1 78 
NATURE NOTES 
I shall not easily forget the pheasant’s cry of alarm : it was different to anything 
I have heard before or since. A few weeks after this occurrence I called at the 
shop of a neighbouring bird-stuffer, who showed me a peregrine he had just set 
up. Alas, I seemed to feel only too sure it was the same bird that had afforded 
me the grandest bit of falconry it has ever been my lot to witness. 
Market Weston, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Thetford. 
Birds and Bicycles.— It was extremely interesting to note Mr. C. B. 
Plowright’s remarks on this subject, closely agreeing with what I had myself 
mentioned elsewhere, as to the apparent tameness of birds in the presence of a 
moving cycle. Sometimes it seems indeed as though one must ride over them, 
so close do they remain to the machine. One gets quite a shock sometimes, when 
passing through a group of birds who have settled on the road. 
Edwd. A. Martin. 
White Owl. — I have been informed about a dozen times during the last 
six weeks that a pure white owl has been seen flying from a plantation on the 
London road to another one on the Brandon road : I have not been able to 
ascertain what species of owl it is. My first date for it was on May 28, and the 
last one on July 13. I am also very pleased to state that owls are increasing 
round Thetford, as they are now preserved on some estates. Kingfishers are 
very rare. I have only seen one this year. 
Thetford. W. Sparrow. 
Wasps and Hornets. — In reply to Mr. Barnard’s inquiry respecting the use 
of these terms (Nature Notes, August, pp. 158, 159), I may say that though 
they are loosely applied both to the burrowing wasps or Fossores, and the true 
wasps, or Diplofitera , both of which are extensive sections of Hymenoptera 
Aacleata , including many very distinct families, they are more distinctly applicable 
to the genus Vespa, of which we have six species in England, the smaller ones, 
which are very much alike, being called wasps, and the largest, Vespa Crabro, 
which is nearly twice as large as the other species and somewhat differently 
marked, being called the hornet. These and their allies belong to the Diploptcra, 
and do not store up insects in their nests, but this is the usual habit of the burrow- 
ing wasps, in two families of which, JMutillidee and Thynnidie, the females are 
apterous. The insects belonging to the latter family are very numerous in 
Australia and South America, and it is doubtless Thynnidcc which Mr. Barnard 
calls “ hornets with apterous females.” There is much printed information on 
the Hymenoptera of Australia, but it is chiefly scattered in periodicals or general 
works, and I fear I cannot recommend any work likely to be specially useful 
to a student taking up Australian Hymenoptera. 
W. E. Kirby. 
Earwig and Worm. — In answer to your correspondent, who in the July 
number of Nature Notes says he saw a black earwig attack and kill an earth- 
worm, and asks “ whether earth-worms form part of an earwig’s diet,” I should 
think it very improbable, the earwig being, as a rule, a vegetarian, feeding on 
the petals and other parts of flowers, and on fruits and leaves, though it some- 
times consumes animal dlhris as well. The fact, however, that your correspon- 
dent calls it a black earwig leads me to believe that the inject in question was 
not an earwig at all, but one of the larger beetles of the Staphylinidtr, or possibly 
one of their larvae, as they are highly carnivorous, destroying numbers of slugs, 
worms, &c., and, on account of their shape and manner of running, may easily 
be mistaken for earwigs. Neither would the insect have used its antenna; as 
weapons of offence, a use for which they are quite unsuited. The antenna; of 
an insect are employed chiefly as instruments of touch, although it is possible 
that, in sorpe cases at least, the antennae contain ofgans both of hearing and of 
smell. 
Lini.ey Bi.athvvayt, Lieut. -Col., F.L.S. 
Eagle House , Ba/heaslon, Bath. 
