tiger followed him into a tree and was in its turn attacked 
and partly swallowed by a large python. When matters had reached this stage 
he says he descended from the tree and shot the reptile, cut off from the half- 
swallowed tiger one of the claws, and a photo is given of this trophy attached to 
a watch-chain. The words in the article describing the attack are “ a dreadful- 
looking python darted down . . . coiled round its neck.” I cannot make 
this statement agree with the one in Mr. Daubeny’s letter, and as a Nature- 
student should like to know which to accept as correct. 
Worksop , September, 1906. J. T. Houghton. 
416. The Conger’s Revenge. — Having cut up a large conger which 
he had just caught for the purpose of bait for his lobster pots, a Port Isaac 
(Cornwall) fisherman seized the eel’s head some twenty minutes afterwards to 
throw into the sea. To his surprise the jaws opened, and the fish’s sharp teeth 
closed on his forefinger, badly lacerating it. The fisherman has now to carry his 
arm in a sling. — Daily Chronicle. 
417. A Spider and a Fly. — One morning, when busy in my workshop, 
a large fly, double the size of a bluebottle, was caught in a spider’s web in the 
window close to where I was at work, and gave me a grand opportunity of 
watching a long and severe struggle. The fly was held by two of its legs only ; 
and for some time the spider, which was about the size of the fly’s head, pro- 
ceeded to strengthen its hold by attaching numerous extra lines to the two 
captive limbs, carefully keeping out of reach of the others which were letting 
out in all directions in frantic efforts to escape. During a short respite in the 
captive’s struggles the spider cautiously approached, and with its hind legs got 
several turns of its tiny rope round one of the limbs that was free. These tactics 
were carried on till all the legs were firmly bound. It then fastened its jaws in 
one of the lower joints of the fly’s legs, and retired for a few minutes to its den 
to rest, and allow the poison injected into the wound to do its work. This soon 
showed itself ; for its deadening effects reduced the victim’s struggles in a 
