NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
19 
allowed our gardener to stroke it, and did not seem at all frightened, and shortly 
afterwards flew on to the wall and sang. What was the attraction ? 
Bournemouth. A. M. Greenwood. 
Food of th.e Wren. — A little brown wren has lately been in the habit of 
visiting a water butt just outside my window. The butt is quite full, and the 
wren comes to feed on the minute inhabitants of the stagnant rain water. He 
hops briskly round the brim, gripping it firmly with his strong toes, and every 
now and then reaching forward as far as he can to take his prey from the surface. 
Sometimes he alights on some osier twigs in the water and “ fishes ” from them. 
As the water butt is within one yard of the window it is easy, by keeping perfectly 
still, to watch every movement of the active little bird. When first seen I sup- 
posed him to be searching for the larvae of gnats, but on examining the water 
none were to be found. Wrens, I believe procure a good deal of their food from 
the water, and are fond of haunting^ the bushes, sedges, &c., growing beside 
ditches and ponds. Here they are often met with by the sportsman in search of 
waterhens or snipe, whose dog, especially if young and inexperienced, cannot 
always resist their apparently attractive scent, but is apt to stand and point this 
tiny game. I once saw a wren busily engaged with some large, dark-looking 
object at the margin of a pond. Holding it in his beak, he kept dashing it 
against the nearest sticks and bushes with great vigour. On my approach he 
dropped his prize, which proved to be a caddis worm’s case or house, made 
principally of oak leaves. Notwithstanding his violent efforts, he had not suc- 
ceeded, at the time he was disturbed, in extracting the occupant. 
Blaxhall, Suffolk. G. T. Rope. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
C. E. C. — The mycelium of a fungus. You will find an account of such lumin- 
osity in Cooke’s Fungi, chap. v. (International Science Series). 
E. A. D. — We fear there is no satisfactory method. 
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