214 
NATURE NOTES 
On these occasions the beaten snake, at times with its head apparently chewed 
to pulp by its adversary, was carefully returned to its basket by the Sampwallah. 
The reason for this was found, on inspection some short time after one of these 
fights, to be that the plates of the snake’s head were being rearranged in their 
places, it being still alive and likely to survive to fight another day. 
As to the supposed immunity of the mongoose from snake-poison, which is a 
popular fallacy, it has been stated that such an exemption does exist in the case of 
the pig, an animal that will seek and pursue snakes among the rank growths of 
prickly pears often edging an Indian compound, eating them with avidity when 
caught. 
Veytaux, Switzerland. A. B. Wynne. 
297. The Gannet. — In August last a very rare bird, the Gannet or Solan 
Goose, was captured near Holme Island in Morecambe Bay. It measured 6 feet 
from tip to tip of wing. It was taken to Grange Station on its way to Ulverstone 
to be stuffed, and caused much amazement and conjecture on the platform, no one 
having any idea what it was. According to the Westmorland Gazette, “ This is 
only the second specimen that has been taken round Holme Island. There was 
one taken near Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, in 1843, shot in Fulburn 
Fields, Cambridgeshire, in 1S52, and another near Swinhope House, Lincoln- 
shire.” 
Although the home of these birds is in the Firths of Forth and Clyde, Ailsa 
Craig and the Orkneys, I do not think they are as rare in this Bay as is supposed, 
but that they are not noticed. About a year ago I saw one causing a commotion 
among some gulls. Again yesterday, while cycling to Humphrey Head, a fine 
limestone cliff projecting into the Bay about 4 miles seaward of Holme Island, 
I came across another lying dead on the side of the lane leading to the shore. 
This one measured 6 feet 4 inches from tip to tip of wing, and 4 feet from beak to 
tail. A man in the little fishing village near had seen the August capture and 
had been able to satisfy the local curiosity about this one. Thus three have been 
recorded within the last year. The Bay is greatly frequented by gulls. I have 
also often seen six or eight herons at a time solemnly surveying the waters of the 
River Kent, which at low tide runs over some eighteen miles of sand to the Irish 
Sea. Twice in the twenty-four hours the bore or tidal wave sweeps up this wide 
estuary, sometimes with great rapidity. It was a very real danger in the olden 
days when the only communication with the South was by mail coach across the 
10 miles of sand to Lancaster. 
Grange-over-Sands, Lancashire, R. C. Lowtuer. 
October 9. 
298. Birds in the Field and Garden. — I have read with much interest 
the paper on this subject by “ East Sussex,” but I fear that while pleading the 
cause of our friends, the birds, he has not in some instances adequately presented 
the case alleged against them. As to tits, for example, the well-known veteran 
naturalist, Mr. Tegetmeier, has repeatedly charged them with pecking holes in his 
choicest pears, to their utter ruin, the wet getting in and causing them to rot. 
As to finches, it was new to me to hear of the linnet being classed as mis- 
chievous ; but the lasting injury done by bullfinches and greenfinches to our 
gooseberry-bushes is not a small matter, and I have been assured by a competent 
observer that the choicest kinds suffer most from their attacks. 
“There is but one grievance,” says “East Sussex,” “which the farmer 
cherishes against the lark.” Is this so? I have ceitainly heard him accused of 
eating wheat as well other seeds. I should like to hear more of the “ lands where 
the destruction of useful birds has been allowed to go on till it was too late.” In 
France, notoriously, small birds are far more .scarce than in England, yet English 
fruit-growers continually lament the quantities of French fruit sent to English 
markets at low prices. It is a pleasing theory that if you exclude birds from your 
fruit, you will lose more than you will gain, but is it borne out by facts? I think 
more evidence is wanted as to this. 
As to rooks, lapwings, owls, and kestrels, I am in the fullest agreement with 
“ East .Sussex.” 
“ Advocatus Diaboli.” 
