226 
NATURE NOTES 
of it, but this cannot be said of the rabbit coursing of which some members of the 
Council of the Selborne Society were unwilling spectators some little time back 
in a field near the Ealing Bird Sanctuary. The rabbits used were wild, but were 
taken suddenly out of a dark box, carried rapidly by the ears for twenty or thirty 
yards into the centre of a field in which they had never been before, and dropped. 
The moment that the rabbits were liberated, the dogs were let go, and the result 
was simply butchery, for the rodents had not a ghost of a chance. In one case, 
the man who ran out with the rabbit was engaged in pushing it, in a vain endeavour 
to make it run, when the dogs caught him up. It is interesting to know that some 
stir was made about the so called working-man’s sport, and that it has been stopped. 
Mr. Daubeny has written a letter on the reprehensible practice of “ overstocking ” 
cows in markets, which it would appear still goes on. Such barbarism calls for 
sterner measures than the verbal denunciation which we can make. It is not a 
special object of the Selborne Society to repress cruelty, but the Society for the 
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals does and would prosecute, and its inspectors 
attend markets in the interests of the animals. 
Editor of Nature Notes. 
NATURAL HISTORY QUERIES. 
102. Eagles (Answer to Query No. 98). — Was not the “ large brown bird too 
small for an eagle,” seen by S. M. C., a common buzzard, a species by no means 
uncomman in some parts of Wales, and the female of which is decidedly a big 
bird ? 
November 3, 1906. C. T. Rope. 
103. “ The Action ” of a Woodpecker. — One day last month (October) 
I saw in a garden near Norwich, a bird coming along on the ground with a 
singular action, viz., with high, stiff, not to say ungainly, hops. It was a green 
woodpecker, and its mode of travelling seemed curious in so large a bird. I 
could see no sign of its having been hurt in any way ; it flew away soon after 
readily enough. We notice them more often on trees ; I should like to know 
whether when on the ground they usually hop in this manner. 
Othavi Parsonage , Maidstone. F. M. Millard. 
104. The Odour of Fishes. — I should be very much interested to know 
if a satisfactory explanation has ever been given accounting for the peculiar 
smell of fish. M. C. T. 
105 . Unusual Casual Plant. — (Answer to query No. 101). Marie S. 
Hagen's discovery of Rtidbeckia Newmanni is certainly most astonishing, and the 
only suggestion that seems possible to account for the occurrence of such a plant in 
such a place is, that a ripe head of seed must have been dropped by someone 
passing over the down. The seeds of these daisy-like flowers scatter very easily 
when the ripe heads are dropped or thrown down, and the wind and rain would 
probably lend considerable assistance. 
Hale End, Chingford. C. NICHOLSON. 
ASTRONOMICAL NOTES FOR DECEMBER, 1906. 
Mercury may be observed as a morning star at the middle of the month near 
the eastern horizon. Venus will be brilliantly visible before sunrise at the close of 
the year. Mars will also be presented in the morning sky, rising five hours before 
the sun. 
Jupiter will be a fine object during the whole night in Gemini ; near the moon 
on December 3rd. Saturn will shine as an evening star ; near the moon on 
December 20th. 
Many meteors will probably appear during the moonless evenings of December 
10th, nth and 12th. 
W. F. D. 
