NATURE NOTES. 
;8 
early acquaintance with, and admiration for, the “ Wanderer,” a great preserver 
(in two senses) of birds, gives anything this lady wrote a claim upon the attention 
of the readers of Nature Notes. 
To revert to the rhyme. I have often heard an old Oxfordshire farmer, who 
died recently, give it in the following abbreviated form : — 
“ Betwixt David and Chad 
Put in your beans, weather good or bad.” 
His fixed idea was that (as he has often explained) David came on “ the fust 
o’ the month, and Chad on the last.” I know St. David’s Day is the ist March, 
but confess to being hazy about the anniversary of ,St. Chad until I read in your 
review that it was on the following day. 
Bioxham, Oxon. O. \ . Aphn. 
Have Birds a Sense of Humour? (p. 29) — From my own experience of 
them and from observation, I have not the smallest doubt they have. Our 
present feathered pet, a canary, is very fond of fun, and without being taught 
has developed a strong love for playful fighting with those he knows intimately, 
more especially in the evening before retiring for the night, when nothing pleases 
him more than to come forward with open bill and ruffled plumes, making a 
pretence of flying at the kind friend, who comes forward, cover in hand, to make 
him snug and comfortable for the night. I could give many other instances of 
the love of fun inherent in the feathered tribe as well as amongst our four-footed 
friends. 
Broomhouse, Dunbar. C. Nelson. 
Pale Tussock Moth (p. 33). — This moth certainly exhibits considerable 
eccentricity in the time of its appearance. Early last August, I brought home from 
the New Forest a few specimens of the larvae, which fed up and pupated in due 
course. The chrysalids were kept indoors, under an average temperature of 
about 50° F'ahr., and on November 15, I was surprised by the emergence of a 
female imago. 
Slreatham Hill. C. H. Watson. 
Birds at Windows.- — I send you a list of the birds which came to my 
window during last month. Thrushes, blackbirds, sparrows, robins, starlings, 
hedge sparrows, cole tits, blue tits, and great tits, greenfinches, chaffinches, and 
nuthatches. The last named are most frequent in their visits, and seem voracious 
eaters, much enjoying seeds, crumbs, bones, &c., and they never tire of carrying 
oft' the nuts that are put out daily. I cannot persuade the tits or any of the birds 
to begin on a cocoa-nut which is hung up for them, the end being sawn oft to 
leave the kernel exposed. The nuthatches cling to the edge of it, and will carry 
off the nuts which are deposited there for them, but never touch the cocoa-nut 
Itself. Could any of your readers tell me how to tempt the birds to attack it ? 
Two sparrow-hawks were observed close to this house early in the month on one 
of the verj- cold days. One of them swooped down from a Wellingtonia in the 
garden upon the greenhouse close by, and bore off a sparrow from the shoot. 
Weston Lan'ii, Bath. S. Broo.me. 
Signs of Spring. — You may, perhaps, think it worth mentioning that the 
blackbird was heard here the third week in January, and was almost in full song 
on February S. This seems very unusual. On the morning of February 13 I 
heard the lark, thrush, chaffinch, and hedge-sparrow singing at the same time. 
-A. few days before that date a rose tree against a wall facing south-west had upon 
it .several clusters of fresh young leaves, and the buds of a lilac tree were on the 
point of bursting open. 
Caerleon, Mon. C. E. Conway. 
The Intelligence of Rooks. — Living as I do on the outskirts of a town, 
and therefore with restricted opportunities for observing bird life, I have for a 
long time been interested and amused by the habits of a tribe of rooks, which, 
except during the nesting season, favour my grounds with their presence almost 
continuously from early morning till dusk approaches, notwithstanding that the 
