2i6 
NATURE NOTES. 
SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Mr. Hart Merriam’s Synopsis oj the Weasels of North America. — This is a 
further instalment of the excellent synopsis of the North American Fauna, now 
being prepared bv the U.S. Government. It includes the one ferret (Pntorius 
nigripes, the North American representative of our polecat) and all the weasels 
yet discovered in North America, north of Panama, numbering twenty-two 
species and subspecies, of which eleven are here described for the first time. 
Especial attention is paid to cranial characters and figures of crania. Again we 
have to admire the thoroughness of the work, to criticise which one would have 
to be a specialist ; and in this instance we particularly call attention to the 
drawing of the heads of Pntorius frenattis and P. nigripes in the frontispiece, 
so beautifully reproduced by the Heliotype Printing Company, Boston. 
O. V. A. 
All who enjoy a good walk in the country and are constrained by the 
exigencies of business or residence to confine their peregrinations to the neigh- 
bourhood of London, will view with anticipations of pleasure the appearance 
of another series of Field Path Rambles, by Mr. Walker Miles \Round Epsom, 
R. E. Taylor & Son, 19, Old Street, E.C. Price 6d.] The routes selected are 
described with Mr. Miles’s customary skill and accuracy ; they guide us over 
breezy, open downs and commons, through shady copses and by flowering 
hedgerows, and show us all that is best worth visiting in the district that lies 
between Mitcham and Leatherhead, Oxshott and Merstham. 
A. G. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Owls — Vipers. — I have received a pamphlet entitled “Traps and Trapping, 
by “ Cornishman,” and the following extract from it regarding owls will bo 
pleasant reading for Selbornians, coming as it does from a professional trapper. 
He says: — “ Owls — well, I never trapped but one, and I am not going to say how 
for the information of those who don’t know, because they are great friends of 
mine. But why ? The proverbial woman’s answer will do — ‘ Because they are ’ ; 
but I will go further and say that the owl is not a poacher, barring perhaps a very 
young rabbit for the brood. Even this is an event that rarely occurs ; but I 
fancy I hear someone say, what of young partridges and pheasants? Well, what 
of them ? When the owl is about these are under their mother’s wing, in blissful 
ignorance of all danger, present or future. I have three or four around my house, 
in the buildings ; they nest there, and I have studied their ways, and on my 
observation and former experience I base my opinion.” 
Concerning vipers, what is said will interest those who have doubts about the 
young ones jumping down their parent’s throats to avoid danger. It is this : — 
“ Some years ago I heard a dog I had with me barking, and was just in time to 
see something in the mouth of a viper ; there was .about one inch visible. I went 
for a stone, threw it, cutting the viper nearly in two, about three inches from the 
head, and to my astonishment three or four little vipers came out, and, as all the 
surroundings were as bare as a billiard ball, with the instinct of a boy I cut a 
stick, to see if the little ones would bite it, as they were quite nippy with their 
tongues when I began to stir them. I soon realised what I had seon in the 
viper’s mouth at first, for finding the stick not to their liking, they went into their 
mother’s mouth one after another, and into the stomach ; then I pressed them out, 
and the performance was repeated. I then finished them off. I of course told 
my father, who replied, “Oh, did you not know that before?” 
Slapton, Kingsbridge. Gii.ES A. Daubeny. 
Nightjar (pp. 176, 197). — There are plenty of nightjars in the fir-woods on 
this part of the Normandy coast, and I am able to inform your correspondent. 
