58 
NATURE NOTES 
which Mr. Stillman states that by experiments he had proved squirrels did not 
eat eggs or damage trees. 1 may add that Mr. Stillman told me that damage 
to fir trees attributed to squirrels was actually caused by larvce. Still less would 
squirrels interfere with little birds, as Mr. Daubeny alleges. 
Ckeam, February ii, igo2. C. B. 
[I am afraid it is impossible to exonerate the squirrels altogether. I think I 
remember Mr. T. F. Buxton, of Easenye Park, who lived in the midst of trees 
and had many bird-boxes, informing me that he had caught them red-handed. — 
Ed. N.N.^ 
Song Thrush in Winter.— My observations in this neighbourhood do 
not agree with those recorded in Nature Notes by Mr. Westell at St. Albans. 
Here in spring, summer and autumn, the song thrush is one of our commonest 
birds, but during this winter (1901-2), in which I have been taking particular 
notice, I have only seen this bird on a few occasions. 
Hillsborough, Co. Down, Ireland. Nevi.x II. Foster. 
February 7, 1902. 
In one of the interesting notes contributed to your last number by Mr. W. 
Percival Westell, M.B.O.U., the writer states his opinion 'that the majority of 
our song thrushes do not migrate in the winter, and that during this winter he 
has never seen so many song thrushes. For my part I should hesitate to come 
to this conclusion from such an observation. The thrushes seen by Mr. Westell 
are doubtless those which have drawn southward at the approach of cold weather, 
and not the same birds that are seen there in the summer. That more thrushes 
are seen by Mr. Westell in the winter, as he says, is proof, it seems to me, of 
migration — using the term as a north-south or east-west movement — and not the 
contrary. It is not necessary to assume that all the individuals appeariug in the 
.south of England come over sea, as do such large numbers of those found further 
north in these Islands. They 7 >iove, nevertheless, and it may be are more in 
evidence during severe weather, because at that time they draw towards our 
gardens for food. 
With regard to those two members of the same sub-family — not quite so near 
to the English heart — the redwing and fieldfare, they have not been seen in 
such large numbers recently in the south-west as during the winters of, say, ten 
or twenty years ago. Will you permit me to ask if this accords with Mr. Westell’s 
observations ? 
Shule House, Weston-super-Mare. Thomas Pole. 
Blackbird Tapping at a Window. — T\vo springs in succession a cock 
blackbird amused himself and me by tapping at a window over my porch. He 
began early in the morning, and after going on for about an hour stopped for 
the day. This continued for a week, and was again re.sumed the same time 
the ensuing year. I have often wondered at the cause of this. Perhaps seeing 
his face in the glass he mistook his own likeness for a rival, and set to work to 
pitch into him. I have heard of many similar cases, but the cause remains in 
doubt. 
February, 1902. Edmu.n'd Titos. Daudeny. 
Heron eating Bird. — In reference to the note regarding the above in 
the last number of Nature Notes, I beg to call your correspondent’s attention 
to the fact that the heron is mentioned in “ The Wildfowl and Seafowl of Great 
Britain,” by a Son of the Marshes, as eating young birds, especially moorhens. 
I have my.self seen a heron attack the young in a colony of terns in the west 
of Scotland. 
Chesterfield, 67, Elm Grove, Southsea. J. E. II. Kelso. 
February 8, 1 902. 
How High Birds Fly. — In the number for February (p. 35), some 
altitudes at which birds are stated to fly, the greatest named being 9,750 feet, 
are thought to be “ enormous.” To me this figure seems not only to be 
moderate, but I believe that it is often greatly exceeded. 
Humboldt, when on a lofty peak of the Andes, saw a condor — whose wings 
in some instances measure 14 feet from lip to tip— as a mere speck in the sky 
