NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
197 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Nightjar and Chiffohaff (p. 176). — I have more than once heard the 
nightjar making its “churring” noise during the day-time this summer, but the 
sound was somewhat subdued and broken, and not the long-continued rattle that 
it makes after dark. With regard to the note of the chiff-chaff, I do not know of 
any other decided song than the bird’s usual chiff-chaff, though I have some- 
times heard it utter a very shrill cheep cheep, and on more than one occasion 
mistook it for a chaffinch. Morris remarks, in his description of the chiffchaff, 
that the alarm note is a loud hoo-id. 
V. B. 
On one occasion only have I heard the nightjar earlier than seven o’clock. 
This was ori May 23, 1889, when in a neignbouring wood I heard an individual 
uttering its jarring note so early as 5.30 in the afternoon, the sun shining brilliantly 
at the time. The chiffchaff will now and then vary its note. I remember hear- 
ing one repeat its song thus several times in succession chiff-chaff, chiff- 
chaff. This was in July. 
Fyfield, Abingdon. W. II. Warner. 
Greater Spotted Woodpecker. — About here this shy bird is fairly com- 
mon, there being several spots where one always expects to see them ; rarely, 
however, is their near acquaintance to be made. They are generally to be seen 
holding bolt upright on to the topmost spray of some tree, when they emit a 
peculiar note which is easily recognised. When riding my bicycle one day in the 
middle of June, I came suddenly on a brood which had only just left the hole in 
the tree in which their nest is placed. It was curious to watch the anxiety with 
which the old birds resented my presence. They flew round me some fifteen 
paces off, then settled on the trunk of a tree near by for a moment or two ; as I 
moved on they kept ahead for a hundred yards or so, flying from trunk to trunk, 
and at last, wheeling round close past me, rejoined their young. 
Market IVesion, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Toad and Snake. — On Tuesday, Aug. ii, at 1.30 p.m., I had been sitting 
for some minutes on a wooden rail dividing “White Down,” about two and a 
half miles from here, from the road, when a large yellow toad with bright black 
eyes emerged from the long grass at my right, and by hurried leaps reached the 
middle of the road and then abruptly stopped ; in a few seconds there glided from 
the grass a snake, which fastened itself on to the hind-quarters of the toad, stiffen- 
ing itself out at full length as if to intensify the strength of its grip. In vain the 
toad jumped into the air, partly lifting the snake with him ; the grip was never 
relaxed, and the toad fell back discomfited. I fear I watched this cruel process for 
two minutes, but then I came forward, and with the butt end of my umbrella I 
succeeded in killing the snake, w'hich was of a dun colour, and had across its 
brow a band of yellowish-white ; it was certainly a yard and a quarter long, indeed, 
I think it was even longer ; it reared up when hit. Having killed the snake I 
tried to help the toad, and I endeavoured to push it with my umbrella towards 
the grass on the shady side of the road, but whenever I touched it it gave a squeal, 
so I then opened my umbrella, and trailing it on the ground, contrived to scoop 
the toad into it, when I carried it to the shaded grass. Some three hours after- 
wards I returned to the spot to see how the toad was going on, for its hind legs 
had been badly lacerated, and I found it had moved about a yard from the clover 
in which I had placed it, and on approaching it it jumped without any difficulty 
on to a heap of stones somewhat assimilating in colour to itself, and seemed still 
so full of life that I do not think it is going to die. Two questions arise which I 
cannot answer, but which I hope may be answered by others better informed than 
myself. First, what was the object of the snake in pursuing and gnawing the 
toad ? its size would seem to render it impossible for the snake to have swallowed 
him even when dead, for the toad was as large as a boy’s fist. Secondly, why did 
