74 
NATURE NOTES 
Hedgehogs and Eggs. — Some years ago, not being able to account for 
the disappearance of eggs, a wire cage trap was set in the fowl run. After a little 
time this was occupied— not by a rat, but a fine hedgehog filled to its utmost 
capacity the trap. It was re-set, to be filled in a few days by Mrs. Hedgehog ! 
No more eggs were missed. , 
Newton Alumbles, Glam, Marie G. Mainwaring. 
February l6, 1902. 
Wholesale Poisoning of Birds. — A neighbour writes to me in distress. 
He says that “ during the last two or three weeks there has been a great deal of 
poisoning of wild birds here, and all around me. I have lost my rooks, and 
would not have lost them for .^50. I understand the bulk of the poisoning in 
this parish and all around has been done by a man, who when spoken to about 
the unlawfulness of poisoning, said he did not care a for the restrictions. 
What with cutting down all the trees and poisoning the birds, and shooting every 
head of game, the farmers, some of them, are getting beyond all bounds. All 
sorts of little birds, as well as rooks and pigeons, have been slaughtered in great 
numbers.” 
This poisoning has been carried out on farm after farm, at the invitation of the 
farmers, who have employed the professional poisoner mentioned in my neigh- 
bour’s letter. The man has attacked the poor birds during the severe weather, 
when they were starving, and congregated in clouds at the sight of food of any 
kind. I hear of half a sack full of dead birds collected in one place, in another 
of forty dozen, and so on. Numbers must have flown away to die, and are not 
included in this list of wholesale murder. It is a sad tale of woe. Would it 
were an isolated experience. I fear it is not. 
The readers of Nature Notes are too well acquainted with the habits of the 
rook and other common birds, to need the question of their usefulness being 
raised in its pages for their benefit. I cannot imagine a more foolish policy 
among agriculturists than to persist in destroying those friends that spend their 
lives in fighting for them. The farmer who thus uses poison sometimes does 
himself disservice he little dreams about. A man I know scattered poisoned 
wheat on the paths of his garden to kill sparrows. His fantail pigeons died, 
which he had carefully shut up for a week, and then released when he thought 
all the poisoned grain had disappeared. This was bad enough. But there is 
worse to tell. Some of the sparrows fell dead in the farm yard ; these the pig ate, 
and she died too. If he had kept cats they probably would have shared a like 
fate. The use of poison requires great care. I have only employed it to get rid 
of rats. My custom has been to place it in a room or outhouse that can be locked 
up, anything left next morning being carefully removed and burned. 
One of the strangest cases of poisoning I ever heard of came before a bench of 
magistrates on which my father sat many years ago. An estate owner dismissed 
a keeper, who in revenge hung up a poisoned rabbit in the place where his 
pheasants were fed. The gentles which fell from the rabbit were eaten by the 
pheasants, and numbers died. It is curious to note that gentles will thus com- 
municate poison to other creatures without being poisoned themselves. 
Market Weston, Thetford. Ed.mundThos. Daubeny. 
March, 1902. 
How High Birds Fly. — In my remarks on p. 59 allow me to correct the 
word “ controverted," and to substitute proved to be wtong. 
March, 1902. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Nesting Boxes. — On taking down and clearing out yesterday a number 
of nesting boxes which I had distiihuted in various parts of my garden, I opened 
one, of four compartments, which had been slung on wires in a clump of trees at 
some distance from the house. Tw'o of the compartments were empty, and the 
remaining two contained nests, made last spring. In each of the latter, and 
partly buried in the nesting material, I found a dead wren. They had, no doubt, 
crept in for warmth and shelter, and fallen victims to the hard frosts and stormy 
weather of last month. Probably numbers of these little creatures perish in holes 
in hedge roots and elsewhere at such times and are never found. 
