174 
NATURE NOTES 
a live sparrow about twice a week, and a mouse occasionally. 
He will not eat cooked meat or even raw egg. Vic says he much 
prefers a sparrow, as he thoroughly enjoys the sport of killing, 
and from a weasel’s point of view a sparrow is evidently a great 
luxury. When given to him, he will pounce upon it instantly, 
catching it by the neck, when death is invariably almost instan- 
taneous. He will then play about with it for a short time like a 
cat with a mouse, carry it to his sleeping-room, bury it in the 
straw, and eat it at his leisure. The next that is seen of that 
sparrow are a few feathers only, all the flesh and bones having 
been completely devoured. He has a very respectable appetite, 
and in the course of a day will consume solid flesh equivalent to 
about half his own weight. Although he resents being handled, 
he is otherwise quite tame, and will take food out of my hand 
and allow me to stroke him ; but if I attempt to take hold of 
him he will instantly show his formidable little needle-pointed 
canines and dart at my hand. He appears to enjoy the hot 
weather more than the cold. Whether he will survive the 
severe winter weather in captivity is a problem yet to be solved. 
I trust he will. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Provincial name of the Heron. — In reply to the Rev. A. F. Curtis’s 
inquiry in Nature Notes for April (p. 65) it may be worth mentioning that an 
old Suffolk farm labourer of this parish, now dead, used to speak of herons as 
“Old Frankies,” and it would I think be hard to find a word giving a better 
imitation of the loud harsh scream of this bird than “Frank” or “Hank.” 
“ Harnser” is however the name by which the heron is generally called in East 
Suffolk. 
Blaxhall, Suffolk. G. F. Rope. 
Robins (page 73). — Mr. Westell is right in supposing that robins are ex- 
ceedingly pugnacious and most inveterate fighters, and I think he may safely 
conclude that they fight much more amongst themselves than with birds of other 
species. He must have been very unfortunate not to have witnessed a robin v. 
robin fight in alt his rambles. I believe they quarrel most at the end of the 
moulting season, and after a time they seem to find their own level, and each 
bird occupies a territory, as it were, of its own. If one robin intrudes on 
another’s domain it is furiously chased away, but other species of birds are 
ignored. The myth that the young robins kill off the old ones is an old woman’s 
tale, and is too ridiculous to be given a second thought. It must be patent to 
any thinking person that when a battle takes place the strongest bird kills or 
vanquishes the weaker one, irrespective of age. It is the fittest that survive. 
but as regards robins fighting with each other, the fact is proved by the 
experience of aviculturists, as it is found practically impossible to keep two robins 
together in a cage or aviary for any length of time. There are numerous in- 
stances recorded which go to prove the fact, but I have not got them just at 
hand, or would quote a few. I have, however, kept robins myself, and also 
reared them by hand, and my experience fully coincides with these records. 
When reared by hand, as soon as they can fly, if kept in a large cage or aviary, 
or allowed to fly about a room, they frequently indulge in playful skirmishes, but 
when the moulting season arrives, the red plumage no sooner begins to appear on 
the breast than these skirmishes become pitched and bloody battles, and it is no 
longer possible to keep two birds in one cage. This is my personal experience, 
and I consider it goes to prove that robins do fight with each other when wild. 
6, Askew Bridge Road, CLAUDE St. John. 
Gornal Wood, Dudley. 
