136 
XATURE XOTES 
631. Missel-Thrushes. — On the 5th inst. I found at the base of a tall 
pine tree in my garden a young dead missel thrush, without feathers. The 
lower branches are thick and spreading and rest on the ground. Two days later, 
also within the branches, were the remains of a second young one, which had 
evidently been partly eaten by a cat, and the following day I found a third, 
larger than the other two, but also devoid of feathers. This one was alive, and I 
placed it in a flat open box on one of the lower spreading branches. It was at 
first difficult to know where they had come from, as no nest could be seen in the 
tree, but at length, with the aid of a field-glass, the nest was discovered, quite at 
the top, at least 50 ft. from the ground. I fed the young bird in the box with 
worms at intervals during the day until nightfall. It devoured these greedily, 
making a great noise when fed, which always brought the parents to the spot with 
much clamour ; but although they knew perfectly well the whereabouts of the 
young one, they made no attempt to feed it themselves, but continued to carry 
food to the nest, where there must still be a fourth young one. It is, of cour.se, 
impossible to investigate owing to the great height, but it occurs to me that 
it may be a young cuckoo which has thrown out the rightful owners. It would 
be interesting to know if any of our readers have experience of a cuckoo placing 
its egg in the nest of a missel-thrush. 
The last young bird was found dead in the box next morning, the night 
having been cold and damp. This would appear to be the second brood of a 
pair which successfully reared a first brood in a spruce fir close by, where they 
have regularly rested for the last four or five years. W. 
632. Owls, Nightjars, Goat Moths.— Goat moths are not kept in check 
to any extent by either owls or nightjars. They are very sluggish, and move 
about but little on the wing. Nor are they largely preyed upon by birds in any 
stage of their existence, there being no British bird of sufficient power to tear 
away the living wood in which the larva bores, and on which it feeds. During 
its three years existence the larva does not leave the tree in which it was born, 
and only quits it when full fed, to pupate at a distance. The chief enemies of the 
goat moth are ichneumon flies, which search out and attack the larva; in their 
tunnels. Owls, nightjars, and trees destroyed by goat moth caterpillars, are 
common here. 
Judging by the capabilities of moth-eating soft-billed birds, I should say that 
the body of a goat moth is not too large a morsel for a nightjar. Many a time 
have I seen swallows pursue yellow underwings (T>t/>Auna pronuba) when dis- 
turbed in mowing grass by the scythe. The swallow makes many a swoop at 
these large, stout-bodied insects before a capture is effected, and sometimes in 
trying to evade its enemy the moth ascends to a considerable height, thus 
affording a beautiful exhibition of the powers of flight of both bird and insect. 
The common yellow underwing is larger in proportion to a swallow than a goat 
moth to a nightjar. 
I have hardly ever seen birds feed their young on butterflies. And my 
experience is that butterflies, in contra-distinction to moths, are very rarely 
attacked by birds unless they are crippled or in a feeble state. 
Soulh-acre, Swaff/iam. Edmund Thos. D.\ubeny. 
633. Tubers cf Orchis maeulata producing Heads Two Years 
in Succession. — Two years ago I searched for and dug up several plants of 
Orchis maeulata with abnormally well-marked leaves, and planted them in the 
garden. One of these is a splendid variety, with the “ spots ” so developed that 
the leaves are best described as purplish-black divided into large irregular patches 
by narrow green streaks. This, and another of my plants, appeared this year to 
be sending up two spikes close together. I dug one of these pairs up to investi- 
gate it, and discovered that one of the spikes was being produced from the old 
and apparently almost decayed rootstock, and quite separate from the plant 
growing from the new tuber. Each is producing a fresh tuber for next year’s 
growth, and each has four long, fleshy roots. The other case, which I am leaving 
undisturbed, I suppose is similar to the one examined. Bentham’s Ilandborrk, 
in referring to the genus Orchis, says that the rootstock produces “each year 
a fleshy tuber by the side of the decaying one of the preceding year, the following 
year’s stem shooting from the top of the new tuber.” So I presume it is unusual 
