NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
219 
in my meadow, a pair of old partridges screamed and fluttered in their well-known 
fashion, and on looking in the grass I found a brood unable to fly, only a few days 
old. They scurried and hid, but I picked up a few, and well knowing the extreme 
improbability from various causes of their surviving, I kept three, which I have 
now (September 7), and they look healthy, and have grown wonderfully. I feed 
them on wasp-grubs, crushed wheat, hemp and canary-seed, grass to pick at, and 
plenty of water to drink, but they instinctively appear to dread man. I once 
reared nine in a group without loss, and although they knew me quite well from 
others, they did not get so tame as I should have liked or thought they might do. 
Redditch. J. IIia.m. 
On page 198 I notice a small error in the second line from top — “ a. yotmg 
pheasant” should read “old ” or “ hen” pheasant. 
The Edible Snail. — In the spring of this year I put three edible snails 
{Helix pomatia) in a glass aquarium, at the bottom of which was moss and earth. 
They much preferred lettuce to any other leaf, though they ate small quantities of 
cabbage sometimes. About June 15 a cluster of pearly eggs were deposited in a 
depression in the soil, a layer of earth being left over them. One of the snails 
was all through the days succeeding lying over the eggs. After a month the snails 
hatched out. .-\t night the glass is now covered with young white-bodied snails 
out for their evening feed. By the morning they have all disappeared into holes 
tunnelled in the earth. I have kept one of the edible snails before. It always 
hibernated in the cold weather, remaining buried over six months, though kept in 
a conservatory. The mouth of the shell was turned upwards in the soil, and 
covered by a hard operculum. I need hardly say I cannot keep such numbers. 
Ten have been offered therefore to, and accepted by, the Zoological Gardens. 
E. G. WOODD. 
Glenlhorne, Eastbourne. 
TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Ignoramus.— biloia. 
Beta. — (i) Pimpinella Saxifraga. (2) Gagina nodosa. 
Mrs. Parr. — The Guide to British Fungi may be obtained at the Natural 
History Museum, Cromw’ell Road, S.W., price 4d. See N.N., 1893, p. 188. 
Please read Rules 3 and 4. 
B. E.— The specimens are bad, and in some cases insufficient. A is Fago- 
pyrum esculentum ; B, Farsetia incana. Please read Rule 3. 
Cbilwortb. — Alkanet {Anchusa officinalis'). 
RULES FOR 
CONTRIBUTORS AND CORRESPONDENTS. 
1. All communications for Nature Notes must be authenticated with name 
and address, not necessarily for publication. 
2. The return of unaccepted contributions cannot be guaranteed. We cannot 
undertake to name specimens privately, or to return them. 
3. Communications for any number must be in the Editor’s hands by the loth 
of the preceding month. 
4. Communications for Nature Notes should be addressed to the Editor, 
James Britten, F.L.S., 126, Kennington Park Road, London, S.E., as should 
specimens for naming, books for review', &c. The Editor cannot undertake to 
reply privately to questions. 
5. Letters connected with the Selborne Society, as well as all inquiries as 
to the supply of Nature Notes, and subscriptions, should be addressed to the 
Secretary of the Selborne Society, A. J. Western, Esq., 20, Hanover Square, W. 
6. The Editor is not responsible for the contents of the last page of each 
number ; communications respecting that page must be addressed to Mr. Western, 
as above. 
