NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
37 
bath. On November 15, however, one met with a curious accident. Whether it 
attempted to purloin too large a goldfish or not is not known, but it was seen 
struggling in the water by an attendant, who rescued it and put it in the sunshine 
to dry, and after some time it flew away apparently none the worse for its 
immersion. 
\V. C. Ki.wood, Hoh. Sec. Bath Branch. 
East Cl iff, Bath, 
November 18, 1901. 
Cuckoo and Pipits. — When in Perthshire last August 1 saw on the iith 
a young cuckoo being fed by a pair of pipits. I had my gbasses and watched the 
process with much interest for a quarter of an hour. The hard -worked little 
foster-parents came with food about every three pr four minutes, and usually 
perched on the shoulder of their big child, being, I suppose, an easier way of 
reaching to its gaping maw. I suppose this is a usual mode, as I have since 
heard of a gentleman who has a young cuckoo stuffed, with a pipit on its shoulder, 
feeding it in the way I saw. It seemed rather late in the season to see such a 
sight. 
Rose Turle. 
Lizards in Ireland. — I am glad to be able to give “ F. P. C.” information 
about lizards in Ireland, and, if possible, to convince the shades of Darwin. Some 
thirty years ago 1 used occasionally to find lizards at Knockmaroon, co. Dublin. 
Unlike the one F. P. C. mentions, they were brown in colour and difficult to 
catch, being very quiet in their movements and soon lost to sight in the long 
grass. They were about seven inches long, and their tails easily broke off if not 
caught carefully. I well remember catching, or assisting to catch one at 
Coolmaine, co. Cork, about twenty-five years ago, which is still, for all I know, 
where I left it — preserved in a bottle in Coolmaine Castle. 
Abbots Leigh Vicarage, Bristol, Walter F. B. Brinkley. 
December 16, 1901. 
The creature which “ F. P. C.” saw and handled, which moved slowly, was 
possibly a lizard, but a legless and footless one. Its description approaches that 
of the slow worm or “ blind worm,” as it is called in some counties, which 
resembles a snake in form. The true lizards I have noticed disappeared on find- 
ing they were detected with much speed. 
18, Grandison Road, B. B. 
Clapham Common, S. IV. 
December 20, 1901. 
Toads. — The notes and correspondence re toads are all interesting. I have 
seen similar migrations of young frogs, but took no particular notice of them ; I 
think, however, I observed them in both India and Ireland. 
In the latter country the incontestable accuracy of legendary lore used to teach 
that toads were altogether absent since St. Patrick laid them and snakes under 
perpetual exile ; but I have heard it asserted that one scientist of known name, as 
an experiment, introduced a few into co. Dublin more than one hundred years ago. 
They did not appear to thrive, but long afterwards a colony of them was found on 
a long sandy spit from the Dingle Promontory at the head of Dingle Bay. When 
in that country I saw models of ships made by the coastguardsmen of that neigh- 
bourhood, manned with sailors, all of whom were stuffed young toads, and very 
comical Jack tars these young natter-jacks made. 
I afterwards heard that this is not the only locality in Ireland where toads are 
found ; but where exactly the other or others were, I forget. 
I thought the common and frequently recurring myth as to toads or frogs 
living for indefinite periods in holes in solid stone, with nothing to support life, 
or to account for how they got there, had long since been pronounced untenable. 
Benwyan. 
“Wasps and Bees” (p. 18). — Mr. Webster, the “Author of ‘The Book 
of Beekeeping,’ ” &c., says I am wrong in holding the common belief that the 
worker bee kills the drone by stinging. He tells us that though the worker bee 
curls the abdomen round as if in the act of stinging, it does not kill the drone in 
