NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
197 
292. Kestrel. — Captain Norman, of Cheviot House, Berwick, writes : 
“ I have a ‘ cage ’ or wire-enclosed space for certain small berry bushes. The 
doors have lately been left open, and one afternoon lately, I captured a fine 
kestrel which had flown in after the sparrows and could not see its way out again.” 
293. Plover. — As alarmist fears sometimes reach us with reference to the 
threatened extermination of the plover, owing to the large demand for its eggs, 
it may be of interest to record that, while tnvelling in the neighbourhood of 
Ludlow, Shrewsbury and Stafford, during the last month, I have seen several 
very large flights of this species. 
September 10 . G. S. Boiii.CiKR. 
294. Butterflies and Birds. — Butterflies are rarely attacked by birds 
in Britain, an immunity from persecution not always enjoyed in other parts of 
the world. One never reads or hears it suggested that British butterflies are 
nauseous to the taste, and we must look to other reasons for their freedom from 
attack. In dry seasons the Spotted Flycatcher sometimes tries to catch White 
butterflies, and, being much more swift of wing than they, has no dithculty in 
overtaking them. But it does not often make a capture owing to the butterfly’s 
erratic flight. When seized the insect not infrequently escapes owing to the 
wings flapping in the bird’s face, or to being held by a part of the wing that 
breaks away. Swallows occasionally make a dash at a White butterfly, only in 
play it would seem, for they rarely succeed in catching it. Many kinds, how- 
ever, such as the Vanessitia, are so sprightly and quick of wing as to defy pur- 
suit, and are rarely objects of artack. .A Small-Tortoiseshell butterfly, which had 
been weakened by fluttering in a window, on being liberated was at once pounced 
upon and eaten by a Flycatcher. In the experiments in rearing Vanessida: in 
Battersea Park a few summers ago, towards which I contributed a number of 
larvx, the Sparrows at once found out the difference between those reared under 
glass and the wild ones, and soon exterminated them. 
Some of our butterflies are protected from birds by their colouring, their 
habits, and the places they frequent. In the Tropics some large, conspicuous 
butterflies of feeble flight are protected by their nauseous taste ; and other kinds, 
not nauseous to the taste, so closely imitate them as to deceive the birds, and 
thus escape persecution. Eumu.nd Thos. Daube.N’Y. 
295. Honey Dew. — In No. 285 Mr. Hastie thinks “it would be interesting 
to know why the honey dew exudes through the upper surface of the leaves, and 
never through the under surface.” The answer to his conundrum is simplicity 
itself. Honey dew does not exude at all ; but is deposited on the upper side of the 
leaf, having fallen from aphides above, at any distance you like according to the 
height of the foliage overhead. This may be an inch or two, or thirty feet or 
more. If honey dew were an exudation from the plant, owing to too rapid 
transpiration, it would burst out from upper and under surface alike. 
Edmund Thos. D.aubeny. 
NATURAL HISTORY QUERIES. 
61. Destroying Wasps. — Wasps have been busily employed this summer 
in making their nest in a corner of my garden in North Brighton. I should be 
very glad if any of your readers could tell me how I may destroy these insects 
without injury to the nest itself, which I wish to preserve as a curiosity. There 
are, I have been told, several ways of taking wasps’ nests, but what I should like 
to know is, which of these would be the best. 
9, Park Crescent, Brighton. E. M. Nichoi,SON. 
[You do not explain whether the nest is in the ground or in a tree. In the 
former case the insects may be killed with damp gunpowder. See the October 
number of the Royal Magazine. — Ed. A’.W.] 
62. Glandular Absorption. — May I ask whether the flies that are 
caught by the tentacles of Drosera are absorbed into the plant through the 
