NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
26 1 
Ants.— On Thursday, July 30, I was watering plants in my little green- 
house, and heard a curious patter on the glass like falling drops of rain. 
Looking out I saw it was quite fine, and wondered what it could he. Soon 
after one of luy daughters told me that such numbers of flying ants were 
coming into the house, falling down the chimneys and swarndng over the fenders. 
No room seemed free of them. This accounted for the mysterious noise. 
Nothing could be done, except to hope that they would depart, flying off in a 
cloud as they had come. Shortly after a lady and her little girl came in at the 
gate to bring me a bunch of Iceland poppies. They remained transfixed, and I 
fancied the child was looking at my tortoise, “ Shelley,” when the lady, seeing 
me pass the window, called out, “Oh, what a menagerie you have here; do 
come out and see.” When I went to the gate I found the asphalte walk a hurry- 
ing scene of wild confusion. The little ants, who have their peaceful dwellings 
at the border of the garden walk and grass plot, were tearing wildly about, and 
the whole place was overrun with the large-winged ants, who were evidently a 
most disturbing element, though whether it was a pleasing or alarming excite- 
ment it was impossible to tell. A few hours afterwards all was again quiet, and 
there was no means of knowing whether they had flown away, or whether they 
had done as we heard in our childhood, “ bitten off their wings and settled down 
when they found a new dwelling place to their mind. ’ 
IVest Kirby. ' M. SvBii.i.A Dai.gi.isii. 
Australian Robin. — In N. N. for 1893, p. 193, you inserted a para- 
graph relative to the attacks of the pretty little Australian robin upon a 
window-pane. This spring a fine specimen of the “ Whistling Dick ” or shrike 
thrush {Collyriocinda rectirostris), is performing the same manoeuvre, and being a 
large vigorous bird with a very strong beak, his tap-tap-tapping can be plainly 
heard in the road some distance away. When driven oft', he will utter a loud 
triumphant whistling note and fly to one of the large eucalyptus stumps hard by, 
where he will sit and watch for awhile, returning again to the attack when the 
coast is clear. 
Table Cape, Tasmania. H. STUART Dove. 
Swallows in November. — On November 2, while passing over the river 
Test, at Mottisfont in Hampshire, I observed numbers of swallows flying over its 
surface, and anon rising to the height of forty or fifty feet in the air above the 
water. None were seen anywhere else except just over the water in that spot. 
Is it surprising that the old naturalists should have believed them about to 
hibernate beneath the surface of the water, on seeing them at a late season darting 
over its surface and nowhere else ? Watching carefully, I could clearly make out, 
by their dark-coloured throats and very agile flight, that they were genuine 
swallows and not house-martins. I may add that on October 27 I saw house- 
martins flying to and fro over Kew Gardens, and the same birds flying at a con- 
siderable height over the New Forest on November i. I should be glad to know 
if any explanation of the phenomena above mentioned is forthcoming, and if any 
similar observations have been made this year. 
W. C. WORSDELL. 
Sparrows. — I should be glad if any of your readers can account for this 
extraordinary behaviour of sparrows in Anglesey. I was sitting last week with 
a friend in a room with two large windows. It was between eleven and twelve 
o’clock at night, when suddenly we became aware of what we at first thought 
were large hailstones being dashed against both windows. On drawing up the 
blind we discovered about eight or ten sparrows apparently trying to get into 
the room. They would fly straight at the glass, and then if not stunned, would 
flutter up the panes like moths, in their endeavours to gain an entrance. Those 
that were injured from the first concussion, after resting a little on the sill or the 
ground beneath, would again renew their efforts. Some were dashing against 
the other window simultaneously. We watched them for some little time (about 
five minutes), after which, either from exhaustion or some other cause, they dis- 
appeared. Later on, the same thing occurred in my bedroom, both before and 
after the light was out. We expected to find several dead birds in the morning, 
from the violence with which they flew against the glass, but none were visible. 
