238 
NATURE NOTES. 
Kew Robins. — On returning to Kew Gardens, after an absence of four 
months, I went to visit the robins in the rhododendron walk (see p. 156). Three 
robins, my intimate friends in the earlier part of the year, at once responded to my 
call, and accepted the crumbs I offered them. From their tameness, I feel per- 
suaded they recognised me, and I think the memory of these little creatures is 
worthy of note. By the by, a long experience of robins leads me to believe that 
the bird mentioned by your correspondent, M. T. .Sturge, as attracted by his 
reflection in a looking-glass, was by no means actuated by sympathy with his 
supposed fellow-bird. However estimable robins may be in their conduct 
towards the human race, they have only envy, hatred and malice for their own 
kind. 
Emily Spender. 
Frog, Toad and Snake (p. 218). The connection between the colour 
and the cry of the frog, mentioned by your correspondent, E. Hubbard, is surely 
this, that extreme fright makes all frogs turn yellow. A friend of mine, since 
dead, assured me that he had noticed that certain frogs distinctly changed their 
colour according to their surroundings, being, if I remember rightly, darker 
when they sat on a piece of floating wood, and paler in the water. Turning to 
the two smaller works on British reptiles. Miss Hopley’s and Dr. Cooke’s, I 
find that they both mention the same fact, the former from personal experience 
and in some detail ; but there is room for further experiment in the matter, 
without the aid of snakes. I have only once seen a snake eating a toad, and 
imagine that it was by mistake ; indeed I think it was trying to spit it out. 
East Boldre, Southampton. J. E. Kelsai.l. 
The Yelping Frog (p. 218). — The first and only time I ever heard one 
yelp was some years ago at Droitwich, in a market garden, where I was, in com- 
pany with a baby and a black kitten, when a dark, olive-coloured frog appeared 
from beneath the leaves of a row of potatoes. The kitten looked upon him as a 
welcome playfellow, and made a dart at froggie, hitting him with her paw, where- 
upon he set up the most unearthly shrieking, hopping round and round in a circle 
at a great rate and taking high leaps. I never knew till then that a frog could 
shriek, and I do not know which was the most scared, the baby, the kitten, or 
myself. 
Mary C. Walton. 
Vipers (p. 216). — It is a great pity that the “ Cornishman ” quoted by Mr. 
Daubeny did not promptly take or send the viper, whose young twice took refuge 
in her stomach, to the office of the Field newspaper. Not only might he have 
helped to settle a controversy long and keenly debated, but he would have earned 
the reward, still open, offered to any one who will produce a viper with the living 
young in the stomach. No one questions the existence of the belief ; but the 
evidence produced has been in the great majority of cases second-hand ; in other 
cases it has signally broken down. 
F. M. Millard. 
Un-natural History (p. 213). — Besides the curiosities given from Miss 
Corelli’s Mighty Atom., there are two at least in Thelma, ed. of 1890, where 
larches are mistaken for pines, e.g., “ The tall pines stripped bare, every branch 
thick with snow,” &c. (p. 454) ; “ The wild north wind tore through the leafless 
branches of the pine-forests,” &c. (p. 465). The scene is laid in Norway. 
S. L. r. 
Ichneumon Flies ? — I was one day sitting under a fir tree, when my 
attention was attracted by the struggles of a large ichneumon fly with a fat green 
caterpillar on the gravel at my feet. The ichneumon walked round and round 
the caterpillar, seizing him by the throat and letting him go again ; then flew about 
a bit in an excited manner, then attacked him again, dragging him a little way ; 
then walked round him apparently feeling him, and fussed about in general for 
<|uite an appreciable time. The caterpillar meanwhile seemed quite rigid, but 
once when the ichneumon descended on him after a longer respite than usual he 
made a slight spasmodic movement, but otherwise was entirely passive. Finally, 
the ichneumon seized his [uey and began, with his load in his jaws apparently, 
to walk towards the bank, some paces distant. He scrambled up some four feet, 
then went along the top of the bank and again, as if making for the crevices by 
