136 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Author Wanted. — Several correspondents have naturally written to point 
out that the lines quoted by M. H. are from Longfellow’s “ Birds of Killing- 
worth” in the “ Tales of a Wayside Inn.” 
Is the Water Vole Vegetarian?— No, he is not. I can speak with 
certainty about that. My dog killed four voles one day. I nailed them to a 
tree. The next day they were all torn to pieces. Wanting to know what 
caused the damage, I set a trap just below, four feet from the ground, and 
caught another vole next morning. I set it again to make certain, with the same 
result ; so they are cannibals as well as fishermen. 
Gomshall, Surrey. J. S. Norton. 
Hedgehogs and Goats. — The following anecdote will go some way to 
explain how the hedgehog-cow “myth” has sprung up and made such headway 
amongst country’-folk. Several years ago a hedgehog used to frequent a faggot- 
pile at the top of our orchard and was in the habit of coming during the hot 
weather to drink at a pan of water near the house ; in making this journey it had 
to pass several goats which were kept night and day tethered in various parts of 
the orchard. One morning our boy, whose daily duty it was to milk the goats 
before breakfast, came to the house, bringing this hedgehog which he had found 
nestling close under one of the goats — a nanny. Now I do not for one moment 
suggest that the hedgehog’s intention was to suck the goat, but feel bound to 
mention that the weaiher was exceedingly hot at the time and there had been 
little or no rain for some weeks. Without, therefore, wishing to throw doubt on 
Mr. Daubeny’s remarks, I must say it was at least a curious incident. 
Fylton Rectory, Bristol. A. C. Mackie. 
Field, Mice. — Mr. F. L. Rawlins, Rhyl, refers to field mice on p. 95. 
Does he refer to the long-tailed field mouse, or the short- tailed field mouse? The 
former I presume. If so, the question why these “ only sleep one in a bed ” does 
not agree with my experience, either in bee-hives, potato-clamps, or in open 
fields and gardens, where I have frequently disturbed old and young in families 
even full grown. When a lad I used to find out in stubble fields by the earth 
scratched out where to find a nest and mice, and turn them out for the fun ot 
tunning them down. There is always a back-door or second hole of escape, and 
the first thing I did was to stop up one and then follow the other to the nest, and 
when one started stop in the others until the first was killed, or lost, as sometimes 
happened bj’ seeking moles’ runs, which of course could not be followed up. 
J. IIlAM. 
Starlings. — The starlings that live on my premises are in the habit of fre- 
quenting the trees nearest to the spot where they nested, so that one pair of 
birds keep to one side of the house, and another to another, as if guarding their 
own particular domain. They feed regularly on the lawn, but never go into the 
kitchen garden, or light on a tree in it, though their liberty to do so is unques- 
tioned. Every morning they are to be heard close to my bedroom windows, and 
the numbers of birds they imitate is considerable. Indeed, by listening to them, 
one may almost draw up a list of the birds around. They mimic the green 
wood-pecker, white owl, rook, jackdaw, pheasant, French partridge, peewit, 
golden plover, blackbird, missel thrush, moor hen, jay, green linnet, brown 
linnet, swallow-, and some other birds. One spring my daughters told me as 
they came down to breakfast they had heard a wryneck for the first time. 
“Where?” I asked. “On the corner of the house by your bedroom.” I had 
heard it too for half an hour, and ascertained that the supposed wryneck was a 
starling. The imitation was exact. They copy the pigs as they grumble just 
before their dinner time, and also the cats and sounds about the house. 
Starlings are harmless and most useful birds. They perpetually thrust their 
bills into the ground in search of grubs, caterpillars, beetles and the like, and 
are a great check on the dreaded wireworm. They dig thousands of the June 
