rO CORRESPONDENTS. 
199 
while he himself escaped, and from that time to the end of the winter I heard 
nothing more of him or any other mouse, either inside or outside the piano. 
C. E. C. 
Cuckoo and Hedge-Sparrow. — On Monday, July 29, in my friend’s 
garden at Tunbridge Wells, I observed a young cuckoo being fed by a hedge- 
sparrow. It remained in the garden for the greater part of the day, and we were 
much interested to watch the little foster-mother feeding her large nestling. 
My friend puts daily supplies of crumbs, pieces of fat, &c., on her bird table both 
summer and winter. During the late dry weather, when grubs and caterpillars, 
&c., have been difficult to obtain, this food has been much appreciated, and I 
have counted nine various kinds of birds at different times in this small town 
garden. The water-pan which the birds prefer is a small brown earthenware of 
oblong shape, such as is used for rabbit troughs ; being shallow, they can bathe 
without fear, and wait their turn for the morning bath with eagerness. To show 
how needful it is to put water within reach as well as food, I would mention that 
during the late hot dry weather, a friend living near London told me that she 
found a thrush lying on her lawn with its beak open, panting from the heat, and 
feared it was going to die. She got water, which it drank eagerly, and flew away 
■quite revived. 
Emily A. Craig. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
E. J. T. — [l)ax\<l{^)Jttncitsarticula!us; {2) J. glaucus ; (i) J. conglomerattis ; 
■(5) Scirpus palustris. 
F. L. S. — “J. G. ” knew quite well what he was talking about, and the 
compilation you name has no claim to be considered a scientiflc work. If you 
want a further opinion of Mr. Grant Allen’s Story of the Plants, consult Nature 
for August 15, where you will find a notice beginning “ Mr. Grant Allen tells the 
story of the plants in a readable and very inaccurate manner,” and ending “ those 
readers who are ignorant of the real facts may find the book pleasant, though we 
can hardly add profitable, reading.” 
E. L. — We imagine the insect must be the forest (^Hippoboscaequina)\v\iach. 
Mr. Kirby describes as “ a brown species, about one-third of an inch in length, 
which attacks the horse, and is exceedingly annoying to the animal, but more for 
the irritation it produces by creeping about under the belly than by the actual 
puncture which it inflicts to suck the blood ’’ ( Text-book of Entomology, p. 239). 
C. G. — Apparently only a large form of Rosa canina. 
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