NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 53 
swallows, return they will not be allowed to build and rear their broods in peace, 
and they will find their former nests already appropriated by these pests. 
There appears to be only one way in which they may be reduced in number 
and also benefit mankind ; for I fear that neither grand ladies nor maid-servants 
would be persuaded to have them stuffed and to stick them in their hats. When 
I shot a few lately I was told that they made capital pies, and probably they 
could be cooked in other attractive ways, and might save the poor larks — a thing 
much to be wished. It is only necessary to invent a French name for the 
delicacy, and let it appear on the menu at fashionable and public dinners, and the 
thing is done. Even though, unlike the historical “ four-and-twenty blackbirds” 
they are incapable of beginning to warble after grace has been said and the top 
crust removed, yet the culinary art may make sparrow pie also a “ dainty dish to 
set before the king.” Then, and not till then, we shall see them rapidly diminish. 
Fern Bank , Buxted. A. L. Hussey. 
February 2, 1903. 
Woodpeckers. — The increase in the number of green woodpeckers the last 
year or two is so marked as to arrest the attention of persons not usually obser- 
vant in such matters. The absence of long, severe frosts, and the respect for bird 
life that is gradually gaining ground, probably account for this. By their numbers 
these birds aid in protecting the great black woodpecker which occurs in this 
locality, and resembles them not only in their ways but also in its flight and in 
some of its notes. This resemblance is close enough to deceive many, though 
the trained naturalist would detect the difference at once. Greater and lesser 
spotted woodpeckers are frequently to be seen and heard throughout this neigh- 
bourhood, which is probably the only one in Britain that can boast of producing 
at the present time four kinds of this beautiful and interesting class of birds. 
Market IVeston, Thetford, Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
January , 1903. 
Diving Birds. — Do all birds use their wings to propel themselves under 
water ? Do some use their wings only, others their legs only ? A wild duck when 
diving does not fully extend the wing as in flight, but urges itself along with slow 
strokes of half-extended pinions, the legs being stretched out and not employed. 
Dabchicks when diving look more like water-rats than birds, and seem to use their 
feet and not their wings. But I have not been able to decide the point in their 
case. 
February 7, 1903. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Kestrel. — A young friend lately wrote me that he saw a kestrel dash into a 
flock of starlings, kill one, bite off the head, and fly away with it. Can any of 
your readers tell me if the head is a tit-bit with kestrels ? 
F. B. Doveton. 
Marsh-Tit. — We have marsh-tits in our garden here, but they never attack 
the suspended cocoa-nut shells, as do the great cole and blue tits. Why is this? 
Nor do the long-tailed tits come. 
F. B. Doveton. 
White’s Thrush. — I have seen a White's Thrush in our garden two Novem- 
bers running here, and other observers have seen the bird, they tell me here, 
and in other parts of England, at the same season. 
Karsfield , Torquay. F. B. Doveton. 
Gnats. — Amongst other insects I have sometimes wondered what became of 
gnats (or mosquitoes as they are now more popularly called) on the disappearance 
of warm sunny days and the approach of cold weather. As I have lately 
discovered their winter quarters, it is no longer to me an unsolved problem. On 
the wall of the darkest part of my coal-cellar there are now to be seen thousands 
of these little insects which have evidently come there to stay for the winter, and 
are doubtless waiting lor the return of warmer weather and longer days to emerge 
forth and make their presence seen and felt again. As there is no reason to 
suppose that my house has been selected front all others, there is no doubt what- 
