NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 57 
Do Snails So[Ueak ? (p. 17). — The following incident will, I fear, do little 
towards furnishing an answer to this question, but may possess some little interest 
of its own. When a boy I spent a good deal of my spare time at a house, which 
was, indeed, a second home to me, where, in one of my frequent visits, I was 
told of an event that had caused some consternation, and, afterwards, a good deal 
of merriment. The household had just separated for the night, when in the bed- 
room of its two youngest members arose an unmistakable wail, which, after a 
rather long interval, was repeated. Of course a general search of the room 
followed, and the sound seeming to come from the direction of the window, the 
source of it was sought outside as well as inside the house ; but for some time with- 
out success. At last a wail came so certainly from the window itself, that the 
cause of it was found to be a garden snail crawling slowly, with long pauses (it 
had been raining), up the wet window pain, and producing, with each effort, the 
seemingly unearthly noise. It was thought at the time that the sound was caused by 
the contact of its shell with the glass ; but I am now inclined to believe that, as the 
shell is usually v/ell lifted when in motion, it arose from the pressure of the snail 
itself upon the wet glass, in the same way that musical notes are produced by a 
wetted finger from musical glasses, and unmusical sounds from window panes by 
harder sliding pressure. 
Richard F. Towndrow. 
Nests of Field Mice. —I would like to ask you whether it is true that 
field mice have the entrance to their nests towards the south if the following 
winter will be severe, and towards the north if mild ? Is it also a fact that these 
openings never face east or west ? 
Marion Horace-Smith. 
Small Birds chasing Hawk(p. 39). — I think it is a very common occur- 
rence to see small birds teasing hawks and owls. I have on several occasions 
seen swallows doing this, and not long since, I saw a kestrel seize a swallow that 
had made a dive below it, and so lost its life through its temerity. Sparrows 
and linnets may often be seen chasing crows or magpies. These small birds seem 
to take great delight in attacking their enemies when there is a sufficient number 
of them together, and so distract his attention that he cannot follow them indi- 
vidually. 1 have seen a swallow even strike a hawk with its wing. The small 
birds generally keep up a continual chatter as they buffet him, and on these 
occasions the hawk appears much worried and even frightened, and will try and 
get under cover of trees to shake them off. 
Hampstead. II. Harris. 
It is not a very rare occurrence, that of lesser birds mobbing a hawk ; and it 
was noticed as early as Homer’s time, especially of starlings. 
“ And as of starlings or of daws, a cloud with clamorous cry 
Sweeps onward when approaching near the falcon they espy. 
That bane of lesser birds ; so,” &c. 
Iliad, xvii., 755. 
Again the poet says — 
“ Patroclus is as a hawk 
That scares the flock of starlings or of daws.” 
Iliad, xvi., 582. 
There is abundance of bird lore in Homer ; these are but two specimens of 
many that I have gathered. 
Kepworlh Rectory, Suffolk. W. C. Green. 
Birds at Windows (p. 37). — The birds that have fed at my windows this 
winter are sparrows, of course — they, and a robin, my old friend of five winters, 
with a damage^l bill, fly into the room and eat biscuit from a plate on the table, 
put originally for the robin only. Fat is hung on a string just outside the window, 
and is visited by the great tits, tomtits, and one or more marsh tits (though I 
only see one at a lime), a pair of chaffinches, and a cock and hen blackbird, also 
one or more robins, besides the one above mentioned. Kooks, starlings, hedge- 
sparrows, two more chaffinches, feed on the gravel just below the door steps, and 
I saw a yellowhammer and black headed bunting on the lawn one morning. 
Neston, Cheshire. Mary Ratiibone. 
