NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
157 
they get the chance. In severe weather crows may he seen pursuing little 
starving birds that are weakened by hunger. I once noticed a wounded partridge 
with difficulty keeping pace with the movements of the covey. As it lagged 
behind a grey crow attempted to attack it, and was kept off by the others. I 
have seen a jay pursue a young bird on the wing, force it to take refuge in the 
grass, and there kill and devour it. Rooks eat the young of larks and other birds 
that nest in the open. Jackdaws rarely pay me a visit, but when they do it is 
generally to make a raid on the nest of some other bird. Last year a jackdaw 
destroyed a nest of young missel-thrushes that were about a week old, in my 
garden. I am always sorry to see thenr on my premises, their proper place being 
on the church tower and in the open field. 
Market U'es/on, Thetford. Edmund Titos. Daubeny 
May, 1902. 
Chiff-chaff. — A neighbour has been counting the number of times this 
little bird repeats its name without stopping. Fifty-two is the highest he has 
noticed this spring, and the record number, according to a memo, in his diary, 
is sixty. 
June, 1902. Ed.mund Thos. Daubeny. 
Birds and Insects this Spring.— The severe cold this Spring has 
had curious and disasirous effects on many creatures. Some birds desisted from 
making their nests, or gave them up when finished. Linnets, starlings and sparrows 
left their half-built nests and congregated again in flocks. The eggs of ground- 
nesting birds, such as snipe, partridges, pheasants, wild duck, and others, were 
frozen or ruined. Young blackbirds, thrushes, robins, and hedge sparrows that 
had left the nest died wholesale. A friend says : “ This arctic weather has been 
absolutely fatal to swifts. I have picked up six of them round the church during 
the last three days. Two of them this morning (May 22) were still warm ; so it 
must have been last night’s frost which put a finishing touch to their starving 
bodies : their breast bones were almost through the skin. Yesterday I found 
a dead swallow in the garden, and my churchwarden picked up three dead house- 
martins. It is very sad for the poor little chaps ; but I hope the few survivors 
will rear extra strong and numerous families. They ought to, after surviving such 
awful weather. I went on the Heath yesterday and found lots of young linnets 
dead, and one nest of yellowhammers in the same state. A nest of long-tailed 
tits were all right, and so was another of wrens ; the domed nest kept them warm.” 
Bees were unable to work, and, when they could do so, did not find sufficient food 
to feed their young brood, in spite of there being abundance of bloom. Queen 
wasps, which are numerous, bumble bees and some other insects retired again to 
hybernate, and many died. The holly blue butterfly, whose caterpillars are to be 
found on the blossoms of my holly hedge, stood the cold well. It appeared in 
numbers at the end of April and is still a feature in my garden. There are quite 
as many hybernated butterflies about as in ordinary years. 
May 30, 1902. Edmund Thomas Daubeny. 
Ants. — My garden is swarming wdth ants, both the black and red. The 
lawn is especially full of the red ones. I was wondering whether this is the 
result of the dry summers we have had lately, or what is the cause ? 
June 9, 1902. R 
Helix aspersa. — In reply to Mr. Smallman, I may say that both H. 
aspersa and H. nemoralis are found living on sandy shores just above high-water 
mark of spring tides. They are to be seen in such situations at Shellness (near 
Sandwich, Kent) and at Sennen Cove (Cornwall). 
68, North Hill, Highgale, N. J. E. Cooper. 
Height of Trees in England (p. 188). — There may be some difficulty 
in obtaining a full and exact reply to Mr. Millard’s enquiry, but on referring to 
the books I have here I find that Evelyn’s “ Silva ” (pub. 1729) has several pages 
on the “stature of trees,” whilst in “ English Forests and Forest Trees,” (London ; 
Ingram, Cooke and Co., 1853), we are told that “The finest poplar (Lom- 
bardy) in existence is in the garden at Whitton. It is above 120 feet in height. 
. . . . The largest ash tree in this country (England) stands in Woburn 
