NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
73 
226. Fowl Language. — Mr. (J. T. Ro|je has tabulated some of the lan- 
guage of the domestic fowl. There is, however, a most important sound he has 
not noted, that is the note of warning or alarm. It is made by both cocks and 
hens when there is danger, but is made most often by a hen with a brood of 
chickens when she sees a crow, hawk, or anything predatory near her brood. It 
is a sound that can be imitated fairly well by human beings. To make this 
sound say ker-r-r-r r, the tongue being held near the roof of the mouth and a 
trill made. When heard all the fowls near look up and the chickens run to hide 
in the long gra.ss, hedge, or other convenient place. If Mr. Rope will listen for 
the sound, then imitate it, he can alarm the fowls any time. 
Spanish Place, London, IP. T. R. Ai.i.tNSON. 
227. Joint Nesting. Mr. Rellingale’s letter in the March number re- 
minds me of a somewhat similar case which I came across some years ago. One 
day I discovered a nest containing three chaffinch’s eggs. About ten days later 
I happened to be passing the nest, so climbed up to it and was surprised to find 
in it not three chaffinch’s eggs as before but the same number of hedge-sparrow’s 
eggs. This seems rather e.xtraordinary. It was undoubtedly the same nest. 
it2, ThirUstaine Road, Edinburgh. R. C. Lowthkr. 
228. Rooks and Potatoes. — With regard to Mr. Whiting’s reply to the 
statement that potatoes of the e.xact size of rooks eggs are found on the ground 
under rookeries in autumn and spring, namely, that they are brought to the nests 
by the rooks in autumn for a winter store, may I ask whether potatoes of that 
size are to be found in the fields in autumn? Have not the potatoes all grown 
much larger than that at that time of year? If such small potatoes do not exist 
in the fields at that time, of course they could not have been taken to the rookery 
as winter stores, but must have been brought the previous spring, and those on 
the ground have remained there till the autumn. 
Hampstead. Petek IIasiie. 
March 6, IQOS- 
229. Honey-dew. — In spite of a feeling that running counter to Mr. Peter 
Hastie is somewhat a serious affair, I venture to offer a few comments on his 
remarks about honey-dew (p. 54). .Mr. Hastie asks, “If honey-dew is the pro- 
duct of aphides, how is it that it is never seen e.xcept after a day or two of an 
extraordinarily hot sunshine ? ’’ and that its attack “ never comes more than once 
in a summer, and never in a summer when there is no excessive heat ? ” .Miss 
Ormerod, in “Agricultural Entomology,’’ states that the life-history of those kinds 
of aphides “ which chiefly fiequent our crops may be given generally thus. The 
wingless females, which are produced very soon after the males in autumn, lay 
eggs, sometimes singly, sometimes in clusters. From these eggs in the following 
spring, or possibly before, young aphides hatch which are all females ; they go 
quickly through their changes up to the perfect state, and then they produce 
living young which also are females. These successive generations of living 
young, still all females, some of which are winged, some wingless, go on, 
until in autumn the last generation occurs, which is of males as well as females ; 
and the females of this, as we said before, instead of producing living young, 
produce eggs which start the next year’s attack.” And in “ Our Insect Enemies,” 
by Theodore Wood, we find it stated that honey-dew is produced by aphides “ in 
quantities proportionate to the abundance of the food supply, a drop of the fluid 
gradually forming at the extremities of the cornicles, and falling off after a time 
to give place to a successor. The sap of the plant on which they feed passes so 
rapidly through the system that its ejection is almost continuous.” 
It is true that hot, sunshiny weather is favourable to their development and 
activity ; and also true, as Wood remarks, that on “ hot summer days the winged 
forms often hover over the trees and void their juices while on the wing” ; but 
the deposit of this honey-dew or “juice ” goes on, though it may be in reduced 
quantity, in a cold season wherever there are aphides, at all times during the 
summer, whether there be “extraordinarily hot sunshine” or not. Prolonged 
wet is very fatal to them ; and though severe thunderstorms, such as we had here 
last year, wash away and destroy a great many of the insects and their traces, 
they are always to be found in the summer months by those who know their 
