NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
57 
flying over the pond, and in order to catch them a cormorant submerged itself so 
that only the head was visible. In this position it remained quite motionless — 
for any movement of the feet would at once have been betrayed on the perfectly 
smooth surface of the water — and succeeded in capturing one of the birds, which 
it swallowed, after giving it several shakes in the water. It then quietly 
“ reimmersed its body as before, to lie in ambush for further prey.” 
This can be corroborated by watching the movements of cormorants and other 
divers under suitable circumstances ; and the question is. How do they do it ? 
Market Weston, Thetford, Edmun’u Thomas Daube.nv. 
Febrttary 7, 1901. 
What do Cocktail Beetles live on? — One evening in the summer I was 
sitting outside the house, when a crane fly settled on the ground near to me. 
Immediately a cocktail beetle which had been lying in concealment under the 
stone threshold of a doorway darted out and seized the crane fly, and proceeded 
to carry him off to his den. I stamped my foot within a few inches of the beetle, 
but he merely erected his tail and held on firmly to his prize. I stamped again 
and again as near to the rascal as I dare, but I inspired no fear ; he merely seemed 
angry. At length I touched him, and then very reluctantly he dropped his prey 
and made off home under the doorstep. The poor crane t 1 y, however, had been 
.so badly' injured by the beetle’s mandibles that in mercy I destroyed it. 
Broadway, Peterborough. ,W. II. Bernard Saunders. 
Wasp on Christmas Day. — Mr. Thomas Diggle informs me that on 
Christmas Day' he observed a queen wasp amongst the evergreens of a window at 
the east end of the south aisle of Moulton parish church, Lincolnshire. The wasp 
was not at all lethargic, but quite active in its movements. The weather right 
through autumn had been very mild, with the exception of one or two days’ frost 
just before Christmas. 
Broadway, Peterborough. W. II. Bernard Saunder.s. 
Ivy on Trees. — Let us see what the great German and French foresters 
have to say on this subject. In Dr. Schlich's “ Manual of Forestry,” vol. iv., 
“ Forest Protection,” being an English adaptation of “ Der Forstschutz,” by 
Dr. Richard Hess, Professor of Forestry at the University of Giessen, at p. 366 
I read ; — “ The common ivy climbs trees by means of its adhesive rootlets, which, 
however, suck no nutriment from the host on which it is growing, but merely 
support the ivy. The smaller forest variety is said not to flower, and sometimes 
covers the soil of a forest. Matthieu (‘ Flore Forestiere,’ 1877, p. 173) con- 
siders it hurtful to forest trees by interfering w’ith the passage of the sap, and by 
covering the crowns of trees witlr its foliage, and it certainly at times constricts 
oak and other saplings and poles, like the honeysuckle. The ivy, however, rarely 
ascends higher than the middle of the crown of a tree, and may be useful in pre- 
venting the formation of epicormic branches on standards.” Again, in “ Les 
Forets,” by Professors Boppe and Jolyet, of Nancy, just published, at p. 306 the 
ivy is severely condemned. And in Chambers’s ” Encyclopaedia,” published in a 
land of forests and foresters and a most trustworthy publication, as I have over 
and over again proved, we are told that ivy injures living trees by constriction 
when permitted to grow upon them. So far as I am personally concerned, I have 
a fine lot of oaks of about fifty-five years of age in my own woods, which should 
grow into excellent timber for my son to cut down. I have kept their stems free 
from ivy, not because I feared, at their age, it would strangle the trees, but lest 
it should get to the branches of the crowns and interfere with the leaves of the 
trees acting as their lungs and nostrils and imbibing those gases which go to make 
growth of wood. I agree that ivy is very suitable in gardens and ornamental 
grounds, and in some rocky or exposed situations it is most useful in preserving 
beautiful old trees from destruction by wind or storm. But if a man wants to 
grow trees for profit, then he should take care that ivy does not get the upper 
hand in his plantations. I have seen very many trees whose growth has been 
seriously interfered with by ivy, and, to put an extreme case, it is obvious that if 
a man were to plant too small trees, say each two feet high, at the usual distances 
