196 
NATURE NOTES 
them. This year I have been obliged to take the lives of several in consequence 
of their depredations, one that was gorged with my bees I removed to a distance. 
Next day she was back in her old spot. A second time I removed her with a 
like result. After that I reluctantly took stronger measures. With the exception 
of this fondness for bees, toads are most useful creatures, and are to be encouraged 
in our gardens. “ Fussy little tom tits,” however, do not interfere with my bees, 
and as far as my observation goes, have never done so. This summer there was 
a tit’s nest in a box six feet from one of my hives, and the bees were not touched. 
Market IVeston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
August , 1901. 
Palmate Newt. — Would any reader or contributor of Nature Notes 
kindly inform me whether the palmate newt scientifically known as Molge 
palmata occurs in Berkshire. I have never met with it myself. The two other 
species are of course common enough. If it does occur in the county I should 
like to know the exact locality. 
Fyfield, nr. Abingdon. W. H. Warner. 
Frogs Migrating ? — Mr. Daubeny’s notes on toads and his reference to 
them migrating, reminds me that on July 7, of the present year, I came across 
an incredible nuniber of minute frogs which may have been migrating. The day 
was dull and oppressive early, bright towards evening, and it would be about 
8 o’clock p.m. when I noticed them. They were hopping about a country lane 
and it was an impossibility to walk along without treading on them. I have 
never noticed this previously in all my Natural History Rambles. Cannot 
someone who is an authority on these creatures enlighten us? 
St. Albans, Herts. W. Perctval Westell, M.B.O.U. 
September 12, 1901. 
Toads. — In the correspondence in your columns on the subject of toads, there 
is no mention of the terms of pleasant companionship on which one may readily 
find oneself with these maligned creatures. If one has the good fortune during 
an evening walk to meet a toad in a quiet lane, it is well worth while to pick up 
a light twig and to begin stroking and rubbing our friend’s dull rough sides 
with it, in the same way as one would rub with a stronger stick the sides of a 
pig to whom one wished to make friendly advances. The toad, if he has not 
been startled, will be inexpressibly delighted with this attention. He will stop 
in his travels, raise himself on his legs, so as to lean to the side on which the 
delightful rubbing goes on, reversing the tilt if one caresses the other side ; and 
his attitudes of sentimental ecstasy sometimes become so irresistibly ludicrous 
that one cannot keep up the stroking and rubbing as long as one would wish. 
This note is written for the benefit of those who would like to see a toad at 
his best. 
Sept. 8, 1901. E. Hubbard. 
Bees in a Cliurcll Tower. — A new clock having lately been given for 
the fine old tower of St. Michael’s, Minehead, a large colony of bees had to be 
dislodged. They had entrance through the dial of the old clock, the works of 
which were removed about thirty years ago, the dial being left in the tower, and 
I was told that they had been there quite twenty years. The greater part of the 
comb was at the back of the dial, but much also hanging inside the tower, sup- 
posed to be about three quarters of a cwt., all of which, with the bees, had 
unfortunately to be destroyed, prussic acid being used, as burnt sulphur had no 
effect upon them, and before the new works were put in they had to be got rid 
of. Two swarms, however, came off when disturbed, one lodging on a tree in the 
Avenue, the other on a steam roller in use. There were many thousands of bees 
and it seems curious that they could survive the winter in such an exposed situa- 
tion, subject to severe gales from the Bristol Channel, also that they did not 
object to the noise and vibration of a full peal of bells. The bees had no ingress 
to the church itself. 
Teignmouth, Devon. Caroline E. Farley. 
Insects at Haileybury. — This season has been indeed excellent, so far, as 
concerns insects. I think some of the commoner kinds appeared a trifle late in the 
spring, but this was no doubt owing to the rather backward state of the vegetation. 
